by David » September 30th, 2006, 1:40 am
Some years ago, I attended a conference on Western Literature out in New Mexico ("Western" meaning literature of the American West--literature about cowboys, Indians, etc.). In a panel on the topic of writing by Native Americans, someone asked the panel members what they wanted to be called.
They said, without exception (eight of them): Indians.
They said they prefered to be called by their tribal names, but after that they prefer to be called Indians and don't like the term Native American. One guy said it sounded like a species of elk.
If you see the film Smoke Signals (in my opinion, one the best movies of all time) the characters in that film call themselves "Indians." It was based on the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexi, who is probably the top "Native American" poet and writer living today.
So that's my two cents.
The way, the weather, the terrain, the discipline, the leadership. --Sun Tzu