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Why Do Legal Terms Like American Indian Still Persist in Modern Law? - The Meaning Behind the Labels for Native Nations | Sleepy Facts About History · Sleepy Facts About History

0:04
Welcome to Sleepy Facts About History. There
0:12
is no single word that perfectly names the first
0:16
peoples of the United States, Canada, Greenland,
0:20
and the northern borderlands of Mexico. This
0:24
is not because language has failed, but because
0:26
these populations are not a single people. They
0:30
are hundreds of distinct nations, each with its
0:33
own history, political systems, and names for
0:36
itself. This episode examines the major labels
0:39
we encounter and use, government forms and everyday
0:43
conversation, exploring where terms like indigenous,
0:46
Native American, American Indian, First Nations
0:50
and Alaska Native come from. It looks at why
0:55
these terms are not interchangeable, how they
0:58
function in different legal contexts and why
1:01
older colonial terms sometimes persist in modern
1:05
law. because changing them could alter established
1:08
treaty rights and federal recognition. I wanted
1:12
to understand why a term that began as a colonial
1:15
misnaming, such as Indian, remains carved into
1:18
the names of institutions and embedded in statutes
1:21
today. The answer reveals that legal categories
1:25
are not easily separated from the rights and
1:27
political structures built upon them. At the
1:31
same time, The episode explores the profound
1:34
importance of the names these nations use in
1:37
their own languages, like Dine and Haudenosaunee.
1:40
Hearing these names is a reminder that naming
1:43
is not just a matter of etiquette. It is an ongoing
1:47
act of sovereignty, an assertion of political
1:50
authority, and a claim to a specific identity
1:54
that existed long before European contact and
1:57
continues today. There is no single word for
2:03
the first peoples of North America. This is not
2:06
because languages failed. It is because they
2:10
are not one people. They are hundreds of nations
2:13
who named themselves long before Europeans arrived.
2:17
They continue to name themselves today, across
2:20
a landscape where every label carries the weight
2:23
of sovereignty, law, and survival. There is no
2:28
single word that perfectly names the first peoples
2:32
of the United States, Canada, Greenland and the
2:35
northern borderlands of Mexico. This is not because
2:39
language has failed. It is because the peoples
2:42
themselves are not one. They are hundreds of
2:46
distinct nations, with their own languages, their
2:49
own political systems and their own names for
2:52
themselves. These names existed long before Europeans
2:56
arrived. communities continue to use them today.
3:01
Imagine for a moment a map of North America,
3:04
not the familiar shape of modern states and provinces,
3:08
but a surface covered with hundreds of distinct
3:11
names. Each name marks a people with its own
3:15
language and governance. Now imagine sitting
3:18
with a government form, pen paused, looking at
3:22
a checkbox that says American Indian or Alaska
3:26
Native. Your own identity is Dine, or Yupik,
3:31
or Kanienkehaka. The gap between that checkbox
3:35
and who you are is the problem this episode explores.
3:39
The labels we encounter in newspapers, on census
3:43
forms, in treaties, and in everyday conversation
3:46
are attempts to describe this vast diversity.
3:50
Some are broad and international. Some are legal
3:54
categories embedded in constitutions and statutes.
3:58
Some are colonial misnammings that have taken
4:01
on political weight through centuries of use.
4:04
And some are the names that peoples have always
4:07
called themselves in their own languages, carrying
4:09
meanings that no translation can fully capture.
4:13
To understand why no single term works, we need
4:17
to look at what the major labels actually mean,
4:20
where they come from, and why they persist in
4:23
different contexts. We also need to understand
4:26
something more fundamental. Naming is not a matter
4:30
of etiquette or political fashion. It is an act
4:34
of sovereignty. Let us begin with the broadest
4:37
term in international use today, indigenous.
4:41
This word gained prominence through the United
4:44
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
4:46
Peoples, adopted in 2007 after decades of advocacy.
4:51
It described peoples with ancestral ties to a
4:54
territory prior to later settlement or conquest.
