Within the Native American community, there are other reactions to the phrase, which serve to remind us of the complexities of ethnic and racial identity. To me, there are indeed many more offensive words involving American Indians than this phrase - including the name of the Washington football team - but I believe it is the common use of phrases like 'off the reservation' that allows people to end up being comfortable going further - to the point of using a slur to name a football team that supposedly honors Indians, but not realizing that it is actually a slur." "It's not about political correctness, either, it's about helping the majority realize that there is a minority point-of-view that holds weight that the majority is giving too little credence. "I bristle when I hear the phrase because many of the people who use it nonchalantly have likely never thought about its origin, nor have they probably ever visited a reservation." He asked his readers, "Is this a term that needs to be abolished and ranks right up there with vulgar racial slurs used in the streets?"Īndrew Bentley writes a blog for the National Relief Charities, a non-profit group that works with Native people in the Plains and Southwest. "UPDATE I AM NEVER USING THIS TERM IN ANY CONTEXT AND NO ONE SHOULD!" he added, emphasis his. The metaphor is rooted in traders' lingo, referring to Indian reservations in the days when unscrupulous whites would trade 'firewater' for goods, and off the reservation was a lonely and dangerous place for an aboriginal American to be."Ī diarist for the Daily Kos, who identified himself as a "blood descendent of the Northern Blackfoot Nation," wrote last year about "how I was attacked for using the term 'Off The Reservation.' " The phrase first surfaced in the Atlanta Constitution in 1909. "Remaining nominally within a party, but refusing to support the party's candidate. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as a metaphor meaning "to deviate from what is expected or customary to behave unexpectedly or independently." It is interesting that the OED doesn't seem to be aware of its negative connotation. Many of the news articles that used the term in a literal sense in the past were also expressing undisguised contempt and hatred, or, at best, condescension for Native Americans - "shiftless, untameable.a rampant and intractable enemy to civilization" ( New York Times, Oct. "Apaches off the reservation.killing deer and gathering wild fruits." ( New York Times, Sept. "Secretary Hoke Smith.has requested of the Secretary of War the aid of the United States troops to arrest a band of Navajo Indians living off the reservation near American Valley, New Mexico, who have been killing cattle, etc." ( Washington Post, May 23, 1894) All my Indians are loyal and peaceable, and doing well." ( Baltimore Sun, July 11, 1878) "The acting commissioner of Indian affairs to-day received a telegram from Agent Roorke of the Klamath (Oregon) agency, dated July 6, in which he says: 'No Indians are off the reservation without authority.
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