The history of indigenous peoples, as we understand it, begins with the history of European exploration, settlement, and colonization. The events that brought the white man to the shores, or territorial boundaries, of these new lands transformed the inhabitants into natives, into tribes with new proper names, into noble and ignoble savages, and eventually into indigenous Others. 1 Prior to these events the populations that inhabited these lands did not see themselves as Indios, Natives, Aborigines, Indigenous, and not even as Lapps, Olmec, Pueblo Indians, or Coeur d'Alene Indians. Their realities were not touched by such categorizations and limitations. These social constructions, write Augie Fleras and Jean Leonard Elliott, "appears to be a White man's creation of convenience for talking about Indians, negotiating with them, administering them … Thus tribes are largely the result of the colonization process and relations with politically organized states [For instance] from 1797 through 1803 the treaties use only 'nation' without reference to 'tribes'. Thereafter, until at least the 1830s, 'tribe' and 'nation' are used interchangeably, often in the same treaty." 2 Such concepts 1 Carina Green adds, "Furthermore, the idea of the Indigenous taps in to a long standing pattern of thought that has been, and still is, very common in Western society and that in many ways is parallel to the idea of the Noble Savage. Simply put, there seem to be a need for the exotic Other in the Western mind, and today this thought feeds above all from the idea of the Indigenous." (Carina Green, Indigeniety-Idea and Political Reality (In Sköld, Peter (Ed.). Människor i norr: samisk forskning på nya vägar. Centrum för samisk forskning-Miscellaneous publications,