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Originally Posted by Acajack
Canada's gone through lots of names as well. Aboriginal was one of them until fairly recently in fact.
It was shelved and the current term is Indigenous.
Native was also used to some degree in Canada but obviously never as "Native American". At least not by anyone even semi-official.
I've always shared the same view of you when it comes to the word "Native". It doesn't really make sense.
Interestingly, Portuguese and Spanish have the term "Amerindio" which combines the notion of the Americas with the historical error that led people to think these people were "Indians" because they thought they'd arrived in India. French also has the similar term "Amérindien" though it's definitely fallen out of favour here. "Amerindian" AFAIK has never really caught on with English speakers.
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The word "Amerindian" was used fairly widely in some academic fields in the past, particularly anthropology and linguistics. Due to this, it does sound somewhat detached and even a bit dehumanizing (cf. "female" or "homosexual"). It never caught on in the mainstream, likely because (as noted above) "American" and related words are way more strongly associated with the US in English.
I believe we've seen the use of the word "Indigenous" really take off over the past few years because: (a) "Aboriginal" was largely used synonymously with "First Nations", thereby excluding the Inuit and Métis, and (b) the word "Indigenous" has become more clearly articulated at the international level, including in the UNDRIP.