Amerinds (was: Gallopavo (was: Re: fruitbats))

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Andreas Johansson <andjo@F...> wrote:
> [snip]
> I've always found it rather infuriating that English use "Indian"
> both of the Subcontinent and of the peoples of the Americas. Most
> other European languages use different derivatives of "India", eg
> German _Inder_ "(subcontinental) Indians", _Indianer_ "(American)
> Indians".
>
> One of the English words should be changed to "Indish" or something.
>
>                                              Andreas
>
For some time the accepted academic designation was "Amerind".  You
can see this in linguists' articles from that time.

Nowadays our own autonym, and therefore politically correct ethnonym,
is "Native American".  In my view this is insufficiently
specific; "Native American" means "born in America", and so would
include anyone who is not himself or herself an immigrant.  To
me, "Indigenous American", "Aboriginal American" or "American
Aborigine", or "Autochthonous American" would be better -- though I
don't really see what was so bad with "Amerind".

(The views just expressed are my own, and not necessarily shared by
even a single other Cherokee.)

Tom H.C. in MI

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