Indian Giver Summer

Last night we had a full moon. This particular full moon is the one referred to as the Harvest moon. If you follow moon stuff you know that, astronomically speaking, summer is defined as the period from the summer solstice (the longest day of the year) to the autumnal equinox (when day and night are equal length). The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox and is so named because farmers relied on its light to harvest all night.

There is another event coming up that I've always wondered about. It is called Indian Summer. According to the dictionary, it is "a period of unusually dry, warm weather that occurs during late autumn." Except it happens every year -- so I'm not sure what is so unusual about it.

I think it is named after the tee-pee kind of Indians -- not the Slurpee kind. I also think it was named Indian Summer because of the other formerly common phrase Indian Giver. You don't hear that phrase much any more, but it always implied a person who gave you something and then took it back. I'm just not sure if Indian summer was named, because we are given another taste of summer that is then taken back, after the Indian giver reputation -- or if Indian givers got that reputation from the previously named Indian summer and that somehow they became falsely associated with that kind of behavior.

These are the kind of questions that serious people don't want to discuss and not-so-serious people have trouble following. It is kind of frustrating because I'd like to know.

Another problem is that all the serious people insist on using politically correct phraseology, which just further complicates things. Here is my attempt at asking the question using the politically correct terms:

Is Native American Summer Solstice to Autumnal Equinox named after the alleged behaviour of Native American non-permanent providers or did Native American non-permanent providers unjustly obtain the aforementioned reputation due to the temporary nature of the Native American Summer Solstice to Autumnal Equinox?

I can't make it any clearer than that.