Why is someone who gives and takes back called an "Indian Giver"? What have Indians done to be given that reputation?
by 
jae3214
ANSWERS: 3
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Hi, This whole thing is so ironic it's an instant cure for pernicious anemia. "Indian" was once used by the white man as an all-purpose adjective signifying "bogus" or "false," owing to the supposedly low morals of the red man. Thus you had "Indian summer," false summer late in the year; "Indian corn" and "Indian tea," cheap substitutes for products the original colonists had known back in England; and "Indian giver," someone who gives you something and then takes it back. But of course Europeans were the real Indian givers, repeatedly promising the Indians reservations by treaty and then stealing them back once valuable farmland or minerals were found. The term has thus inadvertently become an acid commentary on the character of its inventors. I think it's poetic.
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This goes back to when the white man tricked the Indians (native Americans) to give their land away, and then the Indians decided they couldn't part with it after all. -They wanted it back.
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I have heard another version explained to me by an Indian- although i do not clain that it is therefore true that this is where the word came from. If the Indians saw a homeless person being very cold, they would give them a blanket to keep warm outside. But if the person would leave the area, the Indian would ask for the blanket back because they might need it themselves, or 'give' to another person. It's interesting to see a few different versions of this expression.
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