# I pit my fellow whiteys who think they are Native American **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686 "2014-09-16T20:21:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![ILikeForeignLanguages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bc8723/32.png) [@ILikeForeignLanguages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILikeForeignLanguages)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/201 "2014-11-19T20:44:30Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > If all of the white people were slaughtered, how can it be your ancestral homeland? You’re can’t be descended from the people who lived there. Some of the white people may have escaped and fled to Europe. In fact, maybe all Europeans are of American descent. A new theory is that not all of the original white Americans were slaughtered, just some of them. The rest escaped and fled to an uninhabited continent which would be named Europe. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/202 "2014-11-20T02:39:06Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I worked with a white woman who claimed Cherokee ancestry. She used the minority status to get a research grant set aside for minorities. > … This is why racial politics are so problematic. If we could leave the determination of who and who is not native and what being native or not native ought to mean to the Court of Public Opinion, we could deal with a lot fewer identity battles. It’s also aggravating in a way that certain ethnic groups get specific rights, like the aforementioned Affirmative Action points, and others don’t. Recognition or non-recognition of groups for the purpose of allocation of special rights is inherently political, not social, and doesn’t have much of a scientific basis. I want my Irish potato famine refugee set-aside grant! Don’t you care how much my ancestors suffered? It was horrible! They barely survived, and now you won’t do anything for us? Have you no shame? Can I at least pick up a basic reparations check? Will next Monday be good? > [@TriPolar](#): > > There aren’t many Native Americans who have nothing but Native American Ancestry. There shouldn’t be a line drawn based on strict percentages of Native ancestry, the participation in the tribal nations should be considered a factor also. Some people have been adopted by tribes as well. > > Still, I agree with the general rant as there are too many people with no connection whatsoever to their Native American ancestry, which is often dubious in nature anyway. If you don’t belong to a tribe, or participate in Native American affairs in any way and you have no recent Native American ancestors then don’t claim that as your heritage. Your Cherokee great-great-great-great aunt may not even be a blood relative. This x2. To make a comparison, a large percentage of African Americans have some European ancestry. Some of them have a lot of European ancestry. So are they all white now? They must be, because they aren’t that many “pure” blacks here anymore. Who gives you the right to decide? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/203 "2014-11-20T05:35:36Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Some of the white people may have escaped and fled to Europe. In fact, maybe all Europeans are of American descent. A new theory is that not all of the original white Americans were slaughtered, just some of them. The rest escaped and fled to an uninhabited continent which would be named Europe. Well, that makes sense, except for the fact that it’s utter bullshit with absolutely no evidence to support it. ---
**Author:** ![ILikeForeignLanguages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bc8723/32.png) [@ILikeForeignLanguages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILikeForeignLanguages)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/204 "2014-11-21T21:23:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Well, that makes sense, except for the fact that it’s utter bullshit with absolutely no evidence to support it. Well, okay then, let’s scrap that the idea about me being descended from the people who lived there. But what about the initial theory, the theory that there _were_\*\*, in fact, original white inhabitants who were slaughtered by invaders, the invaders now being known as “Native Americans.” I have heard people seriously suggest this. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/205 "2014-11-21T21:56:34Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Well, okay then, let’s scrap that the idea about me being descended from the people who lived there. But what about the initial theory, the theory that there _were_\*\*, in fact, original white inhabitants who were slaughtered by invaders, the invaders now being known as “Native Americans.” I have heard people seriously suggest this. What people, and what reasons did they give for thinking that it’s true? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/206 "2014-11-21T23:11:16Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Well, okay then, let’s scrap that the idea about me being descended from the people who lived there. But what about the initial theory, the theory that there _were_, in fact, original white inhabitants who were slaughtered by invaders, the invaders now being known as “Native Americans.” I have heard people seriously suggest this. Depends, what do you consider the Ramda Chert bunch? The same red ochre burial practices along with a specific tool made of ramda chert is found on both sides of the atlantic ocean, dating to roughly the same 8000 years ago. Seems like we have what perhaps were the precursers to Saami on both sides of the atlantic, and not from going around through Siberia the long way. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686/207 "2014-11-22T00:39:35Z")
> [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > So, I’ve recently been hearing some people say that white people may have been here first, and that invaders from Asia came across the Bering Strait and slaughtered all of the original white inhabitants. The invaders are now the current so-called “Native Americans.” I doubt this is true, but if it is, it changes the game a bit. It might mean that I (a white guy) am not a Colonial invader after all, but someone who returned to his ancestral homeland and reclaimed it from the invaders. And undid the initial genocide. > [@ILikeForeignLanguages](#): > > Well, okay then, let’s scrap that the idea about me being descended from the people who lived there. But what about the initial theory, the theory that there _were_\*\*, in fact, original white inhabitants who were slaughtered by invaders, the invaders now being known as “Native Americans.” I have heard people seriously suggest this. Yeaaah, gonna need a cite here. Putting aside the whole question of whether humans occupied North America before the arrival of the Siberian proto-Native Americans, the concept of a “white” race didn’t emerge until the sixteenth century. The notion that these hypothetical pre-Native American Americans were “white”, by our modern understanding of the idea, is ludicrous - rather like claiming that having a Cherokee great-great-great grandmother makes one a Native American. Which was what you were ranting about the first place, no? We’re all mutts. There’s only one race, after all - the human race. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-fellow-whiteys-who-think-they-are-native-american/698686.md?page=10)