If it did, it’d mean she was Sicilian
I see/hear a lot about the argument against Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians mascot as I am a huge fan of the team (I am not a fan of the mascot.)
Soooo many people are like “I am part Native American and I don’t find it offensive!” but I am preeeeeetty sure the people who say that don’t look anything like what Wahoo is a caricature of, and neither does their dad, or their grandpa, or great grandpa.
That’s the kind of shit that I find annoying about “claiming” Native American ancestry. Seems to come up for them only when convenient. And they don’t seem to have pride enough to keep others from insulting their ancestors.
There are a lot of First Nations (Native American for you USians) people who look caucasian, my husband and FIL included (both Cree). My husband has blue eyes and dark blond hair. The only stereotypical features he has is a prominent brow and high cheek bones. I had a friend in my early 20’s who was very ‘white’, including white-blond hair, and his mother was 100% First Nations (his dad was white).
In Canada, to claim First Nations/Aboriginal heritage and the associated ‘benefits’ (ha!), you have to trace your lineage and provide proof the Indian Affairs. They will issue status cards down to (I think) 1/8th, or possibly 1/16th (I believe it depends on if it’s maternal or paternal heritage). How does it work in the US?
I actually am of Cherokee descent, on my maternal grandfather’s side, and it isn’t a pretty story. My great-grandmother and her sister were of an age to pass along the stories they heard from their own grandmother - who was “saved” from the clearance of the North Georgia territory by virtue of being old enough to work. She was taken into the home of some white settlers, who essentially claimed her as a slave until she was old enough to make her getaway. Given the survival rate on the Trail of Tears, though, her fate could have been worse as a 9-year-old forced to resettle in Oklahoma. Who knows? (And the oral tradition can’t realistically be confirmed, but it’s supported quite well by census records - that grandmother is listed as part of a household with a different last name, as “servant,” during two federal censuses.)
But I do understand the OP’s frustration - the Magical Injun seems to have taken hold in the public imagination. When my DAR-member maternal grandmother was researching her husband’s genealogy to prove to him that he’d married far above his pay grade, she became obsessed with her own potential Native ancestry, and had DNA testing of whatever sort was available in the early eighties. That test came back as negative - no Native American/First Nations ancestry. Grandmother was disappointed, but she held her head high, because she and her family were obviously so far above the huddled masses. Meanwhile, my father’s family is of documented Seminole descent. If you know anything about that culture, it’s almost a code/byword for “got a black grandparent,” because of adoption/assimilation practices of that tribe. Grandmother always considered my mother to have married “beneath herself,” because my father’s family was quite poor, and never gave a rat’s ass about social positions. Plus, my brother? Imagine Morgan Freeman with red hair and fair skin. That’s what my brother looks like. So obviously, in Grandmother’s mind (and several times, within my earshot, right out of her mouth,) there was something in the woodpile, and obviously on my father’s side of the family.
Imagine my delight a few years ago, when I found a marriage certificate on Grandmother’s paternal side of the family, listing a marriage between her paternal 3x grandfather and a woman named Elizabeth Partain - mulatto. I really, really enjoyed showing her a copy of that document - which must be very rare, in fact. There was only a brief window during Georgia’s pre-Civil Rights-era history when a white man could have legally married a half-black woman. Grandmother swears that the term “mulatto” was often used to indicate half Native ancestry, but I keep reminding her that she had that DNA test done… (Sorry, she’s an evil old bitch, and I take a bit of pleasure in returning a little bit of the evil that she’s done.)
Even more fun? Grandmother long assumed that her Germanic maiden name was descended from a group of religious dissenters who became some of the earliest settlers in the Georgia colony - she thought that was prestigious, I suppose. As it turns out, Grandmother’s family has no known connection to the Salzburgers. But my “low-class” paternal Grandma? Is directly descended from the family that Grandmother always assumed was her own.
tl&dr version: I really am of native descent. Also: German, Welsh, African, Scottish, Irish, French, etc. None of it means a damned thing. I’m an American. I identify as white, I’ve always been treated as a white person, and no one looking at me would ever identify me as anything except white. Through the pure accident of my birth, I’m descended from people from a lot of different places. That has absolutely zero bearing on my life today, except that my predominantly-Northern European ancestry means that I’m not generally treated with suspicion when I walk into a convenience store or bank.
If anyone wants to know what we’re talking about, read Unpronounceable’s link, then watch Iron-eyes Cody’s PSA. It’s from a series of “Keep America Beautiful” anti-pollution PSAs that were ubiquitous in the 1970s before strict anti-littering laws were passed (and municipalities wised up and put public trash cans on city corners).
It’s actually not just a good example of a fake native American, which, since the guy is an actor, isn’t so bad, but also a good example of the “native American mystique.”
Exactly. Half of my mother’s family came over from England in the 1600s. It wouldn’t occur to me to call myself “English-American” based on that because it’s been, um, almost 400 years.
Really, there are a lot of people out there claiming allegiance to some mythical past. Example: “Highland Games”, where Americans wear “clan” tartans (which no doubt they looked up online) and throw logs around and eat haggis or something.
And that’s why I think they do it – because Americans generally *are *mutts.
