Friday, January 22, 2021

Why are we under an imposed political correctness mandate to call them "Native Americans" when contacting Congressional Reps they call themselves "American Indians?"

 Or at least Strib reports such a substitute usage:

Minnesota tribes have raised concerns about several high-profile mining and pipeline projects in northern Minnesota, while Stauber has been an outspoken proponent.

"We want to make sure we're protecting our clean water, our forests, our air," Jackson [Faron Jackson Sr., chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe,]said. "We're caretakers of the Earth here, and we want to look at different avenues for producing energy."

In a separate letter to Stauber about his opposition to Haaland, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin pushed back at Stauber's argument that policies championed by Haaland would be bad for jobs in his district.

"Collectively, the five tribal governments in your district are the largest employees [sic] in the 8th District and the vast majority of jobs we have created are held by non-Native people," she wrote.

Tribal leaders noted particular disappointment in Stauber given his membership on the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples. Haaland has also been a member.

"Your opposition to the first and only American Indian ever nominated to a Cabinet position is likely to reverberate across Indian country," wrote the leaders of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, the Grand Portage Band of Superior Chippewa, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

[italics emphasis added] Indigenous Peoples = more political correctness. 

It is an excellent thing the tribes are collectively doing in pressuring Stauber after he, in effect, went behind their backs to gin up other House opposition to the first Indigenous Person nominated to a Cabinet position, one having jurisdiction over the Bureau of Indian Affairs being a particularly fine point of criticism; and again, it could be renamed "Bureau of Native American Affairs," or "Bureau of Indigenous Peoples Affairs." 

And with tribal usage of "American Indian" in a writing to Stauber, VP Harris' maternal heritage must carefully be noted as "East Indian" or "Asian Indian," to avoid misunderstanding. 

Political correctness is getting to be harder and harder with the bar raised high, but confusingly so.