posted
I'm curious about general population statistics, and thought I'd do an informal little survey here:
1) Do you have any indigenous American ancestry? (whether or not you know of a definite ancestor - grandpa saying there's "indian blood" in the family counts)*
2) What percentage?
3) What tribe?
4) Are you enrolled in a tribe?
5) Do people ever think you "look indian"?
.
*central and south American Indian ancestry included
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I ask this because I work in a Native American gallery and realize that every single one of my artists that self-identify as Indian is half blood or less. There are interesting dynamics in the NA community dealing with part bloods, and lots of "Anglos" (ooh, how I hate that term) that will readily identify with a tribe, even if the ancestry is far off.
My Mother works at this gallery with me and people always assume she's Indian though she's predominantly German with some Jewish background. There's family folklore on her mother's side about Cherokee blood, but nothing confirmable within 4 generations. I, on the other hand, am 1/8 Cheyenne, but on my Dad's side, and I've never been mistaken for an Indian in my life. Weird, init?
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
My mother's side also claims to have Cherokee blood. Its hard to get out of them how much though. I would guess I am somewhere between 1/16 and 1/64 indian. However, if it turned out they were mistaken about having any at all, I would not be surprised.
What I find interesting about the whole thing is how us white folks brag about their indian blood. At least I did when I was too young to question their claims. I've known others who have bragged about their (albiet small) native american heritage.
My best friend from when I was 16 to about 22 is a "full blood" native american, split between Algonquin and Mohawk tribes. He actually seemed pretty ashamed of his roots. Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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quote:What I find interesting about the whole thing is how us white folks brag about their indian blood. At least I did when I was too young to question their claims. I've known others who have bragged about their (albiet small) native american heritage.
Totally. And what led me to this whole train of thought was a chat with one of my artists who is Blackfeet, but is actually half Blackfeet and half "Anglo" and grew up on the east coast. He doesn't even know what kind of "Anglo" his father is, and never identifies himself as white, always Blackfeet.
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posted
My mother used to say "we have a little bit of Indian blood." I'm not sure what tribe, although I think it was Cherokee. My mom's family has lived in Texas since before it was a state, so it seems very likely. I don't have anything confirmed, though.
On the other hand, my grandfather's mother was definitely Jewish, but joined the LDS church before her children were born. Nobody has self-identified as Jewish, but I think it's more complicated there.
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posted
1) Do you have any indigenous American ancestry? Great-great-great Grandmother on my mother's side.
2) What percentage? 1/16, I think.
3) What tribe? Shawnee
4) Are you enrolled in a tribe? No
5) Do people ever think you "look indian"? Never, though people DO say I have Asian-looking eyes, which is really from my Native American heritage.
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
My mother's paternal grandmother was an Apache. I have no documentation of this, but I remember my grandfather, and he was very definitely native American. My mother also had the coloring and facial structure common to NAs. I have pasty white skin, green eyes and brown hair, so no, I don't look remotely "indian", but if the stories are true, I'm 1/8th Apache.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
My great-great grandmother on my maternal side was a full-blooded Blackfoot Indian. She married a white man and had 2 children - one was a girl with black hair, high cheek bones, and dark eyes. The other was my great-grandfather, a blue-eyed blonde.
I don't know if I have any Indian blood on the other side. I've never been told I look "Indian" but I do have dark hair and eyes with an olive-toned complexion.
posted
1) Yeah, my great great grandmother on my dad's side was Native American. Not sure what tribe, but she was from the eastern part of canada/maine.
2) What percentage? 1/16
3) What tribe? No idea, actually.
4) Are you enrolled in a tribe? Nope.
5) Do people ever think you "look indian"? Never ever, considering I'm fair skinned, freckled, blonde haired and blue/green eyed. However, my grandfather on dad's side looked very Native American, more and more the older he got, the skin, the jet black hair gone to white/gray, not a lot of facial hair. His oldest son also looks a lot like him, except his hair is lighter. The fourth son has the jet black hair but a lighter complexion.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
1) Do you have any indigenous American ancestry? (whether or not you know of a definite ancestor - grandpa saying there's "indian blood" in the family counts)* Yes, I do. As a mestizo I'm probably of Aztec descent. 2) What percentage? Maybe half 3) What tribe? Most probably Aztec 4) Are you enrolled in a tribe? no 5) Do people ever think you "look indian"? No, I look like half & half, so there ae never any such things said to me.Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
1) Do you have any indigenous American ancestry? (whether or not you know of a definite ancestor - grandpa saying there's "indian blood" in the family counts)? Yes I do. The story is actually kinda cool too. The plantation owner's daugher (my relative) ran off with the cherokee indian worker. Her father disowned her. Then she had kids with him and the rest is history!
2) What percentage? Hardly anything. I am such a mutt I couldn't really tell you the exact percentage.
