'Off the Reservation' Is a Phrase With a Dark Past

Hillary Clinton made a regrettable choice of words in a CNN interview last week, when she was asked about Donald Trump’s attacks on her. “I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak,” she told Jake Tapper.

After the interview aired, Mrs. Clinton’s political director Amanda Renteria “walked back” the “off the reservation” remark, noting on Twitter that the expression has “some very offensive roots.” Mr. Trump pounced on her word choice in his signature backhand style, telling CNN, “I won’t even bring up the fact the Indians have gone wild on that statement. You know that? OK? The Indians said that that statement is a disastrous statement, and they want a retraction. I’m not going to get into that.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/off-the-reservation-is-a-phrase-with-a-dark-past-1462552837