Who decided in the past to name the Native Americans “Red Indians”?
While it was certainly Columbus who thought he had reached the Indies and called the natives Indians, it was later British settlers who were responsible for the “Red” element. On the east coast of Canada explorers discovered the small tribe known as “Beothuk”. These people used locally-available red mineral pigment to colour their skin, their hair, their clothes, their tools and weapons, their lodges and just about everything in their culture. No wonder the British called them “Red Indians” and the term became applied to all native peoples in both Canada and the USA (nobody before the 20th century called them Native Americans or First Nations – they were Redskins, Injuns or Red Indians).