4:58
These peoples maintain distinct social, cultural,
5:02
and political institutions. The strength of indigenous
5:06
is its breadth. It allows peoples across the
5:09
world to recognize shared experiences of colonization,
5:12
displacement, and resistance. This includes the
5:16
Sami of Northern Europe, the Maori of New Zealand,
5:20
and the Maya of Guatemala. It creates a framework
5:25
for international law and solidarity. But breadth
5:29
is also limitation. Indigenous tells us that
5:33
a people was here before others came. It does
5:37
not tell us who they are, what language they
5:39
speak, how they govern themselves or what they
5:42
call themselves. It is a category of relationships
5:46
to colonial power. It is not a name that carries
5:50
the specific weight of identity, history and
5:53
place. For this reason, some communities and
5:57
scholars find indigenous useful in international
6:00
contexts, but insufficient, even flattening,
6:03
when applied to specific situations. It groups
6:06
together peoples whose histories, legal statuses,
6:09
and contemporary realities differ profoundly.
6:13
In the United States, the two most common broad
6:16
labels are Native American and American Indian.
6:22
These are not interchangeable. and neither is
6:25
universally preferred native american became
6:28
more common in the later 20th century this happened
6:32
partly through advocacy and partly through shifts
6:35
in federal and academic usage it appears in census
6:39
categories in museum titles and in educational
6:43
materials yes many individuals and communities
6:47
continue to use american indian or simply indian
6:51
in everyday speech in political organizing and
6:54
in institutional names. Walk past the National
6:58
Museum of the American Indian in Washington,
7:01
D .C., and you see that older term carved in
7:05
stone, deliberately retained. Say the name of
7:09
the American Indian movement, founded in 1968,
7:13
and you hear the weight of a political choice
7:15
that was never reversed. The persistence of Indian
7:19
troubles many people today. The word originated
7:23
in Columbus' mistaken belief that he had reached
7:26
India. It became the administrative label through
7:30
which European empires and later the United States
7:33
classified, counted, and governed diverse peoples.
7:38
Its origins are colonial error. Yet for generations,
7:42
communities have organized under this name, claimed
7:46
rights through this name, and built political
7:49
identity around this name. To dismiss American
7:53
Indian as merely wrong is to miss how peoples
7:56
have claimed and transformed the terms imposed
7:58
upon them. At the same time, preferences vary
8:02
enormously by individual, generation, region,
8:05
and context. Some people find Indian outdated
8:09
or painful. Others find Native American bureaucratic
8:14
or distant. There is no consensus, and that lack
8:19
of consensus is itself significant. The situation
8:22
in Canada differs in important ways. There, First
8:27
Nations emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as a replacement
8:31
for Indian in many public and political contexts.
8:35
It refers specifically to indigenous peoples
8:39
who are neither Inuit nor Métis. The term carries
8:43
political weight. It asserts the status of original
8:47
nations with inherent rights entitled to land.
8:51
Yet, First Nations does not include all indigenous
8:54
peoples in Canada. It explicitly excludes Inuit
8:58
and Metis who have distinct legal and political
9:01
statuses. Moreover, the older term Indian remains
9:05
embedded in Canadian law. This is most notable
9:09
in the Indian Act of 1876, which still governs
9:13
status, band membership, and certain administrative
9:16
matters. Changing this legal terminology would
9:20
require legislative action with complex consequences
9:23
for rights and recognition. This brings us to
9:26
the peoples of the Arctic and Subarctic. Inuit
9:30
refers to the distinct Arctic peoples of Canada,
9:34
Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in Russia. In
9:39
Canada and Greenland, Inuit is the strongly preferred
9:43
term. The older word Eskimo is widely rejected.
9:48
The national organization Inuit Tapirit Kanatami
9:52
represents Inuit in Canada and has been clear
9:55
in its preference. In Alaska, however, Eskimo
9:59
persists in some legal and administrative contexts.
