Look at these statistics:
49% of Native people preferred being called American Indian, 37% preferred Native American, 3.6% preferred "some other term," and 5% had no preference.
Now look at this statement:
- The term, 'Native American,' came into usage in the 1960s to denote the groups served by the Bureau of Indian Affairs: American Indians and Alaska Native (Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska). Later the term also included Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in some Federal programs. It, therefore, came into disfavor among some Indian groups. The preferred term is American Indian.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Now, I don't always agree with Russell Means, but I do agree with this statement:
- I abhor the term Native American. It is a generic government term used to describe all the indigenous prisoners of the United States. These are the American Samoans, the Micronesians, the Aleuts, the original Hawaiians, and the erroneously termed Eskimos, who are actually Upiks and Inupiats. And, of course, the American Indian.
I prefer the term American Indian because I know its origins . . . As an added distinction the American Indian is the only ethnic group in the United States with the American before our ethnicity . . . We were enslaved as American Indians, we were colonized as American Indians, and we will gain our freedom as American Indians, and then we will call ourselves any damn thing we choose.
"I am an American Indian, Not a Native American!"
statement by Russell Means
OK...The majority (by 12%) prefer the term American Indian. American Indian is the term used in all legal documents. So, how come I still can't get people to refer to me as an American Indian or if they REALLY want to be politically correct as a Shoshone or Cree?
Even when I tell them I find the term Native American insulting, they still use it. And why does our society expect me to to sit calmly while they use a term that (to me) is the equivilant of the "N-word" to blacks or the "C-word" to women?
