| Show I I LETTERS TO 1 THE EDITOR 91 Term Native American is No More Mor Accurate Than American Indian To the Editor While I sympathize with Troy Sherrick's frustration with the term American Indian Horizon November 14 the alternative he proposes Native American is no improvement In fact the widespread misapprehension misapprehension misapprehension hension that Native American is ismore ismore ismore more accurate than American Indian is an insidious error that actually retards interracial under under- standing Depending upon how one looks at atit atit atit it Native American is either erroneous erroneous erroneous erro erro- or simply meaningless So faras faras far faras as anthropologists have been able to determine American Indians are of Asiatic origin Their ancestors like those of all the rest of ofus us who populate this hemisphere hemisphere hemi hemi- hemisphere sphere came from someplace else Therefore they are not natives On the other hand I would argue that anyone born in this hemisphere is a Native American Thus the term if intended to distinguish Indian Americans from those of European descent is meaningless Every American history textbook textbook textbook text text- book with which I am familiar familiar- including unfortunately the ones I have adopted for my own courses courses- falls into a curious inconsistency on this matter Attempting to be politically correct correct correct cor cor- cor- cor they refer to the people in question question question ques ques- tion as Native Americans then in the next paragraph explain how they gothere got gothere gothere here from Asia across the Bering Strait land bridge Now of course they are not Indians either as every schoolchild knows But I would argue that the very transparency of that infamous error is good reason for retaining the term until something better comes along At least we are not tempted to think that we have achieved accuracy accuracy accuracy cy as purveyors of native American want us to believe they have done Finally let me point out that Indians themselves have done no better better better bet bet- ter in devising an acceptable pan- pan Indian term The Navajo for example call themselves the Dine which means The People implying that they are the only truly human beings Other tribes have similar terms As an American of European descent I object to that an example of ethnocentric prejudice equal to or exceeding anything ever coined by a European If Mr Sherrick is offended by the term American Indian I would challenge him to come up with an acceptable alternative Or just get over it j Gary Topping Assistant Professor of History |
