Why do some people call natives indans?

Answer 1

The American author and historian Jake Page makes the point that if you talk of "native Americans" you must include Hawaiians, Aleuts, Inuits and the descendants of all subsequent immigrants to the New World; they are all native and all American.

When you want to be very specific about a particular race within that general group, the term American Indian is as good as any other - it excludes all the racial types listed above.

David E Wilkens, a member of the Lumbee tribe and a political scientist at the University of Arizona, has written in a monumental study of Indian sovereignty and the US Supreme Court that "Indian or American Indian is the most common appellation used by many indigenous and non-indigenous persons and institutions." It therefore has a legal basis.

The terms "Injuns", "Redskins" and so on were commonly used throughout the American West during the frontier years - not a single person on the American Continents ever used the term "native American" during the period 1492 to 1880, so there is plenty of historical basis for using the word "Indian". Yes, it is ethnically and geographically inaccurate, but in the absence of any other term that does not include the other races mentioned above, it seems reasonable to use it.

Answer 2

Some people may incorrectly refer to Native Americans as "Indians" due to historical reasons. When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, he mistakenly believed he had reached India and called the native people "Indians." This term has persisted in some parts of the world, but it is important to recognize and use the correct term "Native Americans" or refer to specific tribes or nations out of respect.