Preferred names for us

[Dyami]

I agree with everyone one else please be careful "LiL Wolf ", cause eventhough some people have this belief that all people are treated equal in this world were not, white people just keep telling themselves that so that they can sleep better at night.

[little wolf]

white people just keep telling themselves that so that they can sleep better at night.

You're probably right!!

[PRINCESS04-05]

i tend to think of it like this

Here in North america, WHite people dont generally distinguish between french, italian, german, south austrailian or what ever, unless. generally they are first generation imigrants

Black people dont distinguish (much)between jamacian, botswanan, namibian, or dominican,

Alot of times, Asians, get classified as just that, Asian, not Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese,

To me, Native sounds to *white*, like a name forced upon us by suppressors.. Indian, as accepted as it is, can ofter be mistaken for east indian, with out understnading the proper context. Aboriginals, when "googled" comes up with Austrailina, so what are we really? Are we Any of these? We have no real name for our selves except for those handed to us.... Go with Tribes, and be proud of it, Carry one the strength of each individual tribe...

~Proud to Be~
~Ojibway,~Odawa~Potawatami~

[PRINCESS04-05]

i tend to think of it like this

Here in North america, WHite people dont generally distinguish between french, italian, german, south austrailian or what ever, unless. generally they are first generation imigrants

Black people dont distinguish (much)between jamacian, botswanan, namibian, or dominican,

Alot of times, Asians, get classified as just that, Asian, not Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese,

To me, Native sounds to *white*, like a name forced upon us by suppressors.. Indian, as accepted as it is, can ofter be mistaken for east indian, with out understnading the proper context. Aboriginals, when "googled" comes up with Austrailina, so what are we really? Are we Any of these? We have no real name for our selves except for those handed to us.... Go with Tribes, and be proud of it, Carry one the strength of each individual tribe...

~Proud to Be~
~Ojibway,~Odawa~Potawatami~

recently , in the last year, the kids around my area have started just to say brown... Its shorter, faster, and is fairly indiscriminant....

[Homalosa]

recently , in the last year, the kids around my area have started just to say brown... Its shorter, faster, and is fairly indiscriminant....

That's funny because here in the inner city, Brown is used by Latinos. Being a redblack mixedblood (also a new term I like better than Black Indian because there are no polictics attached to redblack, yet), I try to teach my Black and Brown students how few differences there are between all three cultures. For many of my kids, I am the first Indian they have ever seen! Talk about carrying the whole weight of 500 nations on my back and not being a FB. So I trouble shoot a lot of stereotypes in class and when they ask me what to call us, I always say, "I can only speak for me, call me Choctaw and/or Chickasaw or Am. Indian, but for others, ask them. Terms are just as important and weighted with Indigenous people as they are for African Americans and Latinos."

[MixedIndian]

Yeah, I was just gonna say that brown goes with Latinos(even though my GF is mostly Aztec,she says she's brown b/c of her Mexican heritage.) Then Asians are 'supposed' to be yellow, Af-Am Black and NA red. I heard this as a kid over 20 years ago, so don't beat me up for this. I call myself reddish-brown only b/c of my skin color. I am only 1/4 Native or Indian or whatever you wanna call it!! I guess it doesn't really apply to me b/c I'm mixed and for some reason people have thought I was Dominican!! (I think it's the hair). Not that I mind, but I don't think I have a Latin bone in my body!! Anyway, Indian for us was cool when I was little but now people want to get it mixed up with India Indians. I'm like no, totally different. I call myself a mixed redskin or something of the sort, and I correct my GF when she says brown, since she's Aztec she should be reddish-brown or something. I really don't think it matters as long as it's done with respect.

[ndngirl70]

I perfer to say abenaki but I will also use indian/ndn, native, first nations, first people. I don't like the pc "native american" I often find in my area that the ones who define themselves as native americans are most definitely not.

[Brooklyn]

I like Native or Indigenous the best. I use Indian around my friends.

[Wakalapi]

We could just do what Prince did and make up a squiggly line, then tell people it's our name and they can simply refer to us as "the Folks".

[Coyot_In_The_House]

Call me what you wanna call me, but.....

don't call me late for dinner....errr

How is...Indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere?

how is......Wongeh Tohanshe?

How about....Shuck shay shuck shay....?

I know...."Oppressed Peoples of the Western Hemisphere...."

[Wakalapi]

Ever see "Prophecy: the Monster Movie?" It was about an enraged, deformed bear that looks like a giant booger attacking and killing people in the New England forest. The premise is that the methylmercury being dumped into the local lake by the neighboring paper mill resulted in the mutation of several animals species, including the creation of the monster (at the end of the movie, it is revealed that there are others but oh shucks the movie was a flop and the sequel never did come to pass). In the movie, NDN's were known as "Original Peoples" so to be racist and irreverent the whites coined the term, "Opies".

Wanna be an Opie?

[shattuck511]

I like First Nation's for that is who our ancestors were when they were "discovered" I never knew the orginal people of the lands were lost!