INDIO is an abbreviation for In Dios – with God … Creator… He’s the CEO of my life. Trail…  that’s where we ‘walk’ on our  life journey.  So INDIO Trail is – Walking with Creator. The Bear is symbolic of evening… the time of life I’m in now. The lightning bolt represents change… changes that come into our minds.. our life. How we approach change can either destroy us – or – we can choose to learn from the lessons of change. If our choice is to learn, we achieve enlightenment-represented by the sun on the bear.

Society has went back and forth regarding ‘what to call’ the people indigenous to this land before it was renamed America. In Dios, American Indian, Native American, or as some   prefer… Tribal affiliation – Creek, Oneida, Chippewa, Sioux. And in the cyber world… we often just say NDN (pronounced ‘n-den’). I spent a lot of years trying to tell folks the Indigenous people found here when this land was ‘discovered’ were not called INDIANS because Columbus got lost on his way to a country called India. There was no such country in 1492. Not many embraced my truth because it conflicted with the version of history taught to them – and change isn’t easy.

Then help from an unexpected source – George Carlin. Yeah…the comedian. He explained the origins of the name ‘Indian’ and people ‘got it’. I’ve posted his exact words below so that he can share that message with you: This will probably be different from the history you were originally taught about Columbus and Indians. Thanks for reading with an open mind – Carlin can sometimes get in your face, but then… so does truth.  There is no intent to insult – See that ‘coming together time’ in the INDIO Trail logo – red, yellow, black and white – that is my sincere hope – that we can come together with honest communication. We all have historical inaccuracies in our personal history and in the histories of our ‘people’. Justice and honor are not on the ‘skin’ of man – but in the heart of mankind.                    And now… I give you George Carlin !!!!

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George Carlin’s ‘Braindroppings’
“…Now the indians. I call them Indians because that’s what they are. They’re Indians.  There’s nothing wrong with the word Indian. “First of all, it’s important to know that the word Indian does not derive from Columbus mistakenly believing he had reached
‘India. ‘India was not even called by that name in 1492; it was known as Hindustan.

“More likely, the word Indian comes from Columbus’s description of the people he found here. He was an Italian, and did not speak or write very good Spanish, so in his written accounts he called the Indians, “Una gente in Dios.” A people in God.

In God. In Dios.  – Indians –  It’s a perfectly noble and respectable word.

“As far as calling them ‘Americans’ is concerned, do I even have to point out what an insult this is? —– We steal their hemisphere, kill  twenty or so million of them, destroy five hundred separate cultures, herd the survivors onto the worst land we can find, and now we want to name them after ourselves? It’s appalling. Haven’t we done enough damage? Do we have to further degrade them by tagging them with the repulsive name of their conquerors?….”You know, you’d think it would be a fairly simple thing to come over to this continent, commit genocide, eliminate the forests, dam up the rivers, build our malls and massage parlors, sell our blenders and whoopee cushions, poison ourselves with chemicals, and let it go at that. But no. We have to compound the insult.

“… I’m glad the Indians have gambling casinos now. It makes me happy that dimwitted white people are losing their rent money to the Indians. Maybe the Indians will get lucky and win their country back. Probably they wouldn’t want it. Look at what we did to it.”

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