3) What tribe? Cherokee
4) Are you enrolled in a tribe? nope
5) Do people ever think you "look indian"? Never. I look more Irish because of my red hair even though I believe I am actually more Italian. Like I said-I'm a mutt Posts: 306 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I knew growing up (because my mother told me) that I had one great, great grandmother who was a full-blooded indian, which would make me 1/16. I was always proud of it; I liked to tell people that some of my ancestors were already here to greet my other ancestors when they arrived at Plymouth Rock. Then some years ago a distant cousin who is a Mormon contacted us to trade genealogical information. (Mormons of course, with their ambitious program using super computers and immense data bases to work out the genealogies of everyone who ever lived so they can perform some rite to make everyone who ever lived Mormons in the Afterlife, have become pretty much the de facto experts at geneaologies.) We're not Mormons, but fair trade is fair trade, so we sent her what we had on our side of the family, and were surprised to learn from the information she sent us that there was actually another Indian in our ancestry. For me, it was a second great, great grandmother. So that makes me 1/8 Indian, twice as much as I had thought before.
We are not sure what tribe. Looking at the Indian tribes in the region of the country where most of my family on my mother's side lived several generations ago, Cherokee would be a likely guess.
My mother was one of 12 children. (Big Arkansas family!) I do have a couple of uncles who look a little Indian-like, in the high cheekbones, etc. But all the rest of us are able to "pass"!
I mentioned that I always was proud of my Indian ancestry. I even bragged about it some. Then one day I did this to an Australian lady, and she said, "Well, Indian blood runs thin, so maybe after all those generations it doesn't matter so much." She seemed to be making apologies for me! Guess she thought of American Indians as being equivalent to the Australian aboriginees, who some white Australians look down on, apparently. I was too astonished to be offended. But later I was tempted to remind her that as an Australian, she was probably descended from a convict. (Britain at one time emptied its debtor's prisons by sending them all to Botany Bay.) But I decided that would be unkind. So there was no need to go on the warpath!
As far as I know, I am 1/2 English, 1/4 German, 1/8 Amerindian, 1/16 Irish, and 1/16 Scottish. Typical American mongrel. (Let's hear it for hybrid vigor!)
[ May 27, 2005, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I will; ask JenniK to post about this, she is a member of a tibe, although I forget which one. Funny part of that is that the rest of her ancestory is Sweedish/Irish, and she is very pale and very blonde (if you only knew HOW blonde you would pity me ), so she never has anyone guess.
I know I have indian blood, about 1/16th...Iroquois I think, although I am not sure. My grandma wrote a few books about our family history, so I have resources to look it up some day.
posted
1) Do you have any indigenous American ancestry? (whether or not you know of a definite ancestor - grandpa saying there's "indian blood" in the family counts)*
Yes, on my mother's side or so I've been told.
2) What percentage? No idea. 1/16 or less.
3) What tribe? Cherokee
4) Are you enrolled in a tribe? No, and I self-identify my ethnicity as Irish.
5) Do people ever think you "look indian"? No. I have reddish-brown hair, fair skin that freckles a bit, and a "celtic face."
Posts: 96 | Registered: Jun 2001
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5. Not often. Being tall, fair skinned and blond-brown haired does nothing to fill the popular stereotypes. On occasion people will comment on my particularly high cheekbones or fairly almond shaped eyes, but most the time I have to point out which particular features aren't particularly caucasian and what in fact they are.
Feyd Baron, DoC
EDIT: I suppose I'm a large enough percentage Native American to find AmerInd or similar labels offensive. Or that could just be me... Part of the reasoning behind this is the first time I heard it used was in a military context, and it seemed to fit their historical disposition very well.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I was thinking about this recently, and I've never even met a full-blooded Shawnee. They were a southern offshoot of Iroquois, I think (because 'shawnee' is like the iroquois word for 'southerner') but were split up into four groups that were mostly decimated or absorbed into other tribes. I think that part of them joined the Cherokee nation.
My great-great-great grandmother married a Scotch-Irish fella and settled in the Appalachians, where she was known as something of a healer. Stories passed down from generation to generation claim she was the daughter of a shaman or a chief, but I never managed to get a clear story about it. She told stories about her father, but all that drizzled down through years was that he was a leader of some sort, and was not at all happy that she married a white man.
I wish I had a way to nail down the truth of it, but records from that time are scarce in that area.
I do know that there was a significant resentment passed down (through the women in our family especially) regarding the treatment of Native Americans by the government.
Amazing, isn't it? How long a hatred written in your blood can endure.
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
People ask me if I'm native all the time. Depending where I am, I also get mistaken for Mexican, Italien, French, and Jewish. I must look generically ethnic or something. I don't know where people get French, though. On my mother's side I'm mostly Scottish and Irish, and my father is half Chinese and half Somoan. I never get asked if I'm Irish, Scottish, Chinese, or Somoan. Sometimes Hawaiian, so that's not too far off.
