Native american indians?

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Valinor had nothing to do with Indians. Valinor was eventually moved from the circles of the world after the destruction of Numenor. It is in fact a Tolkienic version of Faery, like Avalon or Tir Nan Og, except without the Welsh or Irish accents.

In his preface to the Lord of the Rings Tolkien expresses his dislike of allegory, prefering his work to be read in terms of "applicability"; that is, it can be applied to many situations in the real world but is not intended as a simple parallel to places or historical events.
Tolkien's fellow Inkling C.S.Lewis wrote about 'mythopoeic' stories, which tell us something about who we are in the way that ancient stories do. Avalon and Atlantis have already been mentioned. I would add the worlds of Utnapishtim (Sumerian) and Noah (Hebrew) to this list because their tales contain notions of a world from which we are cut off by floods.

The idea of Valinor being 'moved from the circles of the earth' also relates to that feeling of yearning for something we cannot name (a sort of homesickness which we can feel even when at home) especially when seeing the sun set over the western sea. I'm sure I am not alone in feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on hearing songs which say thing like:

"Living on your western shore,
Saw summer sunsets, I asked for more,
I stood by your Atlantic sea,
And I sang a song for Ireland"

This is not to say I think Tolkien was thinking of Ireland as Valinor any more than he was thinking of the Americas. If I were from either of those cultures it would make sense to put their name in place of 'Valinor', because that would have special meaning for me, but I think JRR was conjuring up something which is both more mystical and more universally applicable.