[Illbay]

Just to let you know: This is considered VERY crass language. Would you say "dead n*****s" if you were talking about Atlanta?

[Dubh_Ghlase]

Agreed. However, many folks whose only indian education came from the TV and old movies have no knowledge of how really offensive this is. My kids were quite taken aback when I explained it to them. Education erases ignorance...

[justshutupandtakeit]

What's wrong about talking about dead nitwits in Atlanta?

[Lurking2Long]

"Would you say "dead n*****s" if you were talking about Atlanta?"

Hey, if they want to play the race card through fraud, then let them suffer the consequences...they're just shooting themselves in the foot when their actions add to their perceived "stereotype". (Stereotype is as stereotype does).

[Cicero]

I'm not sure if you're right. Sure, squaw is the latest entry on the PC list of forbidden words. But what do real Indians as opposed to political Native Americans think about it? I don't honestly know.

According to a little piece I read by Tony Hillerman, a group of Navajo chiefs and other SW Indian elders got together some years ago to decide if they preferred to be called Indians or Native Americans. They don't think of themselves as Indians, anyway. They think of themselves as "the people," as Navajo, Hopi, Arapaho, or whatever.

The universal consensus at the time is that Indian was the name other people called them collectively and it would be foolish to change it. One chief is said to have remarked: "It's a good thing Columbus thought he discovered India, not Turkey." I've heard both sides on the word squaw. My inclination is not to trust the language police until they've proven their case, or the people being labeled definitively reject the word. I don't think that's happened yet. I'm suspicious that it took so many years for Indians to notice.