1a † n. — Ethnicities, Aboriginal
any descendant of the first peoples of North America.
The term is not limited to Canada and has seen some decline in recent years, partly motivated by the idea that it reflects "Columbus's mistaken idea that he had landed in India in 1492" (COD-2, s.v. "Indian", usage note). Gage-5, s.v. "Indian", considers the term in Canada as "potentially offensive, but is used without offence by many, including Aboriginal people".
See also: Inuit Métis First Nation Aboriginal
1b n. — Law, Ethnicities
a legal designation in the Indian Act (1876) distinguishing Indians from other Aboriginal people; a registered Indian or status Indian.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — This use of the term Indian is specific to Canada as it relates to definitions laid out in these Acts. Semantic change (Type 3) would also apply, yet Type 4 appears to be stronger, as the role of First Nations in the shaping of Canada is of great and increasing importance.
See also COD-2, which marks (only) this meaning as "Cdn."
See also: registered Indian treaty money status
2 † adj. — Food, often in Indian meal or Indian corn
corn flour.
See DARE, s.v. Indian (B.1b), lists attestations from 1743 and uses of Indian as a noun for corn, from 1641 (B.1a). The latter use has not been found in the Canadian material, which consistently uses Indian corn rather than the shortening Indian, as in "three bushels of Indian".
3 adj. — Ethnicities, Aboriginal
pertaining to the First Nations people of Canada.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — First Nations' contribution to the formation of the nation is increasingly realized by cultural historians and writers more generally. For instance, the east-west development of Canada, often presented as a result of the railway, "had only very late in the day to do with government-led economic initiatives coming out of Ottawa. It was set in place by Indian alliances with the French and the French Canadians in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries" (Saul 1997: 161).
There are many compounds with the element Indian, some of which are listed with DCHP-1 data.
- Today, there may be a sense of unease, perhaps a growing sense of unease, about the term Indian among the non-Aboriginal and some Aboriginal populations alike. This unease is usually connected with stereotypical representations and colonial attitudes towards Aboriginal peoples. However, the term is necessarily used in legal contexts, as in "status Indian" (see meaning 1b). The term seems to be avoided by users in favour of Indigenous or First Nation(s) in most contexts today.
4 † n. — Aboriginal, dated, also derogatory
any of the various indigenous languages spoken by Indians.
Indian languages were severely impacted by the policies that forbid their use in residential schools. Note the derogatory undertones of "speaking Indian" in the 2004 quotation and, especially, the 2015 quotation.
See also: Aboriginal language
- Contemporary best practice is to use the name of the Indian language, e.g. Ojibway, Cree or Blackfoot, rather than the over-general and negative Indian. Some prefer to use the names of these languages in the actual language (e.g. Anishnaabemowin for Ojibway) although this practice is not yet widespread. If one refers to more than one such language, the term Aboriginal languages is appropriate.
5 † n. pl. — Games, derogatory, historical
a children' s game in which one group plays Indians and another group their adversaries, often "cowboys". Also known as Cowboys and Indians.
The children's game expresses the stereotypes of the settler and the Aboriginal peoples that affected not only mainstream Canadians but also Aboriginal people (see the 2015 quotation). The game and the way it has been played, with the cowboys being the heroes and the Indians usually the villains, expresses the colonial attitudes and socialization processes of much of Canada's history.
6 n. — especially British Columbia, clothing, informal
a heavy wool sweater with contrasting designs, usually of animals; a Cowichan sweater.
Type: 1. Origin — Sheep and knitting were both introduced to Vancouver Island in the mid-nineteenth century. Indigenous women had long practiced spinning and weaving with mountain goat hair and dog wool. They quickly learned to knit, reportedly from the Sisters of St. Ann who arrived in the Cowichan Valley in 1864. However, patterned knitting likely was introduced by a Shetland woman who began teaching knitting in 1890. The Cowichan knitters adapted these techniques to produce their own characteristic sweaters, which used a thicker wool and Indigenous as well as European designs in contrasting black, cream, and grey.