Indians; what kind?

What are Indians?  Well you could be thinking of three things right now.  One: you may be thinking an Indian is someone native to India.  Two: you could be thinking about the Major league baseball team; the Cleveland Indians.  Or three: you might be considering the name giving to Native Americans.  Well, there is most defiantly a difference between all of the topics but I will be addressing numbers one and three and how the connotations of the word “Indian” has evolved and also offended some people.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus took sail for India.  The goal of his expedition was to find a western trading route to India.  When he eventually made landfall in present day San Salvador, he called the natives Indians, thinking that he was in India.  It was only later on that he discovered his mistake on finding the Americas rather than the intended destination of India.  The name of the natives in America stuck and people referred to them as Indians.

That was the 15^th century.  Yet still now-a-days people will refer to Native Americans as Indians although politically incorrect.  In modern history textbooks the authors no longer misuse the word Indian.  The only exception for that is the war between the British and French.  The French were allied with the Native Americans thus the French and Indian War. 

            Jeevan is one of my good friends.  He is full Indian, more specifically, Punjabi.  He is very active with his Indian culture and I have talked to him about his view of Native Americans being called Indians.  He stated that Native Americans were NOT Indians.  He gets frustrated when people talk about Native Americans as Indians, not because he is offended by the misuse rather of people’s ignorance with words and their meanings.  I agree with what Jeevan is saying and respect his view on the matter.

            Jeevan was a socially known person in middle school and still is in high school.  But when I had first heard of who he was there was one question I had.  Was he Native American “Indian” or Indian “Indian”?  I later found out that he was indeed India, as in from India.  This was confusing for me and maybe other people who are trying to communicate. 

            There are some people who still refer to Native Americans as Indians, including myself.  I was raised in such a culture that to me, an Indian was someone who was originally from America.  I can recall multiple memories of my childhood playing Cowboys and Indians.  We most defiantly did not call the game Cowboys and Native Americans.  The way people use the word Indian upsets and aggravates many people who are either Native American or Indian and the usage of the word should be corrected in not only American literature but also in modern American language.