Any Latin experts or linguists around?

[Sylvain]

I hate to hijack, but that link is pretty shoddy. They begin the text by claiming that "Eskimo" means "raw-meat eaters" and is a derogatory term for Inuit, while it really means "snowshoe netters" and is an umbrella term for both the Inuit and Yupik peoples.

I always heard that Inuit (plural form; singular is Inuk) simply means men.

[beloitpiper]

I always heard that Inuit (plural form; singular is Inuk) simply means men.

Most native Americans will either be called "The People" in their language, and something not so flattering in another. The Ho-Chunk/Winnebago of Wisconsin are a good example. The word "Winnebago" means "People of the Stinky Water", but Ho-Chunk, what they call themselves, means "The People". Cherokee means "The People", Oneida means "The People", and so forth.

[haukehaien]

Most native Americans will either be called "The People" in their language, and something not so flattering in another. The Ho-Chunk/Winnebago of Wisconsin are a good example. The word "Winnebago" means "People of the Stinky Water", but Ho-Chunk, what they call themselves, means "The People". Cherokee means "The People", Oneida means "The People", and so forth.

Actually, "Cherokee" (or tsaloke, or however you want to transliterate it) is probably Choctaw in origin and means something like, "The people who live in caves". We call ourselves ani-yun-wiya, "The Principal People" or "The Real People". (So yes, our name does mean "the people" in some sense.) One of the oddities of many Indian tribal names is that the names commonly used for them are not the names they called themselves, but the names their neighbors gave them.