(06-21-2020 07:43 AM)jedclampett Wrote: Native Americans care just as much about being defined by the color of their skin today as they did 200 years ago.
Think everyone missed the point.
Everyone knew it was derogatory 90 years ago. Just look at the Hollywood westerns. People were just insensitive.
Hardly anyone knew the origin of the term 90 years ago, even among Indians, probably even less among Indians because they were more likely to be illiterate. If you have to dig to find a way a term is offensive, that's just stupid. And I have to be skeptical that is truly the origin of the term.
EDIT:
Actually, Wiki says that redskin was used by Indians themselves to contrast themselves from the Colonists who called themselves white and black. It didn't become pejorative until the last part of the 1800s. It says the skinning bit is a recent story and claiming that is the origin contrasts with historical evidence.
"...Goddard's alternative etymology is that the term emerged from the speech of Native Americans themselves, and that the origin and use of the term in the late 18th and early 19th century was benign when it first appeared "it came in the most respectful context and at the highest level. ... These are white people and Indians talking together, with the white people trying to ingratiate themselves".[20] The word later underwent a process of pejoration, by which it gained a negative connotation.[21] Goddard suggests that "redskin" emerged from French translations of Native American speech in Illinois and Missouri territories in the 18th century. He cites as the earliest example a 1769 set of "talks", or letters, from chiefs of the Piankeshaw to an English officer at Fort de Chartres. One letter included "si quelques peaux Rouges", which was translated as "if any redskins", and the second included "tout les peaux rouges", which was translated as "all the redskins".[18]:4 However, in an interview Goddard admitted that it is impossible to verify whether the native words were accurately translated.[20]
The term appeared in an August 22, 1812, meeting between President James Madison and a delegation of chiefs from western tribes. There, the response of Osage chief "No Ears" (Osage: Tetobasi) to Madison's speech included the statement, "I know the manners of the whites and the red skins," while French Crow, principal chief of the Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux, was recorded as having said, "I am a red-skin, but what I say is the truth, and notwithstanding I came a long way I am content, but wish to return from here."[18]:14–15..."
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