Seven people accepted our luncheon invitation on Aug. 23 to talk about the best words to use when referring to Native Americans in our newspaper.

All of them told us that who they are and how they define themselves is closely tied to where they came from.

The meeting was prompted by a headline in our newspaper in May, which referenced the new Rapid City Central High School principal Mike Talley as 'Indian.' That reference offended and concerned some in our community.

Our guests reminded us that our words are powerful things.

We know that, of course, given that words are our business. But sometimes, when we write hundreds of thousands of them every day, we forget just how powerful they can be as they reverberate throughout a community.

Our guests, principal Talley among them, told us that, in Native culture, self-identity is closely tied to the tribe or band you are born into.

"It all comes back to where we're from," one of our guests explained. "And we're not all from one place."

That's why they suggested the Journal replace the broad terms of American Indian or Native American with specific tribal affiliations whenever possible.

We'll strive to do that, using tribal affiliations whenever they are pertinent to a news story and whenever we can obtain the information. We'll also begin using Native American and Native instead of American Indian and Indian when tribal affiliation isn't known but ethnicity is still an important element in the story.

We know there won't be complete agreement on this change, but we hope that it will be viewed as respectful.

The advisory panel's thoughts and comments were enlightening and educational to all the Journal staffers who attended. Our sincere thanks to each of you for your time and effort.

The conversation was over far too quickly, so we've tentatively planned another one to coincide with the Lakota Nation Invitational basketball tournament. Specific details will be announced at a later date.

Please call Lisa Mueller at 394-8464 if you'd like to be included in that panel.