My family still uses American Indian. For those who object to the name “Indian” don’t sweat it. India is changing their name and so once more we will be the ones left standing.
I was doing a job on an Indian reservation and my client was there. We met a local guy that was in charge of the site. I asked the local guy if he was with the Indian tribe (stupid question I guess - of course he was).
But my client said to me in front of the guy “It’s “Native American” tribe. I looked at the local guy and said (knowing the answer) “what do you call yourself?”
“Indian”.
He later told me that the various names for all of the tribes was a white man invention. The Indian’s “tribe” was “human”. Just like the bears were a tribe, the eagles another tribe, etc.
I asked him “Well - what about the other Indians that weren’t part of your group?”
“Well of course they were in another group - you don’t steal and kill and take slaves from your own group. But they weren’t a different tribe.”
I don’t exactly recall now it has been so long ago, but I’m thinking that he said they didn’t have a formal name for the other “tribes” - just knew that they were different.