[Ads-l] Fwd: First Nations

[Chris Waigl]

[Oops.. I sent this to Jim, but meant to post to the list.]

On Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 6:36 PM James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>
wrote:

>
> This is the first time I have ever seen "First Nations" (the politically
> correct term in Canada for what we south of the border sometimes call
> "Native Americans") used in the United States.
>

The parenthetical statement is not, in fact, correct. The indigenous
peoples of Canada subdivide into three groups: First Nations, Metis (or
Métis) and Inuit. An indigenous person who is Metis or Inuit (and not of
mixed parentage) is not First Nations. But they would be considered Native
(a the term that is not used much in Canada, though not necessarily
considered derogatory).

Here is a site from an indigenous-owned company that provides corporate
training with their explanation and view of terminology:
https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/indigenous-peoples-terminology-guidelines-for-usage
. I find that while older Canadian Government / official sites tend to use
the term Aboriginal as an encompassing term, the people I have spoken to or
heard talk about the issue recently have a fairly solid preference for
"indigenous", as does the most recent page of Statistics Canada (
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-659-x/89-659-x2018001-eng.htm).
(Which is great for me as this works both across Canada and Alaska, where I
am.)

(I'm also not clear what you mean by "politically correct", as this term is
rarely used neutrally, and even if it is, tends to be vague when you have
such a rich mixture of cultural, political, legal and interpersonal
aspects.)

Chris Waigl
-- 
Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu

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