Should you ever use the word ‘Indian’? ‘Reservation Dogs’ star Devery Jacobs sparks a conversation about language and race

Actor Devery Jacobs sparked a conversation — and lesson — about Indigenous Peoples in North America during a panel discussion released earlier this week.

In a segment from The Hollywood Reporter’s comedy actress roundtable, the “Reservation Dogs” star corrected “Abbott Elementary” actor Sheryl Lee Ralph after Ralph referred to Indigenous Peoples as “Indians.”

During a discussion about typecasting — the casting of an actor in the same type of role, time after time — and pressures to look a certain way, Jacobs, a Mohawk woman who was born and raised in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory in Quebec, said she’d felt she had to be “thin or be fit” to be able to star in a Marvel movie.

“Then, when I was cast in one (the upcoming “Echo”) — not a movie, a show — I was like, ‘OK, now I have all this pressure where I have to be fit.’ Then I was like, ‘Hang on, I’ve already been cast exactly as I am,’” adding she could have benefitted from seeing someone who looked like her in media when growing up.

Ralph responded saying it was interesting how Jacobs spoke about herself as a “Native American.”

“Through what we’ve seen in the old Westerns, it’s always like, ‘You’re supposed to look like Pocahontas’ because that’s their only frame of reference for a Native American.”

She went on to say: “In so many ways, the history and the way it’s not being taught — we don’t know that it’s the whole North American continent of Native North Americans. It’s from the whole expanse of the country. When I saw you all at Oklahoma, I was like, ‘Indians, in Oklahoma?!’ DUH, yeah, of course. Indians in Massachusetts! Indian in Vancouver! It’s the whole continent. But we always think Pocahontas.”

Jacobs quickly jumped in to offer a correction.

“I wanna say, respectfully, that for us, we call ourselves ‘Indians.’ But for other people (who are not Indigenous) I would say ‘Indigenous’ or ‘Native American.’”

Ralph nodded, responding that she “respects” the correction because when discussions like this happen, it’s better for people who don’t understand to learn, adding she relates to Jacob’s point because of how labels to describe Black people have changed over the years.

“If you don’t have the conversation with people, they don’t know,” she said.

Jacob added it’s also best to be as specific as possible — if you know the specific group an Indigenous person belongs to, you should refer to them by that. Jacobs used the example that she’s a Mohawk woman.

“There’s literally over 500 different tribes and nations across North American,” Jacobs added.

“Still?” Ralph asked. “Still?!”

“Oh yeah, of course,” said Jacobs, plugging the book “Project 562” by Matika Wilbur, who visited every federally-recognized tribe. “We’re still alive and around.”

And another point Jacobs made about the term ‘Indian’?

“‘Indian’ is more like a joke that we kinda reclaimed for ourselves,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs and Ralph’s exchange begins around 43 minutes into the roundtable, alongside Ayo Edebiri, Elle Fanning, Natasha Lyonne and Jenna Ortega.

Alessia Passafiume is a GTA-based staff reporter for the Star’s Express Desk. Follow her on Twitter: @alespassafiume