This goes out to all of my black friends, family members, co-workers and associates that eventually work into the conversation that they are “part Blackfoot”, or “part Cherokee”.
No, you’re not. You are black. Period.
I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but it does. There is a tiny handfull of black folks with Native American roots, and Shawnda, you are not one of them.
My own mother is convinced that her ‘great grandmother is full blooded Cherokee’.
I have no intention of disabusing my mommy of anything, but when Quan, one cube over, just blurted it out, out of nowhere, I feel like I wanna challenge him.
I realize I can’t, because I don’t know his family history really, but I just wanna yell to him, “You are black! From a long line of blacks. You have ancestors that have done great things. Somewhere, in you family tree, there were great, black people. Black culture is grand and African culture is divine. You do not need to convince yourself that you are Native American because you are fine just being who you are!”
I won’t yell that here at work…but I’ll post it here. I think I have some idea why they do this, but it bothers me still.
It’s not limited to blacks. It’s been cool to claim Indian ancestry for at least 20 years now, probably a lot longer. Alas, I cannot claim it. I’m as white bread as they come.
I don’t understand why this bothers you. Claiming more than one heritage doesn’t negate the other. Just because I’m of Irish ancestry, does that mean I have to deny my French ancestry? Face it, most US blacks aren’t of 100% African ancestry. Why does it bother you that they can claim all of their heritage? Maybe that white great-great grandfather was part Cherokee. Or Irish.
I agree with **tdn **that there are a lot of Americans claiming way more Native American blood than they should be.
It’s not technically correct to say that the people around you are “Black. Period” though. I remember reading that black Americans, in general have more white ancestry than NA, but I’ve never read that there’s only a small amount of blacks with *any *NA ancestry. I understand that you feel that they’re trying to minimize their blackness to make themselves feel better (which is probably often the case) and that is sad, but if someone wants to mention their ____ ancestors, even if they have to go way back to find it, that’s their business.
I have to agree with those who say it ain’t just black people. I have a lot of geneaologists as library patrons, and I can’t tell you how many people upon meeting me tell me either about their Indian Princess Ancestor or how they’re related to George III. It’s always an Indian princess, too - I mean, princess? Whatever.
Eh. I’m black, and I’ve always been told that I had a great-grandmother who was part Cherokee. So I operate on the assumption that I have some small percentage of Native American blood in me. I don’t have any proof regarding whether that’s true, but even if I did, I wouldn’t go around exclaiming that I’m Native American.
Although I’ve never until this moment considered the semantics argument one could presumably make that if one is born in America, one could claim to be a Native American in the same sense that I am a native Californian. But I’m not about to start down that ugly road.
Actually, that’s perfectly plausible. While there’s really no such thing as an AmerIndian princess, there were hundreds, if not thousands of tribal chiefs and most had a couple daughters. And thousands of people are probably descended from George III. Likewise, it’s estimated that Charlemagne has over a billion descendants today, mostly in Europe and the Americas.
I don’t suppose any of them were related to me, were they?
I find the whole argument kind of silly. I can ‘claim’, if I want, NA ancestry on both sides of my family, but it’s so far back I don’t see the point. My mother’s family has been in (what’s now) Canada for 10+ generations–I’d be more surprised if there wasn’t any NA blood in there. As far as I’m concerned, she’s purely Acadian–she has to go back four or five generations just to find someone that she’s sure had any NA blood, and I have no idea where the last full-blooded NA ancestor is.
Being Native American is about as much a part of who I am as being Japanese is–none at all.
Do a search on Match.com and select no parameter but “Native American ancestry,” and you will see a lot of Caucasian-looking people and a small number of African-looking people and Hispanics. I find it plausible that there’s a handful of people in New York State who are some small part native, but I have to think that the majority are pretending, or choosing to believe an unlikely family story.
Right. I realize now, after reading the replies, that this is not a ‘black thang’.
I honestly didn’t realize that this was widespread amongst white people too.
I understand that black people aren’t ‘100% black’. I get that. But it bothers me, when I think black people are trying to pretend that they are Native American because they think it is not good enough to just be black.
They think that Native Americans have a beautiful culture and history, and that the Native American people were proud and grand. Well, so were blacks. I think they really don’t realize that.
All Saudis claim to be from Bedouin families. In the same way, all Americans claim to be from Native America roots. An almost-perfect analogy (or something) between the two cultures.
I hear whites claim in a lot. I don’t know if whites do it for different reasons than blacks, but it seems like it’s a way for whites to distance themselves from the “bad whites,” who get the blame for everything bad in the world.
I am an unhyphenated America and intend to remain so until after the conquest, when the continents shall be renamed Skaldland 1, Skaldland A, Skaldland Alpha, Skaldland Aleph, The Icepit, and Wow-I-Miss-Sydneyland.
Oh, yeah, it’s super-common among white folks. And it’s not totally implausible. If your ancestors have been in the States for, say, over two hundred years, it seems pretty likely that whatever race you look like or identify with, there’s probably other races mixed in there, too. My family has been in North Carolina since the Revolution. I’m blond and blue-eyed, but I’d be shocked to find I didn’t have some black and Native American heritage back in there somewhere.
It’s also worth pointing out that some Native Americans–I’m thinking of the Cherokee in particular, though there are probably other groups out there–owned black slaves. And it’s almost a certainty that some of those slaves had children by their Cherokee owners, just like some slaves had children by their white owners.
Maybe, but it’s almost become a cliche that so many people claim to be 1/16th or 1/32nd Cherokee. It’s always Cherokee; never Navaho, Seneca, Hopi, Apache or anything else.
I theoretically have some Choctaw in me. Considering where my grandparents come from, if I don’t have some black, I’d be surprised. In any case, I’m so much of a mongrel, the only culture I can really claim is American.
Sure, there’s descendents. But going the other way, demonstrating that there’s a lineage back from a single living individual to one of these people, is far harder, for all sorts of reasons. Despite all their energies, amateur genealogists aren’t always really keen on historical accuracy. (Plus it will always rely on the reliability of paper records, and we all know that the named father on the birth certificate can never be anything other than the true father of the child…)
