Indian giver

an Indian giver

A person who asks the return of or takes back a gift after they have given it. One of many expressions often considered offensive for making reference to Native American stereotypes or tropes. I'm sorry to be an Indian giver like this, but I'm afraid I need the $50 back that I gave you last week.
See also: giver, Indian
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Indian giver

One who takes or demands back one's gift to another, as in Jimmy wanted to take back Dan's birthday present, but Mom said that would make him an Indian giver . This term, now considered offensive, originally alluded to the Native American practice of expecting a gift in return for one that is given. [Colloquial; early 1800s]
See also: giver, Indian
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

Indian giver

Someone who gives a gift and then wants it returned. Native Americans' economy was based on the barter system; therefore, an item that colonists and settlers took to be an outright gift was expected to be reciprocated. When it was not, the giver wanted the item returned. The offensive phrase, which first appeared in mid-18th-century New England, is now rarely used . . . and properly so.
See also: giver, Indian
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • be on the warpath
  • be/go on the warpath
  • on the warpath, to be/go
  • warpath
  • get a gift
  • scared silly/stiff/to death, to be
  • Run that by one more time
  • dead one
  • my face when
  • my reaction when
References in periodicals archive
Both writers seek in different ways to take back, inhabit, and reterritorialize the US South as a primal space of healing for American Indians, playing out the role of Indian giver in marvelously metaphorical, subversive ways.
Indian givers: reterritorializing the South in contemporary native American literature
Conditions were testing then and, not for the first time in her career, the Hugh McWilliams-trained Indian Giver provided conclusive proof that she relished cut underfoot.
Timef orS evenV eils tor eveal her talent
Tomorrow's tips CARLISLE: GAZETTE BET: 3.50 Indian Giver.
Victory awaits Dawn in Juddmonte Stakes; Racing preview
The winner made all to beat Indian Giver, who finished well up the near side, by a length and three-quarters.
Burke delighted with first winner; CARLISLE
Indian giver ON hearing Gordon Brown promising to raise the Old Age Pension by pounds 5 per week, my husband and I were delighted.
VOICE OF SCOTLAND; NICE ONE TONY FOR NOT SELLING US OUT
You're an Indian giver! Daddy, do somethin', you said I could be President.
DUBYAGATE: REVEALED: The Bush and Gore spoof phone chats
Indian Giver came good at the eighth attempt in the EBF/Champions League Betting With freebetting.co.uk Maiden Fillies' Stakes.
Clumber is a filly for the new season
Having sprinted in from the car park, the jockey arrived with seconds to spare to ride Thirteen Shivers in the juvenile maiden, and his mount got off the mark at the third attempt when scoring by a length and three-quarters from the 150-1 chance Indian Giver.
Shivers makes Gibbons dash pay; CARLISLE Monday
The Richard Smith-ridden Johnny Reb was completing a two-day double for owners Lindy Regis and Geoff Howard-Spink, whose Indian Giver had won for Hannon 24 hours earlier.
Salisbury: Prince Dayjur pick of Hannon treble
RICHARD HANNON halted his march towards 50 consecutive losers in the last 10 days when Indian Giver, his 49th runner, swooped late to win the seven-furlong fillies' maiden under stable apprentice Pat Dobbs.
Salisbury: Hannon halts horror of 50 straight losers
Thanking them, then telling them that they were not supposed to be there and then thanking them again, just makes us look like Indian givers.
Brainstorm: The Next Generation / Recto Bank is ours! Now what?
Two songs, "Indian Givers" and "Show Me," reference the conflict surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Peace Trail
Mann; Indian Givers, by Jack Weatherford; Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown; The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine; and The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything, both by Naomi Klein.
Stay calm and decolonize: Buffy Sainte-Marie's call for justice
Aamjiwnaang, home to the Green Teens who worked on the film Indian Givers, has 63 chemical refineries within 50km of the community; it is one of the most blatant cases of environmental racism in North America.
PowerShift: from isolated movements to transformative change
Jack Weatherford's Indian Givers analyzed the influence of Native American contributions to European capitalism to a scope beyond export of individual products.
Emory Dean Keoke and Kay Marie Porterfield. Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and Innovations