# White native americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374 "2014-02-27T02:15:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/41 "2014-03-01T00:31:17Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > What you said about the money going to the tribal government has dislodged a memory of the prof saying the money that went to the tribes was based on the membership rolls, and if the government didn’t think some members were “real,” then that could affect the amount, much to the tribe’s annoyance. I’ve never been involved with our tribe’s finances but I do know that our tribe (as well as others) are _very_ touchy where the governmental monies are concerned. BTW - when it comes to the Cherokees, they have a business arm called Cherokee Nation Enterprises. CNE almost certainly produces more income than any grants or other Federal dollars for the tribe. (I keep referencing the Cherokee Nation because my tribe [Delaware] purchased land within their jurisdiction back in the 1860s and were considered to be a part of the CN until just a few years ago) This income is by no means just from casinos either. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/42 "2014-03-01T00:50:20Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > We were also taught that the US government’s Indian policy seemed to fluctuate every 20 years or so, running the gamut from “benign overseership” to hands-off independence. This was decades ago that I learned all of this, so I’m wondering whether government policy has changed again or I had a biased professor. Here in Oklahoma, from the Dawes Rolls in 1907 until about 1934, tribal lands were abolished, household heads were given individual allotments and tribal governments were disbanded. Then in I think in 1934, FDR and the head of what is now the BIA enacted the Indian Reorganization Act, which restored tribal governments and in general reversed some of the injustices done to tribes. Starting from then, public perceptions of Indian tribes began to slowly change. It took some little time for the tribal governments to get the tribes “back on their feet” and functioning as viable entities. So yes, there were definitely at least 2 major fluctuations in governmental treatment of Indians here. This is a large overview - I’m sure the currents swirled back and forth in many ways to the people (white, Indian, governmental) who lived through the times. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/43 "2014-03-01T01:25:39Z")
> [@SpyOne](#): > > As I understand it, most Christian traditions say if your Father was a Christian then so are you. And (again, as I understand it) Jewish tradition says that if your mother was Jewish, so are you. 😕 I don’t know any Christian traditions that say that, last I looked they still required baptism. In Spain current customs are aiming towards “children are raised in the mother’s religion and knowledgeable of both”, which appears to have been the general tendency in the Middle Ages as well (royalty were the exception in that the child would normally be raised in the father’s religion, but not always: cf. “Paris is well worth a Mass”). ---
**Author:** ![WheatCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@WheatCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WheatCat)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/44 "2014-03-01T01:28:23Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > WIth deference to the man, former VPOTUS was an outlier. The average American wouldn’t admit Native heritage commonly until the 1950s. Even then that was primarily in areas where there were not many Natives living or a reservation nearby. I wonder how true this is because my grandparents, born in the 1880s-1890s always spoke proudly of my grandfather’s (probably spurious) Indian ancestor, Princess Nicketti, presumed daughter of a Powhatan chief of the mid-1600s. More telling, a much earlier collateral relation, who while a sitting US Congressman from Virginia (3rd & then 5th Districts, 1817-29), named one of his daughters “Nicketti”. This did not keep the proud father from continuing on to selection as Governor of Virginia (1830-34). He actually got one of South Carolina’s electoral votes in the 1832 general election. See link for Nicketti Floyd’s grave site and family information: [Nicketti Buchanan Floyd Johnston](http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=95673624) Princess Nicketti may be an exceptional case, though, perhaps because she was royalty; she apparently pops up all over the place in US genealogical records: [I’m related to a Princess?](http://www.jeaniesgenealogy.com/2011/11/im-related-to-princess.html) On the other hand IIRC reading somewhere that Winston Churchill’s mother proudly claimed American Indian ancestry, and Churchill himself was only too happy to embrace the idea, so maybe Indian blood was AOK with a lot of people well before the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/45 "2014-03-02T16:30:19Z")
From observing people of my parents’ generation (WWII), and my grandparents’ generation (WWI), Americans have always been a bit mixed on the subject. If you were wealthy, or upper-middle-class, you could boast about it. (Especially if the ancestor was a chief, or a “princess”). If you were poor, or if you drank too much, it would play into the “lazy Indian” or “drunken Indian” stereotypes. From what little I have read on the subject, it seems to me that people started boasting about Native ancestry only after said Natives had been thoroughly conquered. Easterners only bragged about it after the Trail of Tears. Westerners only bragged about it after the Comanches and Apaches had been subdued. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/46 "2014-03-02T16:49:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Iron Eyes Cody > > Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an American actor. He portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films. In 1996, his Italian ancestry was confirmed by his half-sister. > > […] > > In 1995, the Hollywood Native community honored Cody for his contributions to the representation of Native American life, yet they tactfully pointed out his non-Native heritage. > **[Iron Eyes Cody](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eyes_Cody)** > > Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti, April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an American actor of Italian descent who portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films, including the role of Chief Iron Eyes in Bob Hope's The Paleface (1948). He also played a Native American shedding a tear about pollution in one of the country's most well-known television public service announcements from the group Keep America Beautiful. Living in Hollywood, he began to insist, even in his private life, th Co... ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/47 "2014-03-02T17:39:18Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > In his opinion, someone who had only a smattering of Cherokee blood (or none at all) but who was serious about the culture and language was more authentically Cherokee than someone who was full-blooded or half-Cherokee but never lived among the Cherokee people, didn’t know anything about their customs or beliefs, and had no interest in the tribe or people. This. John Ross, the chief during the relocation, was 1/8 Cherokee by blood quantum, but no one would say that he wasn’t a “real” Cherokee. I’m the great-great-grandson of William P. Ross (also a chief and the nephew of John Ross) which makes me 1/128th Cherokee. My father was on the rolls and I could be if I wanted to. I’m not, not because my blood is too thin, but because I’ve never been actively involved in tribal life. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/48 "2014-03-03T03:25:58Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > WIth deference to the man, former VPOTUS was an outlier. The average American wouldn’t admit Native heritage commonly until the 1950s. Even then that was primarily in areas where there were not many Natives living or a reservation nearby. I dunno. This sounds a bit like pop sociology or somesuch to me. My father was 1/4 Creek, and looked it, and he didn’t have any crap about admitting it. He fit in fairly well with the general run of society, during the 30s to 50s. Same for my uncle. Never seemed to be an issue. The theme seemed to be HH’sD/U: “I’m an Indian.” White Salesman: “Great. You wanna buy this car or you gonna look at it all day?” Nobody seemed to give a crap. All their women-folk were European, and they had them hanging all over them. Also, IIRC, Will Rogers was usually cackling about his 1/4 (?) Indian blood, wasn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374/49 "2014-03-03T23:25:33Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > My father who is mainly of English descent except for the Native American heritage looks roughly Mexican. He is also very interested in Native American artifacts and culture and taught us all about it even though we are ‘white’. I have very dark thick hair and high cheekbones. My father and mother both identify as white, so do I, but no one buys it. Just the other day a woman my wife used to work with said isn’t he Venezuelan?:rolleyes: Everything from native American to Mexican to middle eastern, hell people will tell me point blank you’re not white. I guess they are too shy to tell red headed native americans the same lol. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-native-americans/682374.md?page=2)