I would rather they identify themselves by the tribal nation they are a member of. Then -American. They do not live the same way. 'Native American' invokes the image of horses and a guy with a bow and arrow. That's wrong.
If you rememeber, during WW2, the ship-to-ship communications were done in Navaho against the Japanese! They never understood what was being said.
‘’I would rather they identify themselves by the tribal nation they are a member of. Then -American.’’
But think of the hundreds of tribal names, its too confusing. Native does seem to work and it’s historically accurate.
What is truly stupid is Russian-American, German-American, Irish-American, Japanese-American and yes -African-American. They are all labelling titles that are divisive within America and serve no positive interest.
If a person emigrates to France do they call themselves German-French, Jordanian-French, Egyptian-French. Or Australia: Irish-Australian, Portugese-Australian, Swedish-Australian.
I hope other countries don’t hyphenate their citizens in this way.
As a Navajo, I know the history. My family served but were not "code talkers", just soldiers. Many Navajo served - even my Grandmother and her mother worked in the munition plant.
The language is Dinebizaad and I just go by "American"