I think what and how it is used for or interpreted as should be a factor to determine whether it is appropriation of Native American culture.

I’m not a native english speaker, and often times the term in my mind can mean zodiac animals. I’m not saying they are the same thing. English is a common language, and people from other cultures may interpret the word differently.

Hence I sometimes wonder whether there are other cultures across the world that use similar terms (eg totem symbolism), or whether such term can mean different things to other cultures. A blanket ban of the specific combination of these two words in english based on ~~one~~ some cultures may seem unfair to others if this is true. If anyone knows or has issues with the logic, please correct me.

EDIT: see the discussion in the comments https://lemm.ee/comment/1954510

EDIT 2: per below comment, Native American shouldn’t be treated as 1 culture.