Linda Grover: There is beauty, meaning in the many names of native people

Here in Onigamiising, from time to time, I am asked what is the appropriate name to call the indigenous people of North America.

There is more than one answer to the question, and not all of us answer it in the same way.

Many people, both Indian and non-Indian, use the term “Native American.” Most current written material and articles use the term “American Indian.” Some of us indigenous North Americans prefer one term, some prefer the other.

There is beauty in the Ojibwe word “Anishinaabe” which, depending on the context, can refer to Ojibwe people or inclusively to all indigenous people.

What I’ve heard is that the literal translation is “spontaneous (hu)man” created by the Great Spirit and then lowered gently to the Earth, where gifts and blessings of life and sustenance were provided. We Anishinaabeg were created to live thankful and generous lives.

Listening to myself, I hear “American Indian” as well as “Anishinaabe.” And I hear myself say “Indian” a lot, a holdover from the 1950s and 1960s, my growing-up years. That would make me an indigenous North American who often refers to herself by the same nationality as people in a country on the other side of the world.

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