10:03
Some Alaska Native peoples, including Yupik and
10:07
Inupiat, may use it or not object to it, though
10:12
preferences are shifting. The complexity here
10:15
is instructive. Even within closely related peoples
10:19
across a continuous Arctic region, terminology
10:22
differs by national context, legal history, and
10:26
community preference. The Métis present another
10:30
distinct case. They are a people of mixed indigenous
10:34
and European ancestry, primarily in Canada with
10:38
their own history, culture, language, and political
10:42
organizations. Their language is Michith. The
10:46
Métis National Council defines Métis as a distinct
10:49
people with historic roots in the Métis Nation.
10:52
It is not a general category for anyone of mixed
10:55
ancestry. In Canadian law, Métis are recognized
11:00
as one of the three Aboriginal peoples, alongside
11:03
Indians and Inuit. They are not first nations.
11:08
Their identity is not defined by a single ancestral
11:11
indigenous nation. It is defined by a specific
11:15
historical process of community formation in
11:18
the prairies and beyond. Alaska Native is a specifically
11:23
American legal category. It is used by the U
11:26
.S. Census Bureau and federal agencies to encompass
11:30
the indigenous peoples of Alaska. This includes
11:33
Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, Athabascans, Tlingit, Haida,
11:40
and others. These are peoples with vastly different
11:43
languages. cultures and histories who are grouped
11:46
together for administrative purposes. The Alaska
11:50
Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 created
11:53
a unique framework of regional and village corporations.
11:58
This framework shapes how these peoples interact
12:01
with the federal government. The category Alaska
12:04
Native thus carries specific legal and economic
12:08
weight that Native American alone does not capture.
12:12
What should become clear is that each of these
12:15
terms arose in specific historical and legal
12:18
contexts. Indigenous, Native American, American
12:23
Indian, First Nations, Inuit Alaska Native, Métis.
12:28
They are not different ways of saying the same
12:31
thing. They describe different groups, different
12:34
relationships to states, different legal statuses,
12:37
and different political claims. To use them interchangeably
12:41
is to lose precision that matters for understanding
12:44
who has what rights, what histories, and what
12:47
forms of self -governance. Now we come to a crucial
12:52
question. If many people find terms like American
12:56
Indian outdated, or if First Nations does not
13:00
include all indigenous peoples in Canada, why
13:03
do these terms persist in law and official usage?
13:07
Why does the Constitution Act 1982 still define
13:11
the Aboriginal peoples of Canada as the Indian,
13:15
Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada? Why does the
13:19
United States still have an Indian Self -Determination
13:22
and Education Assistance Act, a Bureau of Indian
13:26
Affairs and countless statutes using the word
13:29
Indian? The answer is that legal terms create
13:34
rights, obligations and administrative categories
13:36
that cannot be changed by simple preference.
13:40
Treaties were signed, constitutions were written,
13:44
statutes were enacted and court decisions were
13:47
rendered using specific language. Picture a treaty
13:51
document from the 19th century. The word Indian
13:54
is written in legal language, stored in an archive
13:58
or reproduced in a court filing. Beside it, or
14:02
perhaps decades later, sits a community constitution
14:05
written in the people's own name, used in the
14:09
same legal system. Both documents have force.
14:14
Neither can be casually rewritten. The word Indian
14:19
in U .S. federal law is not merely a label. It
14:23
is a term of art that determines who is eligible
14:26
for what services, what land claims are recognized.
14:30
and what government -to -government relationships
14:32
exist. Changing this terminology across the entire
14:36
body of federal Indian law would be a massive
14:39
legislative and legal undertaking. The consequences
14:43
for existing rights and protections would be
14:46
uncertain. This is not to say that legal terminology
14:50
never changes. It does, but slowly and unevenly.
14:55
The Canadian Indian Act has been amended many
14:58
times, though never fully replaced. Some US federal
15:02
agencies have shifted to Native American in certain
15:05
contexts while retaining Indian in others. Some
15:10
tribal governments themselves use Indian in their
15:12
constitutions and legal documents. The persistence
15:17
of older terms is not simply bureaucratic inertia.
