I found something unexpected in the January 1912 edition of The Red Man when I turned a page and saw an article titled “How the American Indian Named the White Man” by Alexander F. Chamberlain, Professor of Anthropology at Clark University. I was curious at first because I didn’t understand what was meant by the title. However, the first sentence made things very clear: “‘Paleface’ is not the only name by which the ‘white man’ is known to the ‘red.’” The author’s premise was quite reasonable. It makes perfect sense that Indians would coin names for us that described white people as they saw them. It also reminded me of the punchline in that Tonto and the Lone Ranger joke we told as kids: “What do you mean we, paleface?” But I digress. The author explained that different tribes coined different names and had different names for some of the European nationalities.
Many of the names, as expected, had to do with skin color. Several tribes called us “white,” “white person,” “white skin,” etc. In addition to these the Algonkian Arapahos referred to us as “yellow-hided.” Whether it had to do with skin or hair color or courage is unknown. Kiowas used a term that meant “hairy mouth” and the Zunis referred to the early Spaniards as “moustached people.” “They of the hairy chest” was used by Algonkian Miamis.
Ears also played a role. Kiowas used the same word for white men that they used for donkeys and mules. It meant “ears sticking out” because Indians’ ears were partially covered by their hair. Crows and Upsarokas called white men “yellow eyes.” Our voices were not altogether pleasing to theKiowas as they also called white men “growlers.”
Clothing also played a role in the naming. Mohawks of the Lake of the Two Mountains in Quebec thought the tam o’shanters worn by early Scot settlers looked like cow patties and called them “ota,” their word for cow droppings. Englishmen would agree with the Objibwa who described Scots as “he who speaks differently.”
Tags: Kiowa, Mohawk, Ojibwa, pale faces, redskins, scots, white skins
Tom Benjey's Weblog 
February 11, 2017 at 1:56 pm |
Have you ever heard of the Native Indians calling white people The Square People (because they built and lived in square houses)? I read that a long time back probably in a library book, but can’t find anything about it on the internet.
February 11, 2017 at 2:03 pm |
I haven’t heard that, Brianna, but I could easily imagine they did for the reasons you stated. My favorite is that they called Scots their word for cow patties because the tam o’shanters they wore resembled them.
Tom
February 15, 2017 at 11:38 pm
Thanks anyway. 🙂
June 1, 2017 at 10:59 pm |
My tribes name for “white” people
Translates to “knife wielder ” it refers to an action not a color . Very offensive where I come from .
June 1, 2017 at 11:03 pm |
The term for “white” people in my tribes language translates to “knife wielder”
It refers to an action not a color . Very offensive term where I am from .
August 4, 2017 at 8:12 pm |
WHY didn’t they just call them devils for their actions
November 8, 2017 at 3:34 pm |
Because they were not pathetic, but noble, and respected our advanced warcraft.
March 31, 2018 at 11:18 am
Does “advanced warcraft” include the introduction of whiskey to indigenous populations and the practice of exposing wool blankets to the smallpox virus before being given as gestures of goodwill?
January 6, 2018 at 6:36 pm |
In early “Westerns” the native Anerican would call white men, “White eyes” or “Wide eyes”. Which is it and is it true?
January 6, 2018 at 9:28 pm |
Since talkies didn’t come about until 1927, any dialog in early westerns would have been on subtitles. It would seem that any words on them would have been written by the people who created the film and would not likely have been authentic language in most cases.
February 14, 2018 at 4:39 pm |
Some Planes Tribesmen called Whites “hair faces” and “dog faces,” because of our beards. At least Blackfeet and Crow did, I believe. Also, Crow and Apsaroke are the same people, Apsaroke being their name for themselves—apparently the author didn’t know that.
This is off subject but I can find it nowhere: Does anyone know what meaning the word “child” has in Indian names? As in Bear White Child, Buffalo Child, Red Crow Child, etc. Does it mean something other than an actual child? Sorry for asking here but I really can’t find it anywhere. Thanks.
