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Why is the term "aboriginal" never applied to Native

Americans?
Asked 6 years, 5 months ago Modified 2 years, 4 months ago Viewed 705 times

It seems that the term is almost exclusively used to describe pre-colonial Australians, but
most definitions that I found don't specify any given ethnicity.

3
word-usage

Share Improve this question Follow asked Mar 26, 2017 at 22:31
rootmeanclaire
1,474 4 18 27

1 Perhaps FracturedRetina could include some of their research, and provide support that aboriginal is
used exclusively towards the indigenes of Australia. Because I don't believe that is the case, I have
heard of Canadian aboriginals. – Mari-Lou A Mar 26, 2017 at 22:40

2 America is also a huge continent, it includes all the countries in Latin America as well as North
America. So precisely which native Americans? – Mari-Lou A Mar 26, 2017 at 22:44

3 @Mari-LouA Most “why” questions that try to puzzle out “reasons” for historical language choices are a
bad fit for the Stack Exchange Q&A format. Like most autochthonous peoples, our Indians go by

various names depending on the context and tradition of that people and of those mentioning them.
You are unlikely to find a good answer for why some people call one set of indigènes one thing and a
different set another thing. Do keep in mind that that all these words for natives are exonyms
unchosen by that particular people, just something others call them. – tchrist ♦ Mar 26, 2017 at
 unchosen by that particular people, just something others call them. – tchrist ♦ Mar 26, 2017 at
22:47

2 @Mari-LouA The term Native American really does refer to indigenous peoples who settled (or were
resettled) within the boundaries of the United States; the current preferred term in Canada is First
Nations (to distinguish the Eskimos and Métis from other aboriginal peoples). Moreover, the English-
speaking world, to my knowledge, usually counts two continents in the Western Hemisphere, not one.
– choster Mar 26, 2017 at 22:55

5 This isn't an answer, but the premise of the question is not quite true. Firstly, anthropologists use the
terms "aboriginal" and the similar "autochthonous" much more widely than the layman, and I think
you could find reference for "aboriginal North/South Americans". A second problem is, there are some
genetically, ethnically, and culturally quite distinct "Native American" & Inuit groups in N.A. They
actually originate from different waves of immigration into the continent from Asia, and later mixed to
varying degrees. So who was the "first" (i.e. aboriginal)? – Noldorin Mar 27, 2017 at 0:43

1 Answer Sorted by: Highest score (default)

This is more a matter of custom, fashion and etiquette than meaning.

Native American means per M-W:

2
a member of any of the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere; especially : a
Native American of North America and especially the U.S. — compare American
Indian

"Native American" while the preferred usage is potentially ambiguous particularly is varied
for example to "Native Coloradan" which can refer without capitalization to someone born in
Colorado, but with capitalization to someone who is a Native American who lives in Colorado.

Also, the term Native standing alone rather than qualified to refer to indigenous people is
often considered mildly derogatory. Hence one would avoid saying: "The natives consider
corn, beans and squash their traditional foods."

American Indian is a mildly outdated term that means more or less exactly what Native
American does.

There can be dispute over whether the indigenous people of Hawaii or Alaska count as "Native
American" (they do not for U.S. Census Bureau purpose), and it would actually be quite rare
to refer to people who are indigenous to the Americas south of the United States as "Native
Americans" unless they are part of a tribe or culture that existed both to the North and to the
South of the current Mexican border.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau for the most recent 2010 Census (the definitions of racial
and ethnic categories have shifted somewhat in almost every census):

The concept of race is separate from the concept of Hispanic origin. Percentages for
the various race categories add to 100 percent, and should not be combined with the
percent Hispanic.

White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle
East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report
entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.

Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the Black racial
groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or
Negro"; or report entries such as African American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian.

American Indian and Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the
original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who
maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. This category includes people
who indicate their race as "American Indian or Alaska Native" or report entries such
as Navajo, Blackfeet, Inupiat, Yup'ik, or Central American Indian groups or South
American Indian groups.

Asian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East,
Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China,
India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and
Vietnam. It includes people who indicate their race as "Asian Indian," "Chinese,"
"Filipino," "Korean," "Japanese," "Vietnamese," and "Other Asian" or provide other
detailed Asian responses.

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. A person having origins in any of
the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. It includes
people who indicate their race as "Native Hawaiian," "Guamanian or Chamorro,"
"Samoan," and "Other Pacific Islander" or provide other detailed Pacific Islander
responses.

Two or more races. People may have chosen to provide two or more races either
by checking two or more race response check boxes, by providing multiple responses,
or by some combination of check boxes and other responses.

Despite this guidance, empirically, the vast majority of Hispanic people who are Mestizo (see
below) report their race as "Other" rather than "Two or more races" listing both European and
Native American as the Census Bureau which the Census Bureau would usually consider to be
Native American as the Census Bureau which the Census Bureau would usually consider to be
correct.

