I'm going to anger some people but here I go anyway. I don't like being called indigenous just call me native american.

Indigenous makes me sound primitive. I am NOT primitive. But hey aren't you mixed? Yes I'm only half native and the rest of me mexican but still I am not primitive. Making me sound like I'm some lesser type of human and what not.

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billybcgn25 · 70-79, M

I was raised in the New Mexico desert down from the Mescalero Apache reservation. At that time (late 1950s/1960s) my best friend was a classmate named Charles. Indeed, using the thorn of a tumbleweed, he and i pierced each other's thumbs and mixed our "blood brothers." Silly childhood nonsense, yes. But I appeal to our friendship to say that I've always respected Indians, which was the colloquial term for Native American.

"Indigenous" is an old word, recycled by someone in some academic circle who was trying to out-virtue signal his or her peers.

How about i just call you a friend? And you call me the same? In fact, let us all just do just that? "Love your neighbor as yourself?"

And remember who our neighbor is, by remembering the parable of The Good Samaritan--that is, even he who may have little in common with me is as much my neighbor as my own family.