15:20
It reflects the reality that legal categories
15:23
are embedded in complex systems of governance
15:26
and entitlement. What this means in practice
15:30
is that individuals and communities may use different
15:33
terms in different contexts without contradiction.
15:36
A person may identify as Diné in community settings,
15:40
as Navajo in broader Native American political
15:43
contexts, and as American Indian on federal forms.
15:47
A Cree person in Canada may be Cree by nation,
15:51
First Nations in public discourse, and Indian
15:54
under the Indian Act for certain legal purposes.
15:58
These are not inconsistencies or failures of
16:01
identity. They are reflections of how people
16:04
navigate multiple systems of naming, each with
16:07
its own history and weight. This brings us to
16:11
the names that peoples call themselves, in their
16:13
own languages, and why these names matter so
16:17
profoundly. Hear them as spoken language, as
16:28
living sounds. not as vocabulary items on a page.
16:32
These are the sounds of self -naming. They are
16:36
the experience of hearing a people's own word
16:38
for themselves rather than an English or French
16:41
exonym. The Dine, whom many outsiders call Navajo,
16:46
call themselves the people or the humans in their
16:50
own language. The name carries a cosmological
16:53
and political weight. It asserts a specific way
16:57
of being in the world. a specific relationship
16:59
to the land, and a specific form of governance.
17:03
The Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized
17:06
tribe in the United States. But Navajo is an
17:10
exonym, derived from a Tua Pueblo word that may
17:13
have meant fields in the Arroyo, or been used
17:16
to describe strangers. The community's own name,
17:20
Diné, is not a translation of Navajo. It is a
17:24
different name with different meaning. Similarly,
17:28
the Anishinaabe are a group of related peoples
17:31
including the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi. Their
17:36
traditional territories span the present -day
17:39
border between the United States and Canada.
17:42
Anishinaabe means original person or good person
17:46
in their languages. It is not a political unit
17:50
but a cultural and linguistic identity that encompasses
17:54
multiple distinct nations with their own governance.
17:58
The Haudenosaunee, often called the Iroquois
18:01
Confederacy by outsiders, are a political union
18:05
of six nations, the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga,
18:10
Unida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. Their self -name
18:15
means People of the Longhouse. It refers to their
18:19
traditional dwelling and their political structure.
18:23
The Kanien 'keha 'ke, whom outsiders call Mohawk,
18:28
are one of those six nations their name means
18:31
people of the flint these names are not merely
18:35
alternative labels they carry political meaning
18:39
because they assert sovereignty to use dyne rather
18:43
than navajo or kanienkaha car rather than mohawk
18:48
is to recognize that these peoples have their
18:50
own names their own languages and their own authority
18:54
to define themselves It is not a matter of political
18:58
correctness, of using the latest fashionable
19:01
term. It is a matter of acknowledging that these
19:05
nations existed before European contact, that
19:08
they were named by outsiders, and that they continue
19:11
to name themselves. This is why the question
19:15
of naming is inseparable from the question of
19:18
sovereignty. Sovereignty is the authority of
19:21
a people to govern itself, to make decisions
19:24
about its own members. its own territory and
19:28
its own future. Naming is one expression of that
19:32
authority. When the United States government
19:35
assigns a name, creates a legal category or recognizes
19:39
a tribe, it is exercising power to define. When
19:44
a community asserts its own name in its own language,
19:47
it is asserting a countervailing authority. We
19:51
need to be careful here with the word tribe.
19:54
It is not a neutral or universal descriptor,
19:57
though it is deeply embedded in US law and common
20:00
usage. Many peoples prefer nation, people, confederacy,
20:06
or band. The Haudenosaunee are a confederacy.
20:11
The Metis are a people. Some communities use
20:16
tribe in their own constitutions. Others reject
20:20
it as diminutive, suggesting something smaller.
20:23
or less developed than a nation. There is no
20:27
universal rule, but there is a universal principle.
