"I was disturbed by the article and the accompanying editorial Oops again, but for a different reason than those of your readers who found the use of the expression offensive.

My wife tells me I am probably the only person in North America who has always taken a different meaning from the term “Indian-giver”.

I have always felt that who it was disparaging were those of us of European stock who would give something to an Indian and then take it back – the treaties we made with their people in most cases weren’t worth the paper they were written on.

We have taken their land, their heritage, their religion, their lifestyle, their children, their health and everything else they held sacred and given them little but hardship and derision in return."

Get the Story:
Tom Douglas: We are the real Indian givers (The Burlington Post 4/15)