Experts disagree as to why Native Americans came to be known as red men. One theory holds that the term was first used by early European explorers in describing the mysterious Beothuk people of Newfoundland, who were reported to paint their bodies liberally with red ocher. According to this view, the now-extinct Red Men gave their nickname to the rest of the peoples native to North America. While there is no doubt that the Beothuks did paint their bodies red, it is more likely that the adjective red was applied to Native Americans as a whole in the same manner in which other color labels were given to non-European peoples, in recognition of the perceived difference between the color of their skin and the paler skin of most Europeans.
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As a racial label, red has never gained the wide acceptance of black and white. While red has often been used with positive connotations, particularly in the expressions red man and Red Indian, these are generally dismissed today as the romantic stereotypes of a former era when Indians were viewed as the model of the “noble savage.” The term redskin evokes an even more objectionable stereotype—the crafty foe of pioneers and the western cavalry now further reduced to caricature status as the mascot of American sports teams. It is true that red has frequently been appropriated by contemporary Native Americans as an ironic or defiant term of pride, as in the Red Power movement or the title of Lakota author Vine Deloria, Jr.’s book God is Red. However, reference to American Indians by their purported skin color is almost certain to cause offense when coming from outsiders.
