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Every ethnic group ought to call itself what it likes.
My work presents me with the opportunity to talk with Indian leaders from different regions of the United States. I've never met one who called himself a "Native American." As a matter of fact, an Indian professor from Michigan recently told me the appellation was "just the latest example of colonialism and paternalism toward us on the part of the white man." He said "we're 'Indians,' goddammit! Stop trying to impose your sensibilities on others, because we don't share them." He went on to say that "Native American is an invention of the ivory tower," and he "had not once heard tribal elders use the term."
My family has been in Texas for seven generations. That fact has earned me the right to call myself a Native Texan.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
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