Indian到底指印度人还是印第安人？怎么才能分清？

我们都知道哥伦布发现美洲新大陆的故事。然而，哥伦布却从未承认发现了新大陆，而是一直认为那里是印度，并称为Indios(西班牙语)。

因此，美洲土著人被称为土著印第安人（Native Indians），尽管他们既不属于印度，也不属于印度次大陆。

怎样说才不会造成歧义？

People are emphasizing not to use the term ‘Indians’ for global indigenous population, however there was another term coined in the early 19th century to refer to the Native indians ,it is Amerindian.The natives were also called as Red Indians ,but these are very pejorative as the color comes into picture ,so not widely accepted.

人们强调对全球土著居民不使用“印第安人”一词，然而在19世纪早期出现了另一个用来指代印第安土著的术语，那就是美洲印第安人（Amerindian）。当地人也被称为红印第安人（Red Indians），但由于颜色出现在画面中，使这种称呼非常有贬义，所以没有被广泛接受。

Using Native American for the Indians (indigenous) and Indian American for people from India is more appropriate as there is no confusion.

用Native American表示印第安人(土著人)，用Indian American表示来自印度的人是一种更合适的说法，因为不会造成混淆

Nevertheless, I suggest you use "Native American" when referring to people from that ethnic group, and "Indian" when referring to people from India (although, sometimes we are forced to say "Indian from India" to clearly distinguish what we mean).

然而，我建议你用Native American来指代来自那个种族的人，用Indian来指代来自印度的人(尽管有时我们不得不说Indian from India以明确区分我们的意思)。

If this sounds confusing, it is. In the multicultural mix that is the United States, it's often difficult to know the exact term to use that won't cause offense to any particular group.

如果这听起来令人困惑，那是的。在美国的多元文化组合中，通常很难知道使用哪个确切的术语不会对任何特定群体造成冒犯。

虽然Indian这个词既可以指“印度人”，也可以指“印第安人”。但是在美洲土著人使用这个词时，多少会有些冒犯。所以在没有具体语境的时候，Indian更倾向于理解为为“印度人”。