Why do we call Native Americans "Indians"?

> a mistake that occurred when Christopher Columbus thought he was in India

Yep

> so why would this profound mistake carry over for so long?

Because until the 1960ies, the controlling cultures were not interested.

> Even stranger, why do Native Americans refer to themselves as Indians?

(1) there are over a thousand native nations in the Americas. The only unifying ethnicity is one that is based on the European point of view. So - there is no native name for it.

(2) when I spent a good amount of time with Native Americans / American Indians who were active in ethnic awareness and rights issues, their opinion was divided down the middle about which foreign identifier to use.

On the one hand, as you say, the term "Indian" theoretically perpetuates Columbus' mistake.

But on the other hand, using the term "Native American" focuses on the foreign identifier "American".

So - some people preferred the first and others the second.

There was no consensus.

> I am 1/32 Navajo and the other day I told someone I had a little Indian in my blood and after I said it it just started to bother me that we have misnomered a large portion of our population...

You could just say Navajo - since that's a genuine and clearly defined ethno-cultural group.

And everyone knows Navajos.

Its not like you're from some tiny unknown nation that people will say "who?"

Because I refer to them as Native Americans.

Colombus didn't call anyone Indians. He dubbed the people he met in the Caribbean Los En Dios. People of 'god' because of their generous and communal nature. This is detailed in his own journals.

The English couldn't pronounce it with their flaccid tongues.... So they said it as Indian. Nothing at all to do with the country of Hindustan that wouldn't be called India for another two hundred years. I'm curious as to what it is Americans actually learn in their 'history' course.

Who is this WE you keep talking about?

One thing your "WE" has never done, is asked the actual people in questions what they wish to be called.

I've always wondered if it was merely a corruption or misinterpretation of the word "indegino" which is Spanish for "indigenous". It sorta sounds like "Indio" which is the Spanish word for "Indian".

Christopher Columbus spoke and wrote in Spanish. In fact he virtually never wrote in Italian. Maybe in his logs he wrote of the "indeginos" and later English translations mistook it for "Indian".

LOL. The Vikings were in North America 500 years before Columbus.

You didn't, it was the Europeans who came up with the names and used them for centuries,

and as they named certain parts of the world (like The West Indies) the names have stuck.

The American Indian came originally from Asia, and crossed the Bering Strait approximately 20-30,000 years ago. These people are not "native" to the Americas, nor are they properly called "Native Americans". Admittedly, this sounds nicer to politically correct liberals, but truth and honestly have never been their forte'. The fact is, you can't be "native" to a place when you came from somewhere else.

I call them feather-heads