I asked this question first to the Australian list OZTLNET as I was
concerned that our offical SCIS classification uses American Indian
while I thought native American was more correct.
I had 4 replies from Australia
3 agreed with changing to Native American, the other suggested
Amerindian giving as a source An Ogalala Lakota, Michael Six-Killer,
from
the Dakotas.
So I then sent to the message to LM_NET
Most replies told me that the most common classification in US schools is
Edition 17 of Sears List of Subject Headings (H.W. Wilson Co., c2000)
which uses Native American and Native Americans.
but some other replies were:
-We use Subject Headings for School and Public Libraries : an LCSH/Sears
Companion by Joanna Fountain as our authority--it says Indians of North
America or the name of a specific tribe as a subdivision or Indians, but NOT
American Indians
-A while back (15 years ago or so, about the time Dances With Wolves was
released) there was a big to-do about calling them Native Americans. I
recall reading an article (can't remember what publication, but I
distinctly remember the message) in which the American Indians basically
said 'you came here and called us Indians, and we've gone by that name
for centuries, and now you're trying to change our name? I don't think
so!'
So now I use 'American Indian', but it's probably a good idea to use
'Native American' as an added entry, because the terms are frequently
used interchangeably here. And, now that I'm thinking about it, Native
American also refers to South and Central America.
-At my school, I use Indians of North America with
more specific breakdown after that. It does make for a really long
subject sometimes but at least if someone is looking for Indians, they
will find it under Indians of North America
Example: Indians of North America--Blackfeet {that is a
tribe}--Montana--Government Relations, 19?? to 19??
-I'm on the edge of an Indian reservation. In our catalog instead of using
Indians of North America, we use Native Americans in the US, First Nations
in Canada. For Indians in central and south America, we use Indians of
Central America or Indians of South America. No one that I've ever run
into has used Amerindian. As for Sears, most libraries haven't updated to
the newest changes and have all books under Indians of North America or
the tribal names.
-In Canada, the term of choice is First Nations. As far as official subject
headings go, we use Native Peoples - Canada but we also add the keywords
First Nations. In the US, I believe the term of choice is Native Americans.
- People in my school try to "correct me" and be politically correct- BUT,
our Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh has a large American Indian exhibit and
the librarian at the University of Pittsburgh, who is American Indian and
very involved in the community was the chief consultation,.,,so I follow
their lead...
- I can say that no one in the U.S. would recognize "Amerindian."
It's all "Native American" in Texas--and I'm 1/16th Cherokee and
Chickasaw. I think it is preferred because it gives recognition to
those who were here first. Considering the treatment meted out to
them by the settlers, I certainly can't blame the Native Americans
for looking for a tiny bit of recognition.
-The correct term was "Indians of North America" according to the
Dewey we have (which isn't the most recent one)
Thank you for your input.
Brian Ralph
Teacher-Librarian, Erskine Park High (part-time)
In the Western Suburbs of Sydney, Australia
mailto:bralph@zeta.org.au
http://www.zeta.org.au/~bralph
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