A note about the use of past tense
In my research, American Indian tribes were identified as accurately as possible with modern English names, or at least by the area in which they were living.
Most of these Indigenous Peoples are still a living culture, but the uses by tribes are referred to in the past tense, as they may not always reflect the current uses or views of the same tribes today, and while some modern sources are used, this is primarily a historical reconstruction of pre-colonial material culture in Texas and the southern U.S.A.
I have tried to source as much information as possible from those closest to hunter-gatherer (and adjacent) lifeways and Paleolithic (and Neolithic) technology, i.e., peoples with as little influence from colonization as possible.
The average age (when it was written or first published) of all the primary-source ethnological references cited in my current manuscript is 1870, or 153 years old, with the oldest accounts being from around 1528.
I do not claim to speak for any tribe or to have expertise or personal familiarity with modern American Indian culture. My primary interest is their past experience living hunter-gatherer lifeways in North America.
A note about the term “American Indian”
I am aware of the controversy regarding labels used for the Indigenous Peoples in the current borders of the U.S.A. Through much deliberation and research in order to offend the least number of these people while being as accurate as possible, I have often used “American Indian” in my research.
My research is about lauding the wisdom and deep knowledge of the cultures inhabiting the U.S. and North America for over 20,000 years, desperately trying to rescue their ancient knowledge from obscurity by wringing it out of old and disparate forgotten texts, exhaustively compiling it using academic research methods, and communicating my findings to the public to inform them they can use wild species in countless ways, with the objective of conserving biodiversity and land by appreciating its uses.
To show gratitude and appreciation to the cultures that have taught others, including myself, how to use the species and environment around them, I have striven to correctly and appropriately identify and credit these cultures by name in my research over the past 13 years and in my recent media produced.
That’s why I have always made the effort to name each tribe or nation individually whenever possible.
Even that could be criticized, as many tribal names originate as possibly offensive appellations by those outside that tribe (exonyms), be it by neighboring tribes or colonial cultures. “Comanche,” for example originates for the Ute name for them, “kɨmantsi,” meaning “enemy.” The Comanche endonym is “Nʉmʉnʉʉ,” meaning “the people.” However, I have compromised in the direction of giving credit to the tribe in the eyes of the general public by using labels such as “Navajo” instead of the endonym “Diné” (though I will use both if practical).
The main objection to more generalized terms such as “American Indian,” “Indian,” “Native American,” “Indigenous,” “First Nations,” and “Aborigine” is their homogenization of a tapestry of many distinct cultures originally on the continent (Bird 1999, Champagne 2018, Chavez 2003, Peters and Mika 2017).
However, because of the ambiguity of certain source materials or out of specific communication needs, I sometimes have to make generalizations. Sometimes I will refer to the entirety of cultures indigenous to the current borders of the U.S.A., or of a smaller region, state, or county.
In these instances, through much deliberation, I have chosen the terms “American Indians” or “Natives.”
“The label “American Indian” has the advantages of being the most well-known, being commonly used, not being easily confused, having the longest history of use, and being the legal definition of the federal government to fulfill their obligations to these peoples (Bird 1999, Champagne 2018).
Some reject terms such as “Indian” or “Aboriginal” as impositions of colonial authority (Kesler 2020).
I have no desire to offend any racial or ethnic group or individual, but if you object to the term “American Indian” or “Indian,” be aware there are many who identify this way preferentially, and object to other labels (Bird 1999, Chavez 2003, Indigenous Futures Survey 2020, McKay 2021, Native Sun News Today Editorial Board 2018).
“American Indian” is not an archaic or fringe term. One of the largest news sites that covers Indigenous peoples in North America is “Indian Country Today” (ICT News). The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in 2023 produces a magazine titled “American Indian” (www.americanindianmagazine.org). A premier American Indian news site, www.indianz.com, currently headlines the “State of Indian Nations 2023 Address” by the National Congress of American Indians.
“Native American” is not necessarily the best term because of its recency and ambiguity in that anyone born in America could technically call themselves “native American,” with legal implications undermining the sovereignty of American Indian Nations (Bird 1999, Champagne 2018, Chavez 2003). However, a recent survey shows “Native American” surpassing “American Indian” as the preferred self-identification, though the specific tribe / nation is most-preferred (Indigenous Futures Survey 2020).
“Native,” “Aboriginal,” “First Nations,” and “Indigenous” are alternative labels. Some feel those names are too new or awkward to be appropriate within their communities, especially among the more elderly tribal members who often simply identify as “Indian” (Bird 1999, Native Sun News Today Editorial Board 2018). The term “Native” or “Natives” is gaining popularity, but this term is ambiguous, and saying, for example “Natives of the Southwest” leaves a reader unclear about whether one is referring to people born in the Southwest or those descending from peoples inhabiting the area before colonization.
“Indigenous” or “Indigenous Peoples” is a commonly used new term (Indigenous Futures Survey 2020, Kesler 2020). However, that term suffers from ambiguity, being applicable to cultures around the world. It does not seem to be widely used in casual contexts within American Indian communities, being primarily associated with modern political correctness (Native Sun News Today Editorial Board 2018).
As I usually want to specifically credit the Indigenous Peoples that are from within the U.S.A. borders, I find “American Indian” to be a better term.
