Native Americans are called "Indian" for a reason.
Europeans at the time of Christopher Columbus's voyage often referred to all of South and East Asia as "India" or "the Indias/Indies," sometimes dividing the area into "Greater India," "Middle India," and "Lesser India." The oldest surviving terrestrial globe, by Martin Behaim in 1492 (before Columbus' voyage), labels the entire Asian subcontinent region as "India".
Columbus carried a passport in Latin from the Spanish monarchs that dispatched him ab partes Indie ("toward the regions of India") on their behalf.
When he landed in the Antilles, Columbus referred to the resident peoples he encountered there as "Indians" in the mistaken belief that he had reached the Indian Ocean. Although Columbus' mistake was soon recognized, the name stuck; for centuries the native people of the Americas were collectively called "Indians." This misnomer was perpetuated in place naming; the islands of the Caribbean were named, and are still known as, the West Indies.
Native American name controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
