By Natasha Kaye Johnson

VERMILLION, S.D. — Not everyone has a strong opinion, but for consistency, newspapers must decide how to refer to America’s first residents.

The Associated Press uses the term American Indians, and the online publication reznetnews.org uses Native Americans. Several years ago, students at the American Indian Journalism Institute voted in favor of using Native American.

Reznetnews.org project director Dennis McAuliffe posed the question to students at AIJI.  Of 20 students, 12 liked the term Native Americans.  One student liked American Indians better; another preferred indigenous.
Students did not debate or discuss which term is most preferred, and it was decided reznetnews would continue using ‘Native American.’

The topic remains a point of discussion among scholars.

“It does matter,” said Patrice Kunesh, associate professor of law at the University of South Dakota and director of the Institute of American Indian Studies program.

Kunesh said the most acceptable reference is American Indians, because the term includes Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians.  The term Native Americans, when dissected by the law and history, does not.

“There was a great debate over 20 years ago about whether Native American included Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians,” said Kunesh, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
Kunesh said it is most important to ask how the person would like to be referred to and even more so, refer specifically to the tribe.

When dealing with law and politics, the terms can become tricky.  Kunesh said she expects the debate to continue.

“It’s a struggle for everyone it seems,” she said.

Jeff Harjo, executive director for the Native American Journalists Association, said the topic resurfaced recently.

Harjo prefers the term American Indians, but was not partial to it for any particular reason.  He said there has not been discussion about changing the organization’s name, and he often sees the terms used interchangeable.

“I’ve seen both (used),” said Harjo, a member of the Seminole tribe from Oklahoma.
While reznetnews will continue to use “ Native Americans,” McAuliffe said it wasn’t a major controversy.
“It’s something we all don’t agree on,” McAuliffe said, “but it’s not a big deal.”