@Bobby9 I think the word "native" is normally used to mean the original inhabitants of a region. How far back do you want to go ?. They originally came from Africa as we all did.

@Bobby9 You are tying yourself in knots with semantics

[bing.com]

I am bothered because it is now considered a derogatory term for the peoples who were persecuted and had genocide committed against them by the European settlers and should no longer be used.
To be really accurate they should be called by the individual "nations" which existed in North America prior to the European settlers arriving.

@Bobby9 Of course I am aware of the status of tribal lands and the casinos on some of their lands.
I don't know how many NATIVE AMERICANS you have spoken to but I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours in the company of a group at Minneapolis airport last year. They were from different nations and were on their way to a conference in Stanford. Lovely people and very interesting to talk to. They made it quite clear that they did not like to be called Indians

Read this you may learn something.

he Native American name controversy is an ongoing discussion about the changing terminology used by indigenous peoples of the Americas to describe themselves, as well as how they prefer to be referred to by others. Preferred terms vary primarily by region and age. As indigenous people and communities are diverse, there is no consensus on naming, aside from the fact that most people prefer to be referred to by their specific nation.
When discussing broad groups of peoples, naming may be based on shared language, region, or historical relationship, such as "Algonquin-speaking peoples", "Pueblo-dwelling peoples", "Plains Indians" or "LDN peoples" (Lakota, Dakota and Nakota peoples).
Many English exonyms have been used to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, who were resident within their own countries when European colonists arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of these names were based on French, Spanish, or other European language terminology used by earlier explorers and colonists; some resulted from the colonists' attempt to translate endonyms from the native language into their own; and some were pejorative terms arising out of prejudice and fear, during periods of conflict between the cultures involved.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, indigenous peoples in the Americas have been more vocal about the ways they wish to be referred to, pressing for the elimination of terms widely considered to be obsolete, inaccurate, or racist. During the latter half of the 20th century and the rise of the Indian rights movement, the United States government responded by proposing the use of the term "Native American", to recognize the primacy of indigenous peoples' tenure in the nation. The term has met with only partial acceptance. Other naming conventions have been proposed and used, but none are accepted by all indigenous groups. Typically, each name has a particular audience and political or cultural connotation, and regional usage varies.
In Canada, while Status Indian remains a legal designation due to the Indian Act, the term "Indian" is generally considered offensive when used by non-Natives with the term First Nations being preferred for peoples covered by the Indian Act and Indigenous peoples preferred for Native peoples generally or when talking about Inuit and Métis who do not fall under the "First Nations" category.

I've got an idea........Why don't you call them Americans? ANd why stop there? Why are black people called 'Black americans'; then there are 'asian americans'. So obsessed with your ethnic backgrounds but we're all mongrels. I can't even begin to understand why fourth generation Americans say "oh I'm Irish". NO you're not irish.......you're American.

@MsDemeanour Good point but their ancestors were there long before America was America so maybe they should be called by their first nation name . Black Americans tend to be called African Americans these days but we are all Africans if we go back far enough. We have never had the expression black British or black English, it seems to be a particularly American thing.
Yes I find it amusing that a person who's great grandfather emmigrated from Donegal all those years ago still call themselves Irish.

@Moravian I agree it is important to acknowledge the original owners of the land especially if they were treated half as badly as the original owners of my own country, Australia. We might have a bit of a dilemma naming them all by their clan since 200 yrs ago there were more than 500 nations throughout. Still, we do try to acknowledge the local indigenous ppls,as the original owners past and present, when we start formal meetings.

you might want to explain what some of these laws are.I know I am a bit fuzzy on IHCIA and not much better on ICWA. Just remembering how ignorant I was when I moved to the Navajo reservation