Riff on "Native American"

I lay awake in bed thinking about things a lot.
This is one of those times:

Riff on "Native American"


About fifty years ago, in the interest of political correctness, it was decided that the term "Indian" was offensive and needed to be replaced.

We came to accept and embrace the term "Native American" as the less offensive term, in spite of the fact that the majority of those "offended" by it were not, and actually preferred the old, offensive term.  

Yet we accepted the term, as we usually do, without scrutiny.  No tests of logic were applied, no empathetic lens applied.  This was our term and we're stickin' to it. The white man has spoken.

Now that it's part of our everyday vernacular, let's take a closer look:
Surely the "American" part of "Native American" refers to the geographical and not the national.  I doubt that any group of people, slaughtered by the millions by another group, wished for inclusion into that group.  Anything to do with "American" is precisely what they fought not to be a part of. Then, "American" must refer to a geographic region - the Americas.  But "America" is a Johnny-come-lately term coined by disease-spreading, musket shooting, land ravagers with little or no respect for the geography they were naming.  

You're inviting me to join your new club? 
Pardon us, but it's been our club for the past several hundred thousand years.

No matter what angle you look at it, tagging these people with an "American" label is certainly much more offensive that any phrase previously applied to them.

Maybe a less insulting term is "Native Inhabitants."
Or maybe, when it comes to Indians, we should have left well enough alone.