The first people who lived in what we currently know as the United States, named themselves, across the continent and in hundreds of languages. The land was too vast and travel was too slow (let's remember that there weren't horses), and so each group named themselves, but this vastness meant that no one group could know all the others. They were just each their own people with their own name. But then, from across the sew came a new type of people who brought with the both great and terrible things. They had a name for themselves, but they also came with a name for all of these different people: Indians.

We are now in the future of this time, and reading the word "Indian" may have just made you uncomfortable. And that is fine. "Indian" is a word, and words have meaning, both from the intent of the speaker and the reaction of the listener. It is up to us as a collective culture to decide what words mean, what words live on, and what words die.  I want to talk about this word specifically, and why I've chosen to use it in Trailblazer in the places and context that I have.

Long after the first settlers, the British and later American Empires, needed a name with which to collectively refer to these first people, and the word "Indians," despite its confused origins, was that word. As the empires expanded, there was terrible conflict, and the first people found themselves being eradicated and scattered.  Many of the survivors were forcibly moved to reservations, where they were united with other people from other tribes, needing to come together in order to survive. Even though today we tend to think of them as a collective people, the composition of any given reservation is comprised of a multiplicity of groups, not just a single tribe. For comparison, there are just under 200 countries in the world, but in the U.S. alone, there are more than 300 reservations, and over 500 federally recognized tribes, not including the tribes that are either not federally recognized or had been wiped out of history, each with a different name.

However, when it comes to trying to exert power and protect their identity, this multiplicity of people needed to come up with a single name, a single identifier, with which to identity themselves collectively; and in the civil rights movements of the 1960s, this name was chosen to be "American Indians" or simple shortened to "Indians," despite its confused origin. But, we are seeing this term less and less, as in the past 50 years, we've seen the term "Indian" increasingly replaced with "Native American" or a plethora of other temporary labels that have come and gone with time.

In my life, not just as research for this game, but out of a genuine curiosity to expand my own tolerance and understanding, I have visited a number of reservations to talk with the people there, and can count some of them as my friends. Please understand that on reservations, the word "Indian" is used without hesitation, and without negative connotation. It's used as identity. Not universally - but near it.  You, like I was, might be surprised to hear that, given the word's confused origins. But words are what we make them, and Indians have made the word theirs. 

Overall, the name "Native American," while preferred by some, it evokes feelings of great disgust from many. This dislike is difficult to explain, but the best I can describe it is because terms like "Native American" and "Indigenous People"  tend to be too inclusive. For context, the word "Indian" has been used to describe a specific certain set of people in a specific part of the world, with a certain level of similarity in genetic makeup and culture. It is clear, while "Native American" or "Indigenous People" is less so. It can include any people from as far north as the Inuit in northern Canada and Alska, down to the Aztecs and native Peruvians - people of vastly different culture across two continents. For comparison, it would be like trying to lump in all Anglo-Saxon, Roma, Asians and actual Indians, into a single identity (which if you are one of those cultures, may sound completely absurd). And that is how American Indians feel about these terms as well.  Worse yet, it can feel like yet another oppression, forced upon them from the outside again. 

It may just be my anecdotal experience, but in having this discussion a number of different times, there does seem to be a correlation between how close of proximity someone lives to a reservation, and which term they prefer to use. The closer someone lives and more they have visited reservations, they far more likely they are to use the word "Indian" while the further away and less (if ever) a person has visited a reservation, the more common it was to use the word "Native American" or "Indigenous People." So is Indian or Native American wrong or offensive? Is it better just to say "Native American" to avoid being offensive? Sure. There is no harm in being respectful to a culture you're not familiar with.

So what does all of this have to do with Trailblazer? Well, this is the metacommentary on why I chose certain words that I did when writing the game. Which words are chosen to refer to people are usually going to be good indicators of a character's morals, their judgments, and their biases. White Hats will tend to refer to them by tribe, or use the words "Indians" or "Injuns" (depending on the character's level of education) when needing to refer to the group as a whole. Black Hats will tend to use less constructive terms, such as Bloody Bill Anderson referring to them as collectively as the "Red Man." At the end of the day, the in-character references are indicative of character, and not of the views and opinions of the author.

In the physical meta names of the game itself, that's where the feelings and approach of the author can be found. The first people when used as antagonists, or in asset filenames will be referred to as their tribe whenever possible, and as Indians when a collective term is needed. They are also not simply enemies to beat for money and XP. The tribes are varied, and they will react differently depending on the context that makes the most sense. In the Demo, only the Sioux people can be encountered, as they were a major presence in the Wyoming and Dakota territories. That being said, they are adversaries, but only because at the time the game takes place, those territories were part of the Sioux Nation, and the Black Hills region in particular was their holy land. It is only natural that they will be seeking to deal with any trespassers severely - which is also explained through NPC dialog.

I understand that this has been quite a read, but the word Indians seems to make a good number of people uncomfortable, and I'm hoping to shed light onto the creative process for this project, how I've come to where I am in the story, and why I feel this is the best way to show respect.