20:31
We should follow community preference and not
20:33
assume that one English word describes every
20:36
political society. We also need to distinguish
20:40
carefully between ethnic identity, citizenship,
20:44
language and legal status. These are not the
20:48
same thing, though they often overlap. A person
20:52
may be Diné by ethnic identity, a citizen of
20:56
the Navajo Nation by political membership, a
21:00
speaker of the Navajo language by cultural practice,
21:03
and legally American Indian under U .S. federal
21:06
law. Another person may be of Diné ancestry,
21:11
but not enrolled in the Navajo Nation, and thus
21:14
not a citizen for political purposes. A person
21:18
may be Kanienkeha. car by identity and citizenship,
21:23
but not speak the language fluently due to the
21:26
disruptions of residential schooling. These distinctions
21:30
matter because they show that indigenous identity
21:32
is not a single thing. It is a constellation
21:35
of relationships, each with its own history and
21:39
political weight. The legal status question is
21:42
particularly complex. In the United States, Federal
21:47
recognition determines whether a native nation
21:50
has a government -to -government relationship
21:52
with the United States with associated rights
21:55
and obligations. Not all communities that identify
21:59
as Native American have federal recognition.
22:02
Some have state recognition only. Some are unrecognized
22:06
entirely despite continuous existence and community
22:10
identity. In Canada, status under the Indian
22:14
Act creates a specific legal category. with specific
22:18
rights and limitations. This is distinct from
22:21
the broader identity of being Cree or Anishinaabe.
22:25
These legal categories are products of colonial
22:28
administration, but they have real effects on
22:32
people's lives, and they cannot be simply wished
22:34
away. If naming is an act of sovereignty, then
22:38
several consequences follow for how we approach
22:41
terminology. The first is that context matters.
22:46
In international or broad discussions, indigenous
22:49
is generally appropriate and widely understood.
22:52
In the United States, Native American and American
22:57
Indian are both in use. If you do not know a
23:01
specific person's preference, either is generally
23:04
acceptable, though some individuals may have
23:07
strong preferences. In Canada, First Nations
23:11
refers to specific peoples and should not be
23:14
used to include Inuit or Métis. Inuit is preferred
23:18
in Canada and Greenland. In Alaska, context matters
23:23
more. Métis refers to a specific people with
23:27
their own history and should not be used as a
23:30
general term for mixed ancestry. The second consequence
23:34
is that specificity matters. When possible, use
23:39
the specific name of the people or nation you
23:41
are discussing. Not Native American tribes generally,
23:46
but the Diné Nation. The Cherokee Nation. The
23:50
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
23:54
Not Canadian Indians, but the Cree, the Haida.
23:58
This specificity is not pedantic. It is accurate,
24:03
and it respects the reality of distinct peoples
24:06
with distinct histories. The third consequence
24:09
is that community preference governs. If a community
24:13
uses a specific name, use it. If an individual
24:17
prefers Indian to Native American, respect that
24:21
choice. If another prefers their nation's name
24:25
in their own language, learn to use it as best
24:28
you can. The question is not what term you find
24:32
most comfortable. It is what term the community
24:35
or individual finds most accurate and respectful.
24:40
The fourth consequence is that naming is not
24:42
static. Preferences change. Political contexts
24:47
shift. Terms that were acceptable a generation
24:51
ago may be less so now. Terms that are contested
24:56
today may become standard in the future. This
24:59
is not instability or confusion. It is the normal
25:03
process by which living peoples define themselves
25:06
in changing circumstances. It would be easy to
25:11
tell this as a simple story of colonial misnaming,
25:14
giving way to enlightened self -naming. The reality
25:18
is more complex and more interesting. Colonial
25:23
names have been claimed, transformed and invested
25:26
with new meaning by the peoples who bore them.
25:29
Legal categories created for administrative control
25:32
have become vehicles for political organization
25:35
and rights claims. The Indian Act in Canada,
25:39
for all its oppressive history, is also the basis
25:43
on which many communities maintain land, membership,
25:46
and certain forms of self -governance. The Bureau
25:50
of Indian Affairs, for all its paternalism, is
25:53
also a channel through which nations interact
25:55
with the federal government. These institutions
25:58
and terms are not simply bad things to be overcome.
