“According to who, besides you? Where does this ‘definition’ appear? I am unable to find it anywhere on the Web. If you have a reference, please provide it.”
Well, facts are facts. Whites of the time, in particular the government and army, made treaties and broke them, created reservations then over ran them. Made promises. These are irrefutable facts. Hence, the term Indian Giver came to describe someone who made a promise and then broke it, gave something to someone then later demanded it back. Doesn’t seem difficult to comprehend to me. Got a couple of questions for you; if you disagree, what do you think the term means? And, why are you getting wrapped around the axle over this?
Why are you unable to support your argument. Here’s some support for mine.
This is from Wikipedia, hardly an infallible source, but the scholarship is presented and I don't see anything in dictionaries or on the web to counter it.
Indian giver is an American expression used to describe a person who gives a gift (literal or figurative) and later wants it back, or something equivalent in return. It is based on the experiences of early European settlers and pioneers like Lewis and Clark [1] when trading with Native Americans. It was the culture of the Indians that when a gift was given, something of equal value was given by the receiver of the gift.[1] The custom of Native American gift giving was misinterpreted by early European settlers as shady business dealings.
As observed and documented by Lewis and Clark in their journal, trading with Native Americans had a very unusual aspect - any trade, once consummated, was considered a fair trade. If on one day, they traded beads for a dog from a tribe, then days later, the trade could be reversed - upon surrendering the beads, the tribe expected the dog back. The original idea of "giving" in this fashion connotes trade ("I'll give you this, and you give me that"), and not presents or "gifts."
The phrase originated, according to researcher David Wilton, in a cultural misunderstanding that arose when Europeans first encountered Native Americans on arriving in North America in the 15th century. Europeans thought they were receiving gifts from Native Americans, while the Native Americans believed they were engaged in bartering; this resulted in the Native Americans finding European behaviour ungenerous and insulting.[2] The phrase was first used in print in 1765.
You mean, how dare I disagree with you? Bullshit bugs me.