Two major events happened today: an "official" tour of Capitol Hill, and a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian. Each of the interns are expected to give a tour of their workplace to the other interns sometime during the summer, and today was the day for the two Hill interns. Their tour lasted until 2:30 p.m., and then it was only a ten-minute walk to the Smithsonian for a visit before it closed at 5:30 p.m.
Exploring the Hill
We started the day sitting in on a House meeting of the Space Subcommittee when this happened:
Aside from this, we also had the chance to get behind-the-scenes at the Capitol itself, a place I've included some pictures from below.
The first thing I noticed when I saw the museum: this Smithsonian uses the term American Indian, not Native American.
The reason this caught me so much by surprise is because of the sensitivity I've developed to the term from my childhood in Indianola. The town's mascot was the Indianola Indians, and the one football game I attended involved such horrid displays of racism—the caricature "war whoop" and "tomahawk chop" whenever the home team scored points—I spent my life attempting to be as culturally sensitive as I could to this indigenous group of people who Europeans brutally ripped from their homelands. Thus, I traditionally used the term Native American to acknowledge the group's historical claim to this land, and to reject the inaccurate labeling of Indian bestowed upon them by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
However, when I returned from the museum and started investigating online, I found a lot of controversy surrounding the name. A 1995 U.S. Census Bureau report found that 50% of people who identified in this group preferred American Indian, while 37% preferred Native American. Why? Several reasons. One is the fact the term American Indian is the traditional phrase, and they are used to that term at this point. Another is the fact the word "native" could technically apply to any person born on American soil, so most people living in the U.S. today would classify as a "Native" American. Still others argue that the term Native American—which originated in the 1960s as a way to correct for Columbus' mistake—is viewed as white peoples' attempt to assuage their guilt for the horrible historical treatment of this group. Thus, American Indian should be used instead so the past is not forgotten (this argument parallels the same reasons made against people who claim they are "color blind" and don't see race, a statement that only benefits the privileged group by obscuring the underlying cause of the discrimination occurring in society).
Personally, I've spent so many years avoiding the use of Indian in any form I feel guilty using it now. However, based on the 1995 report, American Indian might be the better term to use overall. I do not personally know anyone who identifies as part of this group, so I will take the stance that I will explain this terminology dilemma to others when I engage them in this topic, and if I do meet a person who identifies this way I will ask what they prefer to be called. For the purpose of this blog, I will use American Indian since that is the term used in the name of this museum.