Let's Play Yellow Indians

I teach a wonderfully brilliant piano course (see my link over on the right) in six semesters.  The curriculum really is nearly perfect, and the semesters are called:

Red Balloons
Blue Bugs
Green Turtles
Yellow Indians
Purple Magic 
Orange Roots

Recently, other teachers have been discussing amongst ourselves if the phrase "Yellow Indians" is really politically correct.  We haven't actually had complaints or offenses, but a few people are not too fond of that phrase, either.  Here is my response to the discussion.  So, what do YOU think?

Hi All,
Just to start off, I have NO problem with the song, "I'm an Indian."  It really is fun and playful and I think anyone in the spirit of the program can perceive that as our intention.

Now, the thing about calling the whole semester YELLOW INDIANS makes me raise my eyebrows a little bit.  It's as if you've taken a couple racial slurs (Yellow, or yellow chink, and redskin, or red indian) and blended them to come up with an all new slur: the Yellow Indian.  (oops, hold on...my fingertips caught on fire when I typed that and I need to douse them.)

I'm back.  So sometimes my kids will use words that are not quite cuss words, but they remind me of cuss words.  In the spirit of things, I just feel like they're cussing.  "Hey mom, pass the EFFIN' milk!" is SO not allowed at our house.  In emails, if someone types "Here's a photo of the cool sh*t I got at the mall,"  I really don't think the asterisk instead of the letter i swayed me from feeling that I just don't appreciate the tone of that message.   I know that Yellow Indians is not a racial slur, but deep in my amygdala I feel a sensation that lets me know it's not the most professional of phrases either.

What I would call it is an unlucky juxtaposition of words.  Let's say back in the day, instead of using bugs to teach rhythm, you used sports.  Bas-ket-bal, Base-ball, golf, etc.  And so the great new semester name of BLUE BALLS was born.  In your childlike innocence, you created a fun and fabulous curriculum.  "Come on into the classroom kids, it's time for Blue Balls!"  Only years later, someone might point out to you that although the kids really are not bothered, it just sounds a little unprofessional.

A word describing a group of people (Indians) can really never be preceded by a color word in good taste.

I don't have any parents complain about this, so I've kept my mouth shut heretofore.  I do have one parent that said to me, laughing, "Are you SERIOUS? Is that REALLY what it's called!?" Now she jokes about it, an she asks me if I'm a "real cracker" in class. In the spirit of things, it doesn't quite jive with the professionalism we aspire to.  I would be delighted if some day the purple magic came out and magically changed the name of this semester to YELLOW DRUMS.