Only *half-*Canuck, thankyouverymuch!
And I prefer the term NorthAmeriMongrelSpaceAlien .
Ha ha, I’m a CanadEastEuroMongrel myself.
That’s likely because by and large, Americans (and Canadians) come from immigrant families–some are just more recent than others. A lot of us can trace our heritage back to Europe, and so know when and possibly why our families came across the ocean. We’re here because our ancestors (mostly) chose to come here from France/England/Spain/wherever. But with the exception of the Aboriginal peoples, none of us have any roots on this continent more than 400 years old. We’re still a pretty young culture compared to other continents.
The term I’ve heard for that is “Plastic Paddy”, those who pine for an Ireland that, for the most part, never actually existed and are Irish by family name only.
I speak as one of them. 
Bah.
Why claim Native American ancestry when I can so much more reliably trace my family tree back to a common ancestor with the likes of Camilla Parker-Bowles, Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Celine Dion? 
(OK, fine, it means I have to go back by around 400 years… but it’s still pretty dang cool)
I’m a Redskins fan, I hate the cowboys.
I think part of the reason for some is the lack of any African heritage to name or to be proud of. We say African, but it’s not the same as knowing a tribe or country. Cherokee or Apache is at least something to grasp. I don’t believe my family tales of Native American royalty, but I can understand the need for some type of root to share with family.
My non AA friends don’t say they’re from Europe - they say Germany or France.
I’m 1/16th Flathead.
I don’t know that it’s “so great”–it just is. I’m a mix of the British Isles, about equal parts English, Scots, and Irish. It wasn’t that long ago that various ancestors came through Ellis Island or wherever, and we remember. I don’t get why I would deny that; what am I supposed to do, claim that we sprang fully formed from California soil? If nearly everyone in this country is descended from immigrants, it makes sense that we claim heritage from someplace else.
A lot of our ancestors didn’t dislike their countries of origin–they had to get away in order to make a living, but they missed their homes too. Of course many of them passed that down to their children.
Not a bit of NA ancestry, though, AFAIK. I guess I’m uncool. 
That’s because nobody finished the job.
Until NOW!
I’m crushing your head! I’m crushing your head! Crush! Crush!
Another Canadian mutt chiming in - my mother’s family has been in New Brunswick for something upwards of 10 generations (living around Acadia, and yet I’m the only one in the family who actually speaks French, go figure), and are thusly mostly Scottish with some French and English and Irish thrown in. My father’s mother and father were both fresh off the boat, from Italy and Ireland respectively. Apparently if I could hassle my father into getting his Irish citizenship, I would also be eligible for it, but that’s as far as the connection goes. We’re sort of generically North American WASP at this point.
What with the long tenure in the maritimes, I’d be shocked if there wasn’t some Micmac blood in the family, but it’d be a neglible amount and any cultural connections are non-existant.
I haven’t seen as much of this when I was living in Montreal, probably because the Mohawk reserves of Kahnawake and Kahnesatake are very close, and very active politically. If you want to claim relationship with them you’d better be prepared to put your money where your mouth is.
This has gotten under my skin ever since I went to Ireland and heard an Irish guy rant on this exact topic. Because he was right, I think. I’ve called my mom on it a couple times. She’s 100% of Irish descent (her grandparents were immigrants), but she’s never even been to Ireland. There is definitely a certain amount of cultural heritage - what foods you eat, what holidays you celebrate, that sort of thing - that gets carried down, but in my mom’s case, by the time she was born it was rather watered down. And certainly it was watered down by the time I was born. Especially since my dad is Jewish and hates corned beef and cabbage. (And, to be serious, my parents are both atheist and it seems like a lot of the Irish stuff was wrapped in Catholicism, which I was never exposed to.)
I’m only a third generation American (all of my great-grandparents immigrated in the early 20th century), so I’m pretty sure I don’t have any Cherokee princesses in my family history. I agree that it’s a very common (and amusing) claim, though.
Ow!
I think it’s a silly thing to get upset about. In the US, “I’m Irish” (or Swedish, or Romanian, or whatever) is common, accepted shorthand for “My ancestors came from Ireland.” It’s not like people are trying to pass themselves off as actually coming from Kilkenny–it’s just a shortcut. It’s easier to say than “I’m of Irish extraction” or “I’m Irish-American,” both of which sound pretentious.
It’s just nitpicking to get upset about it. People don’t give it any thought, to the point that if you reply with “Oh? What city are you from?” --you’ll just get a blank look. That’s not what the statement “I’m Irish” means, coming from the mouth of someone who is obviously an American making a statement about his ancestral heritage.
So. I’m Irish. (County Louth, to be exact.) What do you wanna make of it?
I’m English-Canadian: all four of my grandparents came from England. Not just Britain, not just the UK, but England. As far back as we can trance, we are sprung from farmers in Sussex. Growing up here, I got the bad teeth, but not the accent. I’ve even had people say I look English, as opposed to German, say, or Irish.
So yeah, I’ve sometimes felt like I got shortchanged in the Exotic Ancestry department, and can understand why some people might want to claim Native American ancestry.
I need to move to somewhere where English ancestry is exotic.
I’m not upset in the slightest, I just think it sounds stupid for someone to say they’re from someplace that they are manifestly not from.
Ok. Me, too. For all I know, mine killed NA (and slaves). We have the deed of sale for some slaves (my mother does, somewhere), but I don’t know of any NAs, slave or otherwise. My point was that I’m sure there was most likely some “intermingling” of the races at some point in my background over 200+ years ago. Then there was this dude name of “Jones”–that is, he moved to Kentucky when it was still a territory(IMS, it was part of Virginia, no?), changed his name to Jones and never told anyone what his original name was. So god knows what is in my background…:eek:
I think it’s nothing more than silly and maybe even endearing how everyone wants to be royalty, but they’re proud to live in a country with no official royalty. My mom used to tell us how my older brother is the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son, etc, and could technically lay claim to some sort of dukedom back in Scotland or England or some damn place. Yeah, right. Didn’t we also come to America on whatever ship came here just shortly after the Mayflower? Mom had all sorts of stories from the “old country” which was England, Scotland, or Ireland, depending on the story. She always told the stories like her parents just came from there, instead of 300 or 400 years ago. Whatevs, mom.
I’m of Native ancestry, and I’ve got the genetic test to prove it!
True, but bizarre story: as a present to me, my dad had his Y chromosome traced through National Geographic. He being 100% of Eastern European Jewish ancestry (all four grandparents immigrated), we were expecting some interesting Middle Eastern results.
But no! His haplogroup (or something) was the same group that the majority of Native Americans belong to. The nearest I can figure is that my native Siberian great-grandfatherx100 whose family missed the boat to Canada several generations back got to canoodling with some Jewish chick, and behold! my strange lineage.
This sorta bothers me too, for the same reasons that Nzinga explained. Still, I did read an article recently (I think it was the NY Times Magazine, but I’m not sure), about a group of black Americans suing to be recognized as part of an Indian tribe. I’ll try to find the link, because it did my make think twice about the issue.
But usually, my rule is “if you can’t give me the full name of the NA ancestor you’re claiming, then you ain’t Indian.” That tends to weed out most of them.