My conclusion is that “American Indian” is a concise, accurate, generally-used, well-understood, and accepted term. It is the term chosen by the leaders of the American Indian Movement.
“American Indian(s)” features in the title of at least 185 peer-reviewed research articles in the past 10 years (google.scholar.com).
“Native American(s)” features in the title of at least 59 peer-reviewed research articles in the past 10 years (google.scholar.com).
It is very difficult to determine how many peer-reviewed research articles in the past 10 years feature “Indigenous” or “Indigenous Peoples” referring to American Indians there are because it is a general term used for Indigenous people globally. However, I have seen at least 7, but those include either (or both) cultures from Latin America and Canada (google.scholar.com).
“First Nations” does not seem to feature in any title of a peer-reviewed research articles in the past 10 years that is not referencing exclusively the geographic region of the United States (google.scholar.com). They are usually about cultures in Canada or Australia.
“Aboriginal” is a term that is generic, similar to “Indigenous,” but has a strong connotation with the indigenous cultures of Australia.
“First Nations” is an appropriate term for indigenous cultures of Canada (Kesler 2020). However, since it strongly implies Canadian, rather than American (United States) Indigenous Peoples, I rarely, if ever, will use it, since I will simply name of the specific First Nation of Canada if I am referring to one (e.g., “Cree”), since my research is mainly about cultures indigenous to the current borders of the United States and northern Mexico.
I have consulted hundreds of thousands of pages of over 100 ethnobotanies, over 1000 ethnographies, over 600 early histories, and dozens of archaeological studies in my research, and they almost all exclusively use the term “American Indian” or “Indian” (in obvious context differentiating it from peoples of India).
As an aside, the origin of “Indian” in reference to American Indians is not from a confusion with the country of India, but from a mistaken belief that the American Continent was part of the Indies, a larger area comprising much of southeast Asia. Some sources also claim the name actually originates from En Dios (In God), and is a religious appellation used by Columbus, but this is mistaken.
Two years of my activity posting on various social media platforms has shown me that “Native” is probably the leading modern term, at least among younger generations. It also has plenty of historical precedent, seems to generally be non-offensive, and usually, within context, is not mistakeable with the alternate definition of someone born in an area. For these reasons, I often now use this term for my social media content.
Another effort I have made in my research is to record the names given for each plant or species in the native language of the American Indian informants in my sources. This is a practice that has been unfortunately overlooked by many ethnobotanical studies (Geniusz 2009).
I’ve recorded over a thousand plant names from dozens of tribes in my research, many of which you can see here on my website, and the rest of which I will eventually publish in my book about American Indian plant uses.
REFERENCES:
American Indian, magazine of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, www.americanindianmagazine.org. Accessed 27 June 2023.
Bird, M. Y. (1999). What We Want to Be Called: Indigenous Peoples’ Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Identity Labels. American Indian Quarterly, 23(2), 1–21.
Champagne, Duane. 2018. The Term ‘American Indian,’ Plus Ethnicity, Sovereignty, and Identity. Indian Country Today, 13 Sept. 2018. https://ictnews.org/archive/the-term-american-indian-plus-ethnicity-sovereignty-and-identity. Accessed 27 June 2023.
Chavez, Will. 2003. Native or Indian: What to call ourselves? Cherokee Phoenix, 04 Dec 2003. https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/opinion/native-or-indian-what-to-call-ourselves/article_8b8f2008-49e3-56ad-a70e-159262d0c8b8.html. Accessed 27 June 2023.
Geniusz, Wendy Djinn. 2009. Our knowledge is not primitive: decolonizing botanical Anishinaabe teachings. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY.
Indian Country Today, ictnews.org. Accessed 27 June 2023.
Indigenous Futures Survey. 2020. From protests, to the ballot box, and beyond: building Indigenous power. Indiginous Futures Project.
Kesler, Linc. 2020. Aboriginal identity & terminology. Indigenous Foundations, First Nations & Indigenous Studies, The University of British Columbia. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/aboriginal_identity__terminology/. Accessed 30 June 2020.
McKay, Dwanna L. 2021. Real Indians: policing or protecting authentic Indigenous identity? Sociology of race and ethnicity 7(1):12-25.
Michael A. Peters & Carl T. Mika (2017) Aborigine, Indian, indigenous or first nations?, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49:13, 1229-1234.
Native Sun News Today Editorial Board. 2018. Indian, Native or Indigenous. Which one would you choose? Native Sun News, 16 Aug. 2018. https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/08/16/indian-native-or-indigenous-which-one-wo.asp. Accessed 27 June 2023.
REFERENCES USED FOR MAP:
Anderson, Gary C. 1999. The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: ethnogenesis and reinvention. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK.
Carter, Cecile E. 1995. Caddo Indians: where we come from. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK.
Foster, William C. 1995. Spanish expeditions into Texas, 1689-1768. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.
Foster, William C. (editor) 1998. The La Salle expedition to Texas: the journal of Henri Joutel, 1684-1687. Translated by Johanna S. Warren. Texas State Historical Association. Austin, TX.
Foster, William C. 2008. Historic Native Peoples of Texas. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.
Newcomb, W. W. 1993. The Indians of Texas. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.
Perttula, Timothy K. 2012. The prehistory of Texas. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX.
Sturtevant, William C. (ed.) 1979. Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 9: Southwest. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. DC.