Indian, Native American, American Indian?

Year 2007, Issue: 26, 1 - 8, 01.10.2007

Gülriz Büken Meldan Tanrısal

Abstract

What is an Indian? A Native American? An indigenous person? American Indian, First Nation, or Aboriginal? All these labels are used, but none is entirely correct. Who decides? “Are you a full blood? Half blood? Quarter blood?” The question of how much “Indian blood” you have—also called “blood quantum”—began with European contact. This colonial way of thinking continues when we keep defining ourselves by blood. What part of you is Native? Is it your head? Your heart? Maybe it’s your thoughts. But it is not just your blood. We are the sum of all our parts. All human. One hundred percent. Fully Native.

Keywords

Indian, Native American, American Indian

References

• Fuller, Diana Burgess and Daniela Salvioni. Art/Women/California: Parallels and Intersections 1950-2000. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002.
• McMaster,Gerald and Clifford E. Trafzer, eds. Native Universe: Voices of Indian America. Washington D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 2004.
• Scholder, Fritz. Fritz Scholder: Recent Works. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma School of Art, 2002.
• Sweet, Jill D., Ian Berry, Katherine Jane Hauser, and Barry Pritzker. Staging the Indian: The Politics of Representation. Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY: Skidmore College, The Tang Teaching Museum, 2001.