Why are Native Americans called Red Indians when they're not from India?

It derives from the slang term "red skins". There was a bounty put on native american flesh at one time, so when Indian Hunters (people who hunted my race) would remove the flesh from the bodies of my ancestors and let it dry, it would turn a reddish hue. They also were paid for ears, noses, fingers, scalps and unborn babies. It is often mistakenly assumed that my people started the scalping, but this is not true. Our men became so enraged after finding the bodies of their wives, children and grandparents not only murdered but horribly mutilated that they began doing the mutilation back...only they couldn't bring themselves to do all the disgusting things the non-natives would.

That is why we HATE that the team "Red Skins" has been allowed to keep their name despite our several attempts to make them change it. Would a sports team ever be allowed to call themselves the "Washington Ni88ers" or "The Cleveland Gukes"? Nope. And nor should they...but as always, we are the ONLY race in america that its perfectly socially acceptable to be blatantly racist towards. Its so engrained in the average american that they sincerely cannot think of how or why they offend us...its very much like the mentalities that allows people to keep others as slaves, they sincerely believe they are superior.

Edit: To the answerer below me, SOME native americans could have engaged in this type of brutality. South of the current border ;) And no, what evidence do you have of such things other than the journals of conquistadors who were here to find justification of the complete annihilation of a people? interesting. NONE. The tribes of the Southwest and the tribes in California, and ESPECIALLY the tribes of the Pacific Northwest, were not the animals you like to think we were to justify your ancestors actions. Even among the Inca and other barbaric groups, it was their government enacting these types of terrors upon the peoples, and not the peoples upon each other. The bounty was put on native americans, including UNBORN FETUSES. Don't even begin to debate with me on this.

Using your logic, It would be OK to shoot the Korean kids down the street because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Because when Cristophorus Columbus arrived to America he never realized that he had discoverd a unknown continent for the europeans, then he thought he was in India; according to that the natives of the "new" continent were called indians. The term red is because of their tanned skin

The theory says that they came from Siberia not from India, and there is a new theory that says they came from Australia

@ uncle Kracker. Salish is right. This is what was done to Native Americans. (This is from a congressional testimony regarding the Sand Creek Massacre, in which a native village, under a peace treaty and flying the american flag, was attacked by 700 soldiers with rifles and artillery.

I saw some Indians that had been scalped, and the ears were cut off of the body of White Antelope. One Indian who had been scalped had also his skull all smashed in, and I heard that the privates of White Antelope had been cut off to make a tobacco bag out of. I heard some men say that the privates of one of the squaws had been cut out and put on a stick.

Captain L. Wilson, First Colorado Cavalry

The dead bodies of women and children were afterwards mutilated in the most horrible manner. I saw only eight. I could not stand it; they were cut up too much...they were scalped and cut up in an awful manner.... White Antelope's nose, ears, and privates were cut off.

Private David Louderback, First Cavalry

All manner of depredations were inflicted on their persons, they were scalped, their brains knocked out; the men used their knives, ripped open women, clubbed little children, knocked them in the head with their guns, beat their brains out, mutilated their bodies in every sense of the word...worse mutilated than any I ever saw before, the women all cut to pieces.... [C]hildren two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors.

John S. Smith, interpreter

In going over the battle-ground the next day I did not see a body of a man, woman, or child but was scalped, and in many instances their bodies were mutilated in the most horrible manner—men, women, and children's privates cut out, &c. I heard one man say he had cut out a woman's private parts and had them for exhibition on a stick; I heard another man say that he had cut the fingers off an Indian to get rings off his hand.... I also heard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts of females and stretched them over the saddle-bows, and wore them over their hats while riding in the ranks.... I heard one man say he had cut a squaw's heart out, and had stuck it on a stick.

First Lieutenant James D. Cannon, New Mexico Volunteers

Because Chris C. and Company THOUGHT they were in India, and the name stuck.

You must've slept during History class.

Because Columbus thought he had found India.

@ Salish

" Our men became so enraged after finding the bodies of their wives, children and grandparents not only murdered but horribly mutilated that they began doing the mutilation back...only they couldn't bring themselves to do all the disgusting things the non-natives would."

What a crock of crap. Indians were scalping, torturing, mutilating, and cannibalizing each other long before the arrival of Europeans.

@ Li' ni' I could post pages of atrocities committed by Indians. Why is the barbarity of Indians sanitized while that of whites is emphasized ?

Because Native Americans DID came from India before they reached America.

Thay have red features

ignorance

They are from South Asia (India and nearby countries)