I believe the word “Native” is inaccurately used when applied to individuals descended from, or part of, North American tribes. It would seem to me that they one should be acknowledged by their particular tribe or “nation” from where they cam from, like Chocataw, Hopi, Osage, Shawnee and Saponi, to name a few. Since I am a descendant from the Iroquois, I could refer to myself as Iroquois-American, though I do not use it since I didn’t not grow up in a Iroquois lifestyle.

I mean, as Starbuck mentioned, it is wrong to use the word “Indian” since they are not from India, but it is just as inapprobiate to use the word “native” for just one particular group, since birth place denotes where on is native from. Anyone born and raised within the borders of this country is, in my opinion, a native American.

Not ready sure where you going with that Star, but before I go defending different groups of people from ages past I do have one observation. If western society is bad and all so called “native” cultures were good, why are all the descendents from the “good native” cultures wear the clothes and live in the style of western society, when they don’t have to?

I mean, if I really felt western society is bad and my Iroquois heritage is great, I would be wearing buckskins and living in a Wigwam and avoiding western society “benefits” like a functioning complex sewage system, daily showers, modern dentistry and airlane travel. Now, I do hunt and eat wild game, but I use a modern rifle, a muzzle-loading rifle and a bow, because I feel it’s only right to kill what you are going to eat, at times (it feels like it’s keeps me honest).

Sure, it’s romantic to think that it would be great to live like our people once did, but I would rather live in a western society than a “native” one, because I would rather die from a stroke at 80, than a raptured apendix at 26.