Who decided in the past to name the Native Americans "Red Indians"?

Do they have any ancestral connections to the "Indian Continent"?

Who decided in the past to name the Native Americans "Red Indians"?
While it was certainly Columbus who thought he had reached the Indies and called the natives Indians, it was later British settlers who were responsible for the "Red" element.





On the east coast of Canada explorers discovered the small tribe known as "Beothuk". These people used locally-available red mineral pigment to colour their skin, their hair, their clothes, their tools and weapons, their lodges and just about everything in their culture.





No wonder the British called them "Red Indians" and the term became applied to all native peoples in both Canada and the USA (nobody before the 20th century called them Native Americans or First Nations - they were Redskins, Injuns or Red Indians).
Reply:Yes, in his ignorance, Columbus did not know there was a continent in the way of reaching India via the Western route; so when he bumped into land, that's where he thought he was, and as the locals were a redder brown than the Indians he knew of ... Red Indians. And it stuck, even after they were aware of the error.
Reply:They're known as Indians, because Christopher Columbus thought he'd actually reached India in 1492
Reply:Kristopher Columbus was asked to search for a great country, an old civilisation, a rich country called India.





When, by mistake, he landed on "now-called-America", he saw the natives whose skin colour was reddish.





He returned and said that he reached India and called the people "Red Indians"