As noted in the comments, the term First Nations is the preferred term for the indigenous
peoples of Canada who are not Inuits or other indigenous Arctic people.

Historically, Inuits were called Eskimos (although Inuit is a somewhat more exclusive term
than Eskimo that excludes the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska also known
as Native Alaskans. Eskimo is a term that has fallen out of favor for no obvious reason other
than that this is not what members of that group of people call themselves, and not because
Eskimo was particularly derogatory when it was in use. The historical archaeological culture
that was ancestral to and is in continuity the modern Inuit is called the Thule (the Thule are
not Paleo-Eskimos).

Arctic peoples of Canada and Alaska who have since died out and been replaced by Inuits are
still called Paleo-Eskimos in the academic literature and sometimes even in the popular
press without offense (in general, offending a group of people who have died out tends to be
harder to do than offending a group of people who still have living representatives). Paleo-
Eskimos would include the Dorset archaeological culture and the Saqqaq cultures of Arctic
North America.

Latin America has its own set of terms to describe persons of indigenous or partially
indigenous origins, the most important of which is Mestizo which means a person of
combined European and indigenous American (also called Amerindian descent). Many
people use the word Hispanic not in the sense defined by the U.S. Census Bureau but to refer
to someone who appears to be Mestizo.

"Aboriginal", "indigenous" and "autochthonous" have very similar meanings.

indigenous is used in both technical and non-technical writing and has fewer connotations
than most other terms of the type. It means per M-W in the relevant sense of the word:

1: produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or

environment * indigenous plants * the indigenous culture

Aboriginal is usually used in common speech and capitalized to refer to indigenous

Australians or by anthropologists in a mildly outdated choice of words to refer to indigenous
people. It means per M-W:

1: being the first or earliest known of its kind present in a region * aboriginal forests *
aboriginal rocks
 2: of or relating to the people who have been in a region from the earliest time : of or
relating to aborigines * aboriginal languages * aboriginal tribes/customs/art;
specifically, often capitalized : of or relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia

autochthonous is almost always used as a technical term by anthropologists. It means when

referring to people per M-W:

1: indigenous, native * an autochthonous people * autochthonous plants

In some cases, anthropologists will use the term autochthonous to distinguish, for example,
between indigenous people of the Americas who are descended from the founding population
of the Americas, and indigenous people of the Americas who arrived many thousands of years
later such as the Thule and Paleo-Eskimos, in the context of a discussion of the arrival of the
later arriving groups.

Similarly, in some contexts, a person of Bantu ethnicity in Southern Africa might be called
indigenous or autochthonous (e.g. relative to Europeans and migrants from China and India)
even though in other contexts that term might be reserved to the Khoisan (a.k.a. Bushman)
people who resided in a particular part of Africa until the Bantu migration reached that part of
Africa ca. 1000 BCE.

Why?

Some of the distaste for the use of the word "Aboriginal" comes from the historical extreme
level of prejudice that was suffered by Aboriginal Australians which Native Americans and
others do not wish to be associated with and which carries a lot of historical baggage.

It can be compared to the terms "Idiot" or "Moron" which at one point in term were technical
terms to refer to individuals in particular low IQ ranges but developed a derogatory sense and
as a result came to be disfavored.

Prior to "Native American" the common term to refer to indigenous people of

the United States was "Indian" (and it remains the correct term of art in U.S. law
relating to Native Americans).

But, in addition to being ambiguous (because the term "Indian" means both person from
India and Native American), it was also developing a moderate derogatory sense and was

increasingly not a term that Native Americans felt comfortable applying to themselves. The
term "indigenous" or "aboriginal" was never in wide use to refer to Native Americans outside
of anthropology circles.
of anthropology circles.

In part, this happened because the concept of "indigenous peoples" was not well developed at
the time of first contact with Columbus and early European settlers of the Americas when the
indigenous people of the America were Christened "Indians", but by the time that contact
between the English and Aboriginal Australians was initiated, the more general concept of an
"indigenous" or "Aboriginal" people was better established.

Unlike, Inuit, however, "Native American" was never a self-referential term of these peoples
for themselves, and unlike Inuit it is a grouping of a variety of peoples rather than to a single
coherent ethnicity and identity. Generally, a Native American is a Sioux or Apache or Navajo
or Ute first, and a Native American second.

Share Improve this answer edited Apr 17, 2021 at 0:30 answered Mar 27, 2017 at 1:41
Follow ohwilleke
2,296 2 9 15

Please don’t tell the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Nor the Indians. – tchrist ♦ Mar 27, 2017 at 1:49

1 Please note the statement: "Prior to "Native American" the common term to refer to indigenous people
of the United States was "Indian" (and it remains the correct term of art in U.S. law relating to Native
Americans)." Hence, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and legal terms like "Indian Country." American
Indian is another way to resolve the ambiguity in the word "Indian" standing alone (which was less of a
big deal when people from Indian figured less prominently in American life). – ohwilleke Mar 27, 2017
at 1:51