LETTER: Let people call themselves whatever they want

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter in response to Heather Fredrickson’s article in Monday’s paper. First, I would like to know why Heather had a need to care what a group of individuals calls themselves. Second, I would like to answer the question she posed to her readers. She asked what we might call people from India if we call the natives on this continent American Indians. We would call those from India, Indians.

Another thing I would like to address is how the “great” country of Canada refers to the natives of this continent. They are called First Nations Peoples. I am an Eskimo. However, if someone came up to me and asked me if I was a First Nations Person, I would have to fight the urge to slap them upside the head. Along with that, I would like to talk about her paragraph about Eskimos. There are a couple different “tribes” of Eskimos. There are Inuit and Aleut Eskimos. However, if you called an Aleut an Eskimo, they’d probably skin you.

I personally don’t care. When people ask what I am, I tell them. I am Inuit, but my father refers to himself as an Inupiat, after the language he speaks. But Eskimo is OK. That’s why I ran for office under the slogan “The People’s Eskimo.” If I had run under “The People’s Inupiat,” people would have wondered what the hell I was talking about. What a group of people calls themselves doesn’t matter. Each individual has his own personal preference. Let them have that.

I would like to ask just one more question of you, Heather. Who are you to tell a group what to call themselves and what words they can and cannot use? And while we are telling people what to do, I think we should start calling Canada, Canadia. It makes more sense because, America, American. Mexico, Mexican. Canada, Canadian. No. Canadia, Canadian. Of course, I am a backward American, compared to the “superior” citizens of Canadia.

Andy Dilley