Was it fair to call Native Americans "Indian Givers?" Or was it a matter of communication?

From what I understand and read, the Native Americans or Indians gave the New Settlers or Pilgrims items that would help sustain them. For example: Knives, pottery, warm blankets, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. The Pilgrims were thinking "Oh how nice! They're actually giving us these things." Mean while the Natives were thinking "We're letting you borrow this stuff but we want it back and you don't necessarily have to go home but you can't stay here!"





So when the Natives or Indians showed up at the Pilgrims door steps and requested that said items be returned, that's when I suppose the term "Indian giver" was used? Your thoughts %26amp; comments are welcomed.

Was it fair to call Native Americans "Indian Givers?" Or was it a matter of communication?
Don't know what history book you been reading, but it just didn't happen that way.... We gave and gave and gave to the European invaders and what did we get in return. Our lands taken, our children taken, everything they could take from us they took. They gave us blankets infected with small pox and other diseases, they basically tried to exterminate us.





It is not in any of the various Native American cultures to give then expect anything back.
Reply:so called "native american" were aisian immigrants and were not the first people in this land. they lost the battle for the open land since they had never formed a government or a nation that was known anywher in the world.
Reply:It's real funny to me that you use 'Native Americans' and 'Indians' in the same sentence. Has anyone on this forum ever actually asked an Indian his or her opinion about what they should be called? Why do you assume that by tagging them with 'Native American' that you are showing any respect at all? Indians have been Indians for about 600 years now. The Indians I've talked to prefer it. Did the people who invented 'Native Americans' run it by the Indians? No. If they did they wouldn't have invented it. Call them Indians.
Reply:Perhaps it was a breakdown in communications huh? I always wondered where that phrase came from.
Reply:I do not know when it was used, but I think it is more applicable to the whites that robbed them blind.


What they could not cheat the Native out of, they stole some other way. If you read history books written from a different perspective than that of the white man, you'll see just how horribly we treated them. By we, I do not mean us, rather, some of our ancestors.


In the area I am in, the land for miles around was swindled from the Senecas by two clowns named Phelps and Gorham.


Even though the Natives eventually realized how bad they got it stuck to them, they stood by their oaths and promises.


The natives carried themselves with much more civility and integrity than the whites did. Fair? No, not fair to call them that at all.
Reply:A lot of people make the mistake you've made. But the term "Indian Giver" was originally supposed to compare the individual called that to the White Men, not the Indian. As in, Whites give Indians things but then turn around and want them back the next day. Even back in those day, even when they didn't admit it out loud, most people knew what was being done to the Indians was wrong.





What can I say? Greed trumps ethics in this country.
Reply:I believe that it was a reverse situation. We as newcomers offered friendship, food and hospitality. BUT...we took their land, their culture, their trust and we made empty promises. We learned much from them, but thanked them by moving them and paying no respect to the land they held sacred.





It was as if I came to your house for dinner and then said "Get out, I live here now!"
Reply:where would the indians on the east coast have gotten knives NOT made of obsidian, bone, etc or Pottery for that matter.





I think you might have read, but got it backwards. The understanding of "Indian giver" is giving then TAKING back not ASKING, just TAKING.





The mistake they made on the east coast was NOT having a hard heart and letting that second boat load DIE like the first one.


If we've learned ANYTHING from the white man it is HOW to have a hard heart.





And they wonder WHY we don't trust them. . .

pomegranate