the People

“Tribal identity was another strong point of the traditional Indians.  They did not, in many instances, even bother to use the word Indian unless they used it in a derisive manner; it was too broad and generalized a definition.  Uninformative about social and kinship responsibilities, it seemed only an ethnic label that the whites had pinned on their tribe.  Anyone could act like an Indian; it took a certain amount of self-discipline and knowledge of the customs to act like a Lakota, a Navajo, a Nez Perce or a Crow.”  (235)

from The Nations Within:  The Past and Future of American IndianSovereignty by Vine Deloria Jr., and Clifford Lytle (1984)