[scarmig]

There's actually lots of dispute about this--substantial numbers, perhaps a majority, of... indigenous people prefer American Indian to Native American, since the latter sounds like something a government bureaucrat would dream up. A fairly radical and influential group exists that embraces that name, the American Indian Movement.

[enneff]

Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. As a non-American I didn't know the political climate. "American Indian" sounds fine to me; at least it's not so ambiguous. "Indian," IMO should really be used to describe people from India only.