Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!brspyr1!miket
From: miket@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Mike Trout)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Native Americans
Summary: most of us don't get too concerned with it...
Message-ID: <4554@brspyr1.BRS.Com>
Date: 27 Sep 88 21:17:19 GMT
References: <474@oravax.UUCP> <289@wucs1.wustl.edu>
Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY
Lines: 48

In article <289@wucs1.wustl.edu>, jps@wucs1.wustl.edu (James Sterbenz) writes:
> In article <474@oravax.UUCP> harper@oravax.UUCP (Doug Harper) writes:
> >In article <242@wucs1.wustl.edu> jps@wucs1.UUCP (James Sterbenz) writes:
> >>Even in the U.S. "native americans" [sic] (yes, "indians" [sic] 
> >>are the REAL native >americans) have non-standard forms.
> 
> >...  Anyone native to
> >either American continent qualifies as a native American: it is
> >parochial and exclusionary to think otherwise.  It is downright rude to
> >tell us that we are not REAL native Americans.  I believe that a
> >retraction is in order.
> 
> I was merely recognizing that {American Indians, Native Americans, The 
> branch of the Mongoloid Race which crossed the Asian-North American
> land bridge to originally settle in the North American continent}
> were here first.  I was trying to be polite, and this is how I beleive
> {...}'s like to be refered to.  If not, I'd like to hear from someone
> of the aforementioned race.

Well, I'm part Osage, and the issue of what to call "us" has always been a
confused one.  "Amerinds" is usually somewhat preferred to "American Indians",
as well as being more accepted by the academic community.  "Aboriginal
Americans" or "American Aboriginies" are also usually considered OK, and are
also common terms in academe.  "Native Americans" seems to be somewhat out of
fashion, possibly due to the confusion factor mentioned above.  This also
applies, more strongly, to just plain "Indians."  Personally, I'm not too
picky about it, but some are.  I WOULD like for pure-white folks to be
persistently reminded that they weren't here first, and that they took over
the joint from somebody else.  The use of some of these terms emphasizes this.
Actually, I'd like to see a little more emphasis on individual tribes rather
than on conglomerating us together as a single unit.  There's as much
difference between the Osage and the Kennebec as there is between residents of
the USA and residents of Albania.  Remember that many Amerind leaders
always considered rival tribes to be the REAL enemy--whites were considered to
be a minor distraction always getting in the way of the real business of
slaughtering {Kiowas, Cherokees, insert your favorite enemy tribes here}.  
Dumb, but that's the way it was.

> I wasn't starting a debate on what to call
> members of the {...} race.  RETRACTION?? Get real...  half :-)

My feelings exactly.  No retraction necessary.

-- 
NSA food:  Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, DIA & NRO.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110  (518) 783-1161
"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without...a rebellion." -Thomas Jefferson