Natives are white people

A man showed up in Skypeland, but refused to tell us where he was from (he definitely sounded like he was from the Punjab, however; it is very hard for them to disguise their voices). This reluctance to reveal one's origin always has been a bad sign in the past.

He had some very vague complaints about the US government, and the US people, and their immigration policies for nonwhites and hispanic people. I tried to describe the change of the US immigration policies, and pointed out that within 10 or 15 years "Hispanics" (usually defined as nonwhites in the US) will be the largest ethnic group in the US. Hispanics might very well be the 2nd largest ethnic group at the moment. I tried to understand his complaints. He was vague. I tried to ask what he meant. He was not specific. I could not understand him at all. He was not able to articulate a complaint. I tried to guess if he was having trouble immigrating to the US, but it might not have been the problem. He could never get to the point, and just spewed a long stream of verbiage.

As I was explaining, I used the word "native". In Canada, the word "native" is used to refer to indigenous peoples (i.e., autochthonous or aboriginal peoples), and therefore I used the word "native" to distinguish between the immigrants to the US (including those whose ancestors immigrated to the US) and the indigenous peoples (such as the Blackfoot and the Sioux and the Inuit, etc). However, this putative Punjabi repeatedly used the word "native" to refer to "white people", as opposed to black people, Hispanic people, Asian people etc. I finally could not take it any longer and I had to set him straight. I thought, this is just a bit of confusion and misunderstanding of English and I should correct it.

An hour or so later, one of the famous malcontents in Skypeland attacked me for using an "incorrect" definition of the word "native". I tried to explain, but he would not listen and just spoke over me (Really shows he wants to learn, doesn't it? Actually, he wanted to crow about how "fucking stupid" I am.). I think he might have meant that anyone born in the US is a Native American, but he was not able to make it clear since he was being so combative. He claimed that he had the correct "legal definition". Finally he was thrown into the listening area and I was able to explain. I must admit, I was not particularly diplomatic in my explanation, given this person's ridiculous and contentious argument. Amazing...

Sure enough, I looked up the use of the word "native" in the American Heritage Dictionary, and it includes my definition:
http://www.answers.com/native&r=67
This was also confirmed by looking at documents from the US Census Bureau and Wikipedia:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/censr-28.pdf
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/aian/index.html
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/racefactcb.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States
It does not appear that this character's aggressively screamed definitions of the term "Native American" have had much influence on the dictionaries, US Census definitions or Wikipedia yet, at any rate... I guess he should keep his tirade up longer if he wants to change all of standard English language usage of this term.

It is amazing what sort of nonsense people want to start a fight about. However, I have seen this sort of thing before...

Addendum:
In US Federal Law 25 USC 3001 we find the definition:

"(9) "Native American" means of, or relating to, a tribe, people, or culture that is indigenous to the United States."

This should pretty much end the whining from certain quarters, but I have investigated a bit further and found even more evidence. According to the Cambridge Dictionary of American English:

A Native American (also American Indian) is someone who has a member of their family who belonged to one of the groups of people that originally lived in North America before the Europeans arrived.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/results.asp?dict=A&searchword=native

I checked a total of 23 general purpose dictionaries, and all had a similar definition. Of course, the word "native" is a polyseme, and has multiple meanings, as most words in English do, so this should be no surprise. I asked a few linguistic experts, they said the reason for this person's outburst was his proscriptivist leanings; he wants to dictate his own semantics to the rest of the world and even impose his own hermeneutical musings by force on others. Sounds a bit like a fascist, to me...

I found something interesting, however. A couple of dictionaries noted that this usage might be viewed as offensive by some. For example, Microsoft's Encarta dictionary gives, among its definitions of the word "native",

4. indigenous: originating, produced, growing, or living naturally in a place
5. characteristic of local inhabitants: characteristic of, belonging to, or relating to the indigenous inhabitants of a particular place, particularly those with a traditional culture ( dated ) ( often considered offensive )
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861632486

Also, the Compact Oxford English Dictionary also includes among its definitions a similar statement:

4 dated, offensive a non-white original inhabitant of a country as regarded by European colonists or travellers.
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/native?view=uk

This is clearly an example of the linguistic process known as pejoration, and the word "native", at least in some parts of the English-speaking world, is on a "dysphemism treadmill". I guess "native" will go the way of "colored" or "Oriental", if this continues and becomes more widespread (although clearly colored is not universally accepted as a deprecatory term).

Interestingly, the law.com legal dictionary at
http://dictionary.law.com/default2.asp?typed=native&type=1&submit1.x=40&submit1.y=15
does not give a definition of the word "native" or the term "Native American". Neither do the legal dictionaries at
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/
or http://www.nolo.com/glossary.cfm or http://www.wwlia.org/diction.htm or http://www.legal-dictionary.org/.

However, one legal dictionary at http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/n035.htm gives a different definition:

NATIVES - All persons born within the jurisdiction of the United States, are considered as natives.Natives will be classed into those born before the declaration of our independence, and those born since.All persons, without regard to the place of their birth, who were born before the Declaration of Independence, who were in the country at the time it was made, and who yielded a deliberate assent to it, either express or implied, as by remaining in the country, are considered as natives. Those persons who were born within the colonies, and before the declaration of independence, removed into another part of the British dominions, and did not return prior to the peace, would not probably be considered natives, but aliens.Persons born within the United States, since the Revolution, may be classed into those who are citizens, and those who are not.Natives who are citizens are the children of citizens, and of aliens who at the time of their birth were residing within the United States.Natives who are not citizens are, first, the children of ambassadors, or other foreign ministers, who, although born here, are subjects or citizens of the government of their respective fathers. Secondly, Indians, in general, are not citizens. Thirdly, negroes, or descendants of the African race, in general, have no power to vote, and are not eligible to office.Native male citizens, who have not lost their political rights, after attaining the age required by law, may vote for all kinds of officers, and be elected to any office for which they are legally qualified.The Constitution of the United States declares that no person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president or vice-president of the United States. --b--

This is clearly a definition that is specific to the United States, and is obviously obsolete by a couple of centuries, having been in place around the time of the founding of the USA, from context. It states that indigenous peoples of the US and negroes are not citizens. It states that a person can be born elsewhere, but as long as they are inside the US in 1776, they are a native of the US. Some born in the US who left and did not return to the US until after the end of the Revolutionary War are not US citizens. Hmm...

Addendum:

The "room tyrant" returned to throw another tantrum like this and incorrectly try to characterize this episode. He would not let me answer and describe what I had found because he ranted and raved and talked over me. He claimed that the foreigner who was confused about the meaning of the word "native" was totally correct, and not using the definition that "native"="white person". He said that the foreigner was claiming that "native"="person born in the USA", which he claimed agreed with the Black's Law Dictionary definition he had found.

I guess he did had misheard this foreigner's claim. The "room tyrant" also claimed that the last definition above is identical to his Black's Law Dictionary definition (which it is not, since by the archaic definition given above, people born outside the US can still be natives of the US).

Finally, I read the material above, after we went through a huge fight with him throwing tantrums and trying to keep anyone else from talking. He claimed everything I said was incorrect, and only common usage, and not legal usage (including the US federal law above and the Census bureau usage !! ??? !!). The room Tyrant then read the definition of "Native American" from Black's Law Dictionary, which had a preamble, saying this definition only applied to the alien and sedition act. One person piped in to tell him that this definition was only specific to the alien and sedition act, but by then he was too angry and upset and did not want to learn anything and he left in a huff. Ah..so reasonable.