26:02
They're historical realities that peoples have
26:05
navigated, resisted, and sometimes used for their
26:09
own purposes. At the same time, The assertion
26:13
of self -names in original languages represents
26:16
something powerful. It represents the continuity
26:19
of distinct peoples, the survival of languages
26:22
that colonial systems sought to eradicate, and
26:25
the ongoing claim to sovereignty. When the Haudenosaunee
26:29
issue passports using their own name and governance
26:32
structure, they are asserting a political existence
26:35
that predates and exists alongside the United
26:38
States and Canada. When the Dine publish government
26:42
documents in the Navajo language, they are maintaining
26:45
a linguistic and cultural world that is not defined
26:49
by English or Spanish or French. This is why
26:53
the most accurate story does not begin with broad
26:56
labels. It begins with distinct peoples who continue
27:00
to name themselves. The broad labels, Indigenous,
27:05
Native American, First Nations, are useful for
27:08
certain purposes. They allow us to speak about
27:12
shared histories of colonization, about international
27:15
solidarity, about demographic categories. But
27:19
they are tools, not truths. They describe a relationship
27:24
to power, not the fullness of who peoples are.
27:28
If you look again at that map of North America,
27:31
you see modern state borders, the United States,
27:35
Canada, Mexico, Greenland, as part of the Kingdom
27:39
of Denmark. These borders are recent, imposed
27:43
by colonial and national expansion over centuries.
27:47
Underneath and across these borders are older
27:50
boundaries, older nations, older names. The Anishinaabe
27:56
span the US -Canada border. The Haudenosaunee
28:00
span New York, Ontario, and Quebec. The Dainé
28:04
live in what is now the southwestern United States.
28:08
But their traditional boundaries and their identity
28:11
are not defined by the Arizona -New Mexico -Utah
28:15
border. The Inuit live across the Arctic, from
28:19
Alaska to Greenland, in a region that appears
28:22
fragmented by national boundaries but is continuous
28:25
in their own geography and experience. To understand
28:30
naming, we need to hold both maps in mind. The
28:34
map of modern states with their legal categories.
28:37
and the map of indigenous nations with their
28:40
own names, their own territories, their own forms
28:43
of governance. Neither map cancels the other.
28:47
Both are real. Both shape people's lives. But
28:52
only one map represents the people's own authority
28:55
to define themselves. There remains much that
28:59
is uncertain and contested. Community preferences
29:03
vary and are not always easy to determine. There
29:07
is no single authoritative source that tells
29:09
us what every people prefers to be called. Legal
29:13
terminology changes slowly, and the consequences
29:16
of change are not always predictable. Some scholars
29:20
argue that updating legal language is essential
29:23
to self -determination. Others worry that changing
29:26
terms embedded in treaties and statutes could
29:29
inadvertently weaken rights protections. These
29:33
are live debates, not settled matters. What we
29:38
can say with confidence is this. There is no
29:41
single correct name for the first peoples of
29:44
North America, because there is no single people.
29:47
There are hundreds of distinct nations, each
29:51
with its own history, its own language, its own
29:54
political forms, and its own names for itself.
29:58
The labels we use in law. In scholarship, in
30:02
journalism, and in everyday conversation are
30:05
attempts to navigate this complexity. Some are
30:09
broad and general. Some are specific and local.
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Some carry colonial weight. Some assert sovereignty.
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All are used by real people in real contexts
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with real consequences. The act of naming is
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thus never neutral. It reveals who has the power
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to define, who is being defined, and who is doing
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the defining for themselves. The most respectful
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and accurate approach is to recognize this, to
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learn the specific names that peoples use, to
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understand why legal terms persist, and to approach
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each context with care rather than assuming that
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one word will suffice for all. The story begins
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and continues with distinct peoples who name
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themselves. That is the foundation. Everything
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else is built upon it and no broad label can
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replace it.