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As Trekabout reaches the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we are treated to an immaculately silly episode, “Genesis”. Later, in “Journey’s End”, TNG tries to make a sensitive episode about the plight of the Native Americans, which only sort of works.
Jonas
-Thought I’d mention that the term Indian is actually the preferred term of many (used to be most, in fact, but I haven’t seen the latest stats) indigenous North Americans. Certainly at the time when the episode was made, the term was not considered a slur – it’s used widely in native-written books and films, was in the name of the most famous protest organization (AIM, the American Indian Movement), and so on.
I think this is because of its history – there was no previous term to collectively describe all the native cultures, and it’s been in use for centuries now, including by all the organizations that American Indians had to deal with in English – and because it’s simple and to the point, less academic-sounding than "Native American."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NativeAmericannamecontroversy#UnitedStates