Posts: 152 | Registered: Apr 2005
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1) Almost certainly no. There has been a tremendous amount of genealogy done on all four sides of my family, and there has been no hint of indian ancestry. 5) No.
I had a friend growing up who was biologically part Cherokee, but was unable to document it. But through his father's adoption, he was legally part indian -- enough to get some nice scholarships.
Posts: 751 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Indian? Noooooo. I'm full-blooded Mennonite to the beginning of that religion, except for that one Jewish fella who converted in (what a family scandal that caused!)
However, despite being pink and of obviously European ancestry, I have been mistaken - not once, even, but twice - as Japanese. Only in Sri Lanka.
Fahim, who's ancestors have been in Sri Lanka for over 600 years, comes from a family that looks like the rest of Sri Lankans. Fahim, however, looks more Arabic, which is fitting with his ancestry (they just don't know why he looks so different from his parents, sibs, cousins, et cetera), has been mistaken for Italian.
Go figure.
But no, other than that, I have absolutely nothing to contribute.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I have the similar family story--one of my great grandfathers or their fathers married an Indian princess.
Its from my mothers side of the family that is 100% pure American Mutt, everything from Irish and Scottish to German and other European, with a mix of Native American. My Mother often joked about her mixed heritage, until I asked if there was any African blood involved. She never answered.
My fathers side is purely Eastern European--from an area that has been Russian, Ukranian, Polish, and who knows what else over the centuries.
Here is a funny story, I hope. My wife is the easiest to trace. Her mothers side of the family is pure Italian. Her fathers side is German and English. Her German Grandfather met her English Grandmother during WWII.
When we visited Germany a few years ago, we went to an Italian restaurant in Schwienfort. The Italian owners took one look at her and thought she was a relative. They spent an hour talking to her in Italian. Unfortunately the only Italian my wife knows are words she heard her Grandfather using, words you don't use in public.
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posted
I know I'm a little late to the game with this, but isn't the term "Cherokee" outdated? I thought the group of people formerly referred to as "Cherokee" preferred the term "Ojibwe" instead.
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Somewhere far back down my ancestral lines is an Indian, but no one remembers her. My grandfather's grandfather worked on an Indian reservation in Nebraska as a dentist though.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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1) Do you have any indigenous American ancestry? Yes My great grandmother was a full blooded Native American 2) What percentage? 1/8 3) What tribe? Cherokee 4) Are you enrolled in a tribe? no 5) Do people ever think you "look indian"? No, but I do have a sort of asian eyes, which makes it kind of hard to put contacts in.
Posts: 796 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: I know I'm a little late to the game with this, but isn't the term "Cherokee" outdated? I thought the group of people formerly referred to as "Cherokee" preferred the term "Ojibwe" instead.
I'm not so sure about that. A quick check on web finds the official home of the Cherokee nation here. Since they are calling themselves the Cherokee nation I think it's ok to call them Cherokee.
Posts: 796 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
PC, you're thinking of the Chippewa, another name for the Ojibwa.
Actually, though, there are several tribes that still call themselves by various derivations of the anglicism "Chippwea," like Montana's Chippwea Cree Nation. Most aren't offended by the name Chippewa.
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I do have Argentinian blood, very strongly, but not Indian. I don't think. And I look about as Argentinian as I do Chinese.
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1) If you count a great-uncle living in Flatbush, Brooklyn - then yes.
2) Depends how you look at it.
3) The Judean Tribe of Brooklyn, and he still has a Galician accent.
4) Judea, if you want it as a tribe. But they're not Native American.
5) No, because I don't have Jewish features. (I think most of my blood is not Jewish, assuming that a Cossack raped one of my great-great-grandmothers. Hey, does that get me a Russian passport?)
OK, enough with the jokes. I think this is a great thread, Annie. Congratulations on the idea, the initiaive, and the presentation of the whole thing.
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Raia - actually a lot of Argentinians are European. Moreso than any other Latin American country, I'd dare to say.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Ok, then! I sit corrected. Actually, I have no idea. My grandfather (my mother's father) is from Buenos Aires, and my grandmother (also on my mother's side) is from Mendoza. So I have a strong Argentinian heritage!
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I'm not of Indian ancestry but some have guessed that as my heritage. It happens somewhat more often for other members of my family. But then, my caucasian grandmother also had deep set slanted eyes that she got from her grandfather, John Taylor.
P.S. If you have access to "Church History in the Fullness of Times" you can see a picture of her father, John W. Taylor in the Apostle Gallery.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Geneology is big on one side of my family, most of which to this day claim we are closely related to John Smith (John Smith and Pocahontas, that one), but he never had children with her.
So no, I guess I don't have any. I'm a direct descendent of a vice president though!
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