February 14, 2018 at 11:31 pm |
Here’s a wild guess that is probably incorrect: Could it be a name given to an infant before it’s earned a name?
February 18, 2018 at 11:50 pm |
I don’t know, but I’d guess it implies being the figurative child of whatever the other part of the name is. In Ancient Egypt, that was the case; “Mese”/”Meses”/”Mose”/”Moses” means “Child’ by itself, but when combined with the name of a god, it’s more accurately translated as “[insert god here] conceived him”. For example, “Ramses” means “Ra conceived him” or “Son of Ra”. Same goes for Thutmose/Djehutimese, which means “conceived by Thoth/Djehuti”. In the case of Native American names (don’t call them “Indian”, I’m an actual Indian, from India, and it gets really irritating), I would guess it was something similar, but having to do with spirits or attributes, rather than deities.
February 19, 2018 at 9:08 am
In Washington is the National Museum of the American Indian, so named to differentiate themselves from other indigenous peoples found in what is the present-day United States.
October 15, 2018 at 10:21 pm |
White people came to be referred to as wasichu. Wasichu is a Lakota word, meaning taker of the fat or greedy one.
January 28, 2019 at 1:26 pm |
Northwest coast tribes still say “Umsewah”, “bleached wood” referring, of course to our pallid skin. It is seldom inflected impartially.
April 23, 2019 at 4:34 pm |
Wow! Interesting. The only thing I know is my great great great grandfather was Sioux Indian. I don’t know a dang thing about anything other than he was a chief and obviously he mated with a Irish female; my great, great, great grandma.
April 23, 2019 at 6:04 pm |
What was your great great great grandfather’s name and did he come to Carlisle?
March 12, 2021 at 12:47 am |
I would like to say this ‘Indians’ term being used in the title. Is very offensive and not all indigenous people use this terms against your people. So you should change the title or take it down. You should get educated on ‘Indians’ before using it. It would be very appreciated if you take this in account next time.
March 12, 2021 at 7:31 am |
Do you want the Smithsonian to change the name of the National Museum of the American Indian?
March 29, 2021 at 12:35 pm |
Since the name “Indian” is based on a mistake and confusing perhaps we should (finally) think of a creative way to solve this. Why not come up with a different name for the originals inhabitants of the continent? I understand that they themselves used to call “North America” Turtle Island, so I don’t know, can we call them “Turtles” or “Turtillians” or something like that?
And out of respect we should then give the white Americans of European descent a “Turtle” name, like “Wasichus” or “Masis”. Even “Paleface” would do, I think…. It might sound degrading, but after all “we” have been calling them Indians for centuries.
Personally I think it’s cute that people born in Israel are referred to as “Sabra’s” (a Sabra being the fruit of a cactus, native to Israel) and New Zealanders are called “Kiwis”.
I’ll leave up to someone else to think of a nice name for African Americans.
March 29, 2021 at 12:51 pm |
Did tribes who lived hundreds of miles from the oceans and Gulf of Mexico consider the continent to be an island?
March 30, 2021 at 10:46 am
I found this on wikipedia:
According to Iroquois oral tradition, “the earth was the thought of [a ruler] of a great island which floats in space [and] is a place of eternal peace.”Sky Woman fell down to the earth when it was covered with water, or more specifically, when there was a “great cloud sea”. Various animals tried to swim to the bottom of the ocean to bring back dirt to create land. Muskrat succeeded in gathering dirt, which was placed on the back of a turtle. This dirt began to multiply and also caused the turtle to grow bigger. The turtle continued to grow bigger and bigger and the dirt continued to multiply until it became a huge expanse of land.Thus, when Iroquois cultures refer to the earth, they often call it Turtle Island.
According to Converse and Parker, the Iroquois faith shared with Hinduism and other religions the “belief that the earth is supported by a gigantic turtle” In the Seneca language, the mythical turtle is called Hah-nu-nah, while the name for an everyday turtle is ha-no-wa.