'Red Indians'

Often we read the term - Red Indians. There are many other terms such as Native Americans, Abhorignes,Indian Americans etc which are used in it's place.
The word Red Indian as we can see is made of two words. This is used for the people who are the original natives of America. they used to live here before the Europeon colonisation bagan.
They were called 'Red' because of their colour. It does not mean they were Red in colour, like the people who are called whites are not literally white in colour but fairer than others. Similarly thse natives were a little dark, light brown in colour. so they were called Red.
The word Indian is used because when Christopher Columbus landed on America he thought it to be India, so naturally he called it's inhabitants as indians. Since then the term is attached to them. Because of this many times the term Indian Americans is also used.