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Divine3
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All are immigrants to the USA The only original people of the USA are the Native Americans–
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njlisa
Guest
The squalor at the Pine Ridge Reservation is a disgrace. I am part Taino (indigenous people of the Caribbean). And I would love to see the Lakota bounce back, on their own, as the strong, noble people they are.
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babochka
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As a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation, I really dislike the term Native American. My Cherokee Indian ancestors were native to this land and some of my European ancestors have been native to this land since the 17th century. Everybody came from somewhere. I consider myself a Native American, not because of my Cherokee ancestry, but because I was born in the United States of America. While I understand that the term American Indian is problematic for some, Native American is also problematic. Personally, I like the Canadian term “First Nations”.
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twf
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Interestingly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term “Native Canadians”. When I was a kid in Northern BC, we just called indigenous people “natives”. Of course the proper term these days is First Nations.
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Syttu
Guest
It is sad to see the troubles that Amerindians in the U.S.A. are facing troubles like this, i hope for a more bright future to these people.
blackforest
Well-known member
I prefer First Nations, as well, and understand your objection to “Native American.” But I think most people mean well when they say it. Just when I though I’d learned all of the Rules, my friend from a rez in Idaho corrected me and told me she preferred to be called Indian. 
It’s really hard to keep up sometimes . . .
It’s really hard to keep up sometimes . . .
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Divine3
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Makes logical sense. Better to ask what tribe do you belong to. Right?
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babochka
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Yes, tribal affiliation is definitely best.
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twf
Guest
What do you call Americans of Indian (India) descent?
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babochka
Guest
If I know them personally, I call them by their name.
Or what should I call my friend who was born in the US to (Asian) Indian parents, who was raised in Dubai?
I don’t really know, though. Indian Americans? Person of Indian ancestry? Asian? Southeast Asian? The term American Indian existed long before we all started hyphenating our ethnic and cultural identity. And ambiguity can usually be cleared up in just a few words. I usually just assume that someone won’t be offended by words that were not intended to offend.
I’m not offended by the term Native American, I’m just bugged that it was imposed from “above” in a period of political correctness and I’m a little bit offended when someone corrects me for using the “wrong” term. Yes, American Indian can be ambiguous, but so can Native American.
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twf
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I’ve taken to using “First Nations” for indigenous peoples, though I grew up hearing “natives” or even “Indians”, to avoid confusion as here in Vancouver the term “Indian” or “Indian Canadian” would typically be associated with people from India as we have a huge Punjabi population here (including like 99% of taxi drivers haha). So I was just curious. I know from my aunt who is a school teacher that the “politically correct” term is “Indo-Canadian” (for those of India/Indian descent), but I never hear that in real life.
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babochka
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I have a friend from Iraq who prefers to be known as Assyrian, which makes clear her Christian and cultural identity. But if you call her Iraqi or Middle-Eastern, she’s fine. She gets both amused and annoyed when people call her Mexican.
She gets uptight when people assume she’s Muslim. She gets angry when people call her “sand n#$@*” or terrorist. Seems like a reasonable approach.
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blackforest
Well-known member
I’ve heard East Indians. That seems like a reasonable way to distinguish them from American Indians.
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on_the_hill
Guest
Indian. If we’re referring to a Native American we’d say American Indian rather than Indian. Or we’d say, “He is an Indian,” which is understood to be different from, “He is Indian.”
Bobby Jindal is Indian. He is not an Indian. Get it?
We can’t use Asian to refer to people from India because we call people from China/Japan/Korea/etc. Asian.
It irks me when people from Afghanistan, Iran, etc are referred to as South Asian (as woke people are apt to call them) because they’re actually West Asian, not South Asian. Indians are South Asian.
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on_the_hill
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The East Indies are in Southeast Asia.
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babochka
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I kind of feel bad for derailing this thread and I wanted to comment on the original video. @Divine3, thank you for posting it and bringing attention to the poverty and challenging conditions under which these people live. It is tragic that this sort of poverty continues to exist in America.
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on_the_hill
Guest
Coincidentally, Sacred Heart Church on the Pine Ridge reservation had a sister-parish relationship with our church. I haven’t heard anything about it for a few years, though.
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babochka
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See, this is just where it gets ridiculous. What if you don’t know that somebody is Indian? They could be Pakistani and it might be offensive to assume they are Indian. Asian is certainly a correct term and is also the correct term for somebody from China/Japan/Korea and even Singapore and Indonesia. Although their Empire is long dead, the Assyrian people and culture are alive and well and, as they will tell you, most definitely not Arabs. But they are Asians.
Native Americans/American Indians are not one people, but many different tribes with different cultures, governments, languages and social structures.
I just think that we, and I include myself in this, way overthink this stuff. I guess it is just human nature to try to categorize as a way of understanding. When you combine it with people getting offended at the slightest misstep, it naturally leads to overthinking.
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii
Guest
But where does that leave the immigrants from India
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