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Comment by geoduck14 | Hacker News Reader

I don't normally get on THIS soapbox, but there is a difference between "Indians" and "Native Americans".

Indians are from the country of India. Native Americans are the original inhabitants of the America's. And the subject of this article.

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The US government still uses "Indian" in a lot of places, like the "Bureau of Indian Affairs"; "Federally recognized Indian tribe" is a specific legal term still, hence its use in the court decision.

My understanding is that many in the Native American community self identify as ‘Indian’. Or have historically, I’m sure the younger generation is moving away from it.

While there is some amount of controversy, Indian does mean original inhabitants of the Americas. Check any dictionary in America.

One absurd name vs. another. "Indian" is the result of a mistake by an outsider, which probably isn't that unusual if one goes digging into the names for various ethnic groups. "Native American" feels artificial, but more importantly isn't accurate either. The native Americans would be the descendants of the American colonists, the founding people of a nation; not those who were conquered by these people. The people we call Native Americans might better be described as aboriginal, or as in Canada "first nations".

Isn’t this disregarding that The America in Native Americans are not for the country but for the continent(s) (some nations lump two Americas as one)

Kind of, but there's only one nation called America. You can't separate native-ness from nation-ness. If the US called itself something else, then there would be no Native Americans.

Doesn't the US call itself the 'United States of America', and not just 'America'?

I misspoke when I said the US, I meant the people of the US (i.e. the nation, not the state).

Anecdotal, but I was told some original treaties are between 'usa and indians', so to change names may place those treaties in jeopardy.

Take that up with Christopher Columbus. He's the one who bumbled his way to the New World, saw brown people there and decided he must have found India.

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