Who has American Indian ancestry?

[madison2000]

I think my father was 1/16 Sioux Indian, but that's about it.

[u2spirit]

1. I'm 1/8th Creek

Even though I look like the marshmallow man.

[AlCzervik]

2. my granpa on my mothers side was 1/4 Passamaquoddy

[crimson333]

3. my great great grandmother

was 100% choctaw indian so whatever that makes me...1/16 or 1/8

[KyndCulture]

4. I am 1/4 Cherokee.

[Longgrain]

5. I actually don't, but my sister is in the process of adopting..

two boys who are...

Half Sioux I believe...

[Sandpiper]

6. My gr-gr-grandmother was Muskogee

So I guess that makes me 1/16 Muskogee.

[many a good man]

7. I'm one-sixteenth somethin'!

Great great grandfather came over from Ireland during the famine. Immigrated to Ontario (French Canada). Married full blood Indian from one of the French (Catholic) missions. Probably Algonkian or Huron. Abandoned her to go west during the gold rush. Had another wife and kids in Nevada. Went bust. Left them and came back east to take care of first batch of kids after mother died. Don't know anything else about her.

[tjdee]

8. All black people do, don't you know!

Perhaps some other black folks will chime in, but one of the things I remember most about living in the inner city was how everyone (not, not *everyone*) swore up and down they had some "Indian" in their background. I got asked many times if I had "Indian" in my family during these conversations. I was a real little kid, and I was like...uh....what?

It's sad in a number of ways, especially