Honestly Omega, I find your comparison to Communism to be quite short sighted. Not to mention the offensive nature of the term "Indian Giver". Though it does have a simultaneous hint of humor when one takes into account the irony of Caucasians saying such in general...

Besides popular-usage, "politically-correct" terminology can be just as discriminating.  Think about the term "Native American" for a moment...  Why would a group of people want to be named after those who slaughtered their brethren?

*Snip* Please see Apocrypha's post below for a link explaining the origin of the word "Indians" and how Columbus derived the term when he named the people indigenous to the land we now call America.

I have a similar beef with the term "African American."  I would not want to be named after a group of people who helped to enslave my ancestors.  Nor would I want to be referred to as "African" if I was not born in Africa.  Of course, I don't think the term "black" is any better as most "black" people are not black in color.  I honestly do not understand why humans insist on classifying things so much, but I digress...

I was not stating that I dislike the title Indian, but the term ?Indian Giver?. I personally have never found offense in Indian, but at the same time I do not like to use it because currently there is a country named India, and having two very distinct people with very different customs, who come from opposite sides of the planet given the same name is quite confusing. The same problem occurs with American Indian. It?s still a much more catchy title than Native America, but yet again, breeds confusion. What names existed then have very little influence now anyway. If we were to find extra terrestrial beings on Mars today, we?d call them Martians, not Ares?eh? ians

With that said, I made a comment because I despise the level of brainwashing that has gone into American culture to make them inexplicitly hate my ilk (well, half of my ilk, since the other half are Welsh). If anything, a term such as Whiteman Giver, or Christian Giver would be far more appropriate. Without getting into the legalities that my mind has worked up for such, I will simply say that Apocrypha has the right idea

I have to say i have NEVER know ANYONE who hated native americans so lets not pretend its the greatest issue facing the world today. I lived for several years near a reservation and while i know people who dislikes blacks whites and mexicans i didnt really know anyone who had a particualr beef with native americans. Really those old john wayne movies only had so much impact. its time to move on.
 The term native american is used because the continent is called north AMERICA it has nothing at all to do with the fact that people from the united states are called americans as well.  Secondly they were pretty used to  the slaughtering of their brethren as they lived in a constant state of tribal warfare.

oh and india was called Hindustan in 1492.

Wow, thanks for clearing that up for me Apocrypha.

I hope you didn't take my earlier post as an attack upon you.  It wasn't intended as such.  I was just interested by Dev/Null's post and your own and wished to post some of my own thoughts on the matter.

Thank you woods for pointing that out, im begining to wonder where half this info is being gotten from, seriously this statement below makes 0 sense.


I would like to see some serious validation of the above statement, considering the state I live in and the people I have known, that statement comes out looking entirely weak as if seeking an argument with little facts.

Oh yeah, I forgot, Thanksgiving and Christopher Columbus Day was abolished fifty years ago in favor of something celebrating the great deeds of persons such as Crazyhorse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, etc.

I don?t consider myself to be a Leftist at all, so that demolishes whatever delusional point you may have had. Bitter I am though, and you?d be too if the country you lived in celebrated a man who took part in the wholesale slaughter of your ancestors. It?s not far off from Germany having a Hitler Day because he put so much forth towards the economy and work force in that country. The only difference being that Hitler was far less of a murderer.

It?s great though that the Italians want a holiday, just like the Irish and countless other ancestral heritages. They get them too, but the people who were originally here get nothing. Nope, instead we must tolerate these hate parades. There is an extreme religious and cultural bias in this country, and it only becomes even more apparent when looking at holidays which are mapped out on the calendar.

The monument in South Dakota, however, is not of Crazyhorse per say, as no one has an idea of his true appearance. It is a symbol of his message; the spirit of the Sioux and Native Americans everywhere. It goes on without government funding, which is appropriate I believe, as we do not need handouts from such social cannibals. I?m pleased you brought up Mouth Rushmore though, as that alone serves as a giant insult towards my ilk as a whole; being the destruction of Mother Earth in favor of four trite dictators, especially in the Black Hills, an area which has always been held as being highly sacred to the Sioux. What you?ve been conditioned to see as a symbol of patriotic pride, is in reality nothing more than a homage to genocide.

Hehe, and don't forget where those ancestor have their roots in the first place... :]

I don't think I would call it a long dead culture, either, as there are many members still alive and practicing their cultural traditions.  While I don't feel any guilt about it, I can acknowledge that the settling of America was an invasion.  There was the room here for white settlers and the many nations of "Native Americans" to live together, but when you force a people out of their very homes to take their land, it's wrong.  Like I said, it was long ago and not my fault at all, but you could take a moment to reflect on what happened.  To many of the indiginous people, we are still an occupying force (that also happens to dig up their ancestors and charge admission for people to come and disrespect them - one of the reasons I am going to be cremated.  Ain't no one digging me up in 100 years after I'm dead and sticking me in a museum for people to point.)