Although obviously I originally offended by using the term "Indians," and I tried to explain why I did so... this Wikipedia excerpt may clear the air a little.

I certainly recognize the term "First Nations" and "Indigenous" and "Aboriginal".

But this is a generational problem, not a problem with using an offensive word. Read this!

You see, "First Nations" only began to be widely used in the 1980's -- I was born in 1950. And when it started being used in the 1980's, I wasn't paying a lot of attention right away.

So has it taken me 30 years to catch up? Right! Getting your old head around a major vocabulary change, that happened when you weren't looking....

Also, since I am not a Canadian, I have an additional layer of cloudy thinking to get through.




Wikipedia:

"First Nations"' came into common usage in the 1980s to replace the term "Indian band". Elder Sol Sanderson says that he coined the term in the early 1980s. Others state that the term came into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word “Indian,” which some people considered offensive. Apparently, no legal definition of the term exists. Some Aboriginal peoples in Canada have also adopted the term “First Nation” to replace the word “band” in the name of their community. A band is a legally recognized "body of Indians for whose collective use and benefit lands have been set apart or money is held by the Canadian Crown, or declared to be a band for the purposes of the Indian Act."

As individuals, First Nations people are officially recognized by the Government of Canada by the terms "registered Indians" or "status Indians" only if they are listed on the Indian Register and are thus entitled to benefits under the Indian Act. They are considered "non-status Indian" if they are not so listed and thus not entitled to benefits, according to the Canadian state. Administration of the Indian Act and Indian Register is carried out by the federal government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

While the word "Indian" is still a legal term, its use is erratic and in decline in Canada.[20][21] Some First Nations people consider the term offensive, while others prefer it to "Aboriginal person/persons/people," despite the fact that the term is a misnomer given to indigenous peoples of North America by European settlers who erroneously thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent. The use of the term "Native Americans", which the United States government and others have adopted, is not common in Canada.

The First Nations are the various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The total population is nearly 700,000 people.

THANK YOU EVERYBODY, FOR TAKING THE TIME TO FOLLOW THIS OUT WITH ME.