I'm a native American, but I'm only something like 1/64th Seminole and 1/64 Choctaw. Born and raised in the USA, though.

But to answer your question (sorry, I'd already hit post when I reconsidered), you can get offended about anything if you can get your head stuck far enough up your ass. It helps to use a liberal amount of grease.

"Hey, Cochese, he's making fun of our unseasonably warm weather!"
"Get 'im!"

Also, from one of my favorite Get Smart episodes: "But India is a neutralist nation."

I used to work for two Choctaw sisters. They had issues with some phrases but that wasn't one of them.

My wife, who's 100% Navajo, finds nothing wrong with the term.

Now, she tends to take issue with the name "Indian", as she thinks "Native American" or "First Peoples" is much more accurate, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.

And on the other hand, most of the Wampanoag people I've met in Massachusetts and the few Abenaki people I've come across here prefer to be called 'Indian'. Actually, they mostly prefer to be called 'Wampanoag' or 'Abenaki,' but when referencing aboriginal N. Americans as a group, they mostly use the term 'Indian'.

I'm only as much Indian as Eideteker, maybe a teeny bit more, so I can't give a personal preference. History educators do deal with the question all the time, though, and have to make choices.

This reminds me a little of the whole 'niggardly' debate about whether we should stop using words because they could be construed as offensive, even if etymologically they originally weren't.

Of course, I'm on the side of the debate that demands we use as many offensive words as often as possible, until they lose all of their impact. On the other hand, linguistic imprecision and coopting of specific words for generic purposes (like idiot, dumb, etc.) really burns my cannoli.

Oh, and as a half African-American, I submit that you say "in tha hizzouse" instead of "in the room." And then, as a half Caucasoid, I demand you say it all the time, whether or not it is apropos, for decades after it is no longer fashionable until even your grandma wants to slap you for using an expression that, to quote her, is "played out, jack."

Hmm...you know what's interesting? I'm reading Kokoro right now, which was written in 1914 in Japan, and the term Indian summer is used in the first chapter. I'd always thought of it as an American term for some reason.

I'm on the side of the debate that demands we use as many offensive words as often as possible, until they lose all of their impact.

I'm sort of with you there, Eide, except that the culture will always invent new offensive words because cultures always need transgression, and forbidden words and ideas. The definition of who gets to be the Other, and why, can change over time, though.

Indian summer? No. Indian giver? Yes.

Hmm...you know what's interesting? I'm reading Kokoro right now, which was written in 1914 in Japan, and the term Indian summer is used in the first chapter. I'd always thought of it as an American term for some reason.

Not to burst your bubble, or anything, but, assuming you're reading an english translation, I'm sure the translator just used "Indian Summer" as a stand-in for whatever the Japanese idiom is for a mid-autumn spate of summery weather. Which is probably not literally the words for "indian" and "summer."

Of course, I could be totally full of shit here.

Right, there's a big difference between those two terms.

Seriously, go read that thread. It's basically three people on the "offensive" side, everyone else on the "wtf are you talking about?" side. One of the three is a half-crazy troll, another said it's offensive and disappeared without elaborating, and the other refuses to concede the point despite an overwhelming lack of evidence backing her up.

Oy, it's like I brought a little of MeTa into my site. I want it out!

I have some amount of Cherokee "blood", and have had plenty of Ojibway and Sioux friends, and Indian summer is a pretty neutral term. I think you mostly run into problems when you use terms that construe a culture/group pejoratively, or the use of names that have emotional attachments without approval or for trivial purposes.
Awhile back some site was running a contest with the name Trail of Tears, it was a pretty trivial contest, having nothing to do with the actual Trail of Tears, and I don't think they meant the name with disrespect, they where just unthinking. a friend tried to get me to join in (it was a photo contest I believe). I demurred and explained that as I most likely had ancestors who was subjugated to the historic event I did not feel comfortable doing so, but I held no ill will if he chose to participate in the contest. Only much later did I learn 3rd party-wise that my friend opted to not participate as well.
I guess this is a long winded way of saying, what people say may affect how I view them, but I rarely feel offended.

Not to burst your bubble, or anything, but, assuming you're reading an english translation, I'm sure the translator just used "Indian Summer" as a stand-in for whatever the Japanese idiom is for a mid-autumn spate of summery weather. Which is probably not literally the words for "indian" and "summer."

You could be right. I'm always offended when translators do that though. I'd rather they use a term that's either used in that language or just a different way of explaining it. I have no problem with looking words up that I don't know. That's half the fun of reading, no? But anyway, when I saw Indian summer on the page, it made me stop for a minute.

Coincidink.

It's been an unreasonably hot day today and I was talking to friends about if the phrase "Indian Summer" applied to the spring or the autumn. I got told about the possible etymology of the phrase and then came back to this post.

Gah, I didn't really have a problem with one of those posters (except that she couldn't seem to read), but the other one was pure troll/troll bait. If that were my site, I'd give him a dunce cap.

I had an Eskimo friend who hated being called an Eskimo.

I'm a "Big Toe" Indian (enough Indian blood to fill my big toe, Blackfoot in my case). I can't see anyway that "Indian Summer" could be construed as derogatory. It's a description of something nice: a bit of summer after fall/winter starts.

I've always seen "Indian giver" as derogatory but not as everyone else seems to see it. In my mind it's derogatory to those who gave things to Indians (treaties, land, etc.) and then took them back, meaning whites are "Indian givers", not the Indians themselves.