The faux-Native Americans that ILikeForeignLanguages seems to take umbrage with are known as “Twinkies”. They’re white folks who misappropriate NA culture, coating it in new-agey crystal waving.
RivkahChaya – you also mention it as well…
To get an idea, here’s part of the old “you might be a Twinkie if…” meme:
[ul]
[li]you don’t know what a ‘twinkie’ is.[/li]
[li]you’re a shaman, and all your friends are shamans too.[/li]
[li]your Indian Spirit Guide is someone famous.[/li]
[li]your great grandmother was a Cherokee princess.[/li]
[li]your great grandfather was a Cherokee princess, too.[/li]
[li]you own many Indian art objects, but you have never met a real Indian.[/li]
[li]last year you were into Buddhism, the year before that you were a witch, and the year before that you were a member of Green Peace.[/li]
[li]you want to know where to apply to get your Indian name.[/li]
[li]you send greeting cards with images of Noble Red Men on them.[/li]
[li]you interrupt an elder to tell them they’re wrong, because a book you read said so.[/li]
[li]you wear plastic chokers to honor Native Americans.[/li]
[li]if you say, “You don’t look like an Indian” to an Indian (or if you think all Indians look like Sitting Bull)[/li]
[li]you are ‘(enter percentage here) Native American’[/li][/ul]
While it’s nowhere near half, there are actually quite a few people with tribal affiliations who don’t look stereotypically NA. I have a friend whose mother is a full-blood member of the Spokane tribe while her father is of Norwegian descent. My friend and her sister both look NA, while her brother is a tall blond guy. The only thing that looks at all NA about him is his eyes. The father of my friend’s first two children was half-blackfoot, 1/8 black, and 3/8 white. One of their daughters looks NA, the other is a frizzy-haired, blue-eyed blonde. The father of her other daughter was white, but their daughter looks NA.
Thinking you can identify someone posing as NA based upon their appearance is about as silly as thinking everyone with a disabled parking placard has to have a wheelchair.
Yeah, but fraud at the very least. I didn’t think we were tanking about criminals using it to further their criminal enterprises.
Why do you care what someone identifies as?
Hilariously I identify as white, as both my parents did although my dad said he had a NA grandmother. But many times I have had people ask me what are you, I say white and they say no you’re not white you’re probably hispanic. Some say I’m middle eastern, it is very weird to have people tell you you are not what you say you are.
Since there’s no such thing as being ‘white’, that doesn’t matter. There is such a thing as being Native America in whole or in part, and if you aren’t it’s dishonest to say so. So if you say “I’m a Native American because I once went to a sweat lodge” you are being honest but stupid. Someone who says you aren’t a Native American because you have blond hair and blue eyes they are stupid. Except for committing fraud we’re not talking about crimes.
If you think there’s no such thing as being white, you’ve never met me or most of my family. I promise, we can’t even dance!
I dont think its wrong to identify with a group as long as your not being a jerk about it or doing it for bad reasons.
Think about this-years ago many whites DID move in with the tribes (going native they called it) and were accepted as tribal members.
Years ago their was this thing on tv called “Keep America Beautiful” which featured an American indian named “Iron Eyes Cody”(LINK). He was a famous actor who played many Indian roles but in truth, was born to Italian parents.
I agree with this. Real involvement is far more important than genes. I’m a genealogy nut, but for me it’s a pastime like stamp-collecting or jigsaw puzzles. I don’t think genealogical connections have much “meaning.”
My ancestors were from Scotland but on my only opportunity to travel to Scotland, I turned it down and hurried home. :smack:
(I worked for a company where routing in pointless flight legs and stopovers was a perk. My friends rerouted via Edinburgh, but I asked for Casablanca! The ticket agent told me I’d need a visa and I said, To heck with it. I’m tired; just take me home!)
My son is 1/4 Chickasaw, but he has gray-blue eyes and dark blonde hair, and relatively fair skin. His paternal grandmother was a boarding school kid, which means she had no connection left to the tribe as an adult, so there’s really no point in claiming the connection. On the census and other surveys he just identifies as white.
I do believe the deliberate separation of native children from their tribes is one of the most rotten things that could have been done “for their own good”.
Ironically, my spouse is between 1/2 and 3/4 Cherokee ancestry (attested by names, photographs, various paper documentations, and census records, not simply oral history), specifically Eastern Band (the ones still in the East, not in Oklahoma) but identifies as white and doesn’t have any interest in joining with the tribe/nation. Culturally, he’s a white American and that’s what he describes himself as. Sort of the complete opposite of those with 1/132 Native ancestry trying to identify with the Natives.
You know who else was a big proponent of maintaining true bloodlines?
Is that like wearing plastic 6 pack rings to honor turtles? 
Allan Ball?
My family has one of those reasonable sounding stories that makes me some fraction native American, and I was told this as a child in a way that made my life sound interesting and exciting. I happily repeated the story at school. Now I realize that the story is most likely not true, that I couldn’t prove it even if it were, and that nobody gives a shit (see madmonk’s Archer clip) I have no intention of telling my kids the story unless they’re older and are digging 4 or 5 generations into their past for whatever reason, and it comes up organically. As an adult I now resent having been told this story without that caveat that repeating it in public would make me sound like a giant douche.