Jimi Hendrix: Native American?

Cafe Society
1

I guess this could be in GQ, but since it’s about Hendrix, I’m putting it in CS.

There’s a movie coming out soon called Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. It’s a fascinating look at Native Americans in rock music and the influence Native American music had on rock. The movie’s title comes from the famous rock instrumental Rumble, that probably became famous these days mostly for its use in Pulp Fiction.

Anyway, the claim made in the movie (it was reviewed on NPR this AM) is that Jimi Hendrix had Native American ancestry. In the NPR piece, it was said that his paternal grandmother was Cherokee. Now, that raised a red flag with me. Wikipedia says she was 1/4 Cherokee, which raised another red flag. As has been well documented in recent years, many African American have family lore that speaks of Native American ancestry, often some Cherokee “grandmother”, deep in the past, but rarely does that lore stand up to genealogical research or DNA testing.

The director of the movie says his source is Jimi’s sister, who made the claim. But the NPR piece didn’t say anything other than his sister insisted they had NA ancestry, so they went with it.

Having googled a bit, I’m finding a few references to GH’s alleged Native American ancestry, but nothing that actually authenticates it. Is there any hard evidence that his grandmother had, as they used to say, Indian blood? (I also saw some source that claimed he had some Mexican ancestry, which would likely imply some NA ancestry, but I have no idea if the Mexican claim has any validity, either.)

2

I always thought the NA ancestry was supposed to be on his mother’s side. If you look at photos of her, it seems plausible.

But I don’t think there’s any evidence beyond family stories. And I wouldn’t trust a word that comes from the current generation of Hendrix relatives.

3

From wikipedia:

“His paternal grandmother, Zenora “Nora” Rose Moore, was African American and one-quarter Cherokee.”

I’m assuming that is correct, and is my source. But it might be wrong.

BTW, let’s not get into a debate about wether or not someone who is 1/16 Native American, and not a registered member of a tribe, can rightfully call himself Native American. I’m just interested in whether or not Hendrix actually has any Native American ancestry or not.

4

Well, there’s zero chance of the Hendrix [del]parasites[/del] relatives releasing a DNA profile; the last thing they’d want is any actual Jimi descendants or other long-lost relatives claiming a share of the income.

5

You can get an ancestry profile done that is nothing that could be used to determine relatedness. But it would be best to do such a profile on someone from his father’s generation. When you’re at the 1/16 level, you’re knocking on the resolution level of these tests. If you’re off by one generation, there’s a good chance you’ll miss the ancestry altogether.