Just to specify again: I meant names for native Americans that are not used in otl, be it native Americans, First Nations, aboriginals, amerindians, or whatever. I guess a good analogue is how Arabs are not called “native middle easterners”
Alternate name for Native Americans
- Thread starter king_cereal
- Start date
Amazons might make some sense. Or perhaps "Aztec," "Maya," "Inca," "Carib," "Iroquois," "Powhatan," or some other specific identity gets generalised to mean Native Americans in general?
Maya sounds good. Seeing as how it was already gone before Columbus, it wouldn’t get confused with the actual tribe, with the OTL Mayas being called ancient mayas in TTL.
I'm well aware of that, although the racist term is "redskin" (most infamously the NFL team, although there are some natives who have reclaimed that slur, like the sports teams at one school on the Navajo Reservation). But let's not forget the related racial terms of "negro", "black people", "blacks", etc. Calling an African American a black person is usually not regarded as racist, so it isn't hard to imagine an American Indian being called a "red person" (in a different culture) and identifying as such. "Indian" is sometimes considered dated, yet many Native Americans identify as that since that's what their ancestors were called historically. As such, you often find "American Indian" as the description used for indigenous Americans in history, ethnographical, etc. books to this day.
In short, terms for the indigenous people of the Americas will be very related to what their conquerers call them.
Using this idea, we could use a variation of Linnaeus’ term for native Americans, Americanus rubescens, (red Americans), for native Americans. Something like rubens, perhaps.
I can see this work, like how in otl black people were called "negroes" and then it became "black" then perhaps native americans could be "rubens" and then just "reds".
Poul Anderson had Native Americans called Erythrai in one of his short stories (in alternate history, where America was colonized by Greeks and is called Eutopia).
We would have had to change terminology in the 20th century because of the Soviets.
Of course, as you noted we already did that for Negro/black.
Hesperia the western lands in antiquity that kept moving west first Italy then Spain and finally Morocco IIRC so a nice alt name for the Americas and thus native americans
I think for this to happen you would need Greek culture to be more prevalent during the age of exploration.
Turtle Islanders would be another alternate for them if you make a timeline where they end up having the name of North America changed to Turtle Island in respect for Native American mythologies (Being that North America is a giant turtle and resembles a giant turtle).
I think it might be a tad bit unrealistic once Europeans explore the entirety of North America for them to still refer to it as an island
Valdemar Daae
Banned
Perhaps early on Indigenes, a generalized term as West Indians or Mericans may work?
Aboriginal Americans, Continentals, Native-India or Naturalized Indigenes sound more like an intermediate term for them.
Native Nations, First Americans or Acolumbian Peoples might all serve fine for alternate modern inoffensive terms.
These are all random stabs in the dark. IOTl terms weren't exceptionally creative and my name ideas are rather unoriginal too.
Aboriginal Americans, Continentals, Native-India or Naturalized Indigenes sound more like an intermediate term for them.
Native Nations, First Americans or Acolumbian Peoples might all serve fine for alternate modern inoffensive terms.
These are all random stabs in the dark. IOTl terms weren't exceptionally creative and my name ideas are rather unoriginal too.