American Indians

 I have always been a fan of the Wild West and also the colonial days frontier.

I did consider calling the post the Native Americans or even the Amerindians. This would be another way of distinguishing from Sub-continent Indians other than adding 'American'. It seems to be the current flavour of the month to be seen as politically acceptable. However, I have done exhaustive research on this and in not one John Wayne movie does the grizzled NCO say, ''Men, don't shoot 'til ya see the whites of the Native Americans eyes!'' 'Injuns' sounds a little uncouth so I have settled for the geographically challenged term, 'Indians'. There is another interesting variation; as a child my playmates and I often referred to our, at times, very vocal friends as Itchy Bums. Further research has shed no further light on this term, either in the histories or in the film industry so I have elected to not use it. (For ethnic balance my little mates also referred to cowboys as cowbums but I think the reason was more for humorous shock value than to provide balance and therefore avoid any connotations of racial vilification).

Timpo Indian versus Schliech bison

                                         Woodland Indians with assorted Marx, Herald HK copies and others

                                         Hong Kong copies of Britains Swoppets.