The origin of the term "Indian"

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

The story taught in history books, for as long as I can remember, is that back in the 1490's Columbus came ashore in the Carribean, and, believing he was in India, incorrectly referred to the inhabitants found there as "Indians."

 

Today I heard a different story which claims that Columbus was writing of his travels and referred to the natives he saw in the Carribean as "gente en Dios" meaning roughly "people of God," and that his description somehow got mistranslated (or perhaps phonetically interpreted) to mean Indians.

 

Can anyone point to an authoritative source on this?

[Albert]

I heard he discovered Ohio and that's how Cleveland named its baseball team and capital of the state got its name. Actually Mitch I have no idea so consider this a free bump.

[StretchMark]

Assuming the original letter was translated properly, Columbus uses the term Indians. No mention of people of God.

 

http://www.ushistory.org/documents/columbus.htm

[Lincoln_Faller]

I once heard a Native American elder at a conference say that of course "Indian" was a misnomer, as Columbus thought he had hailed up on the shores of India. He said, quite straightfacedly, that it could have been worse, Columbus could have been looking for Turkey. Or, even worse, said another of his colleagues, the Virgin Islands. Laughter all around.

[Mister Tee]

I work with a couple guys from India that are REALLY UPSET that they can't buy a piece of land and set up their own casino.

[leikam]

I work with a couple guys from India that are REALLY UPSET that they can't buy a piece of land and set up their own casino.

 

They can. It's called Nevada.

 

Mitch, Sorry, nothing definitive; I'd learned the one about landing and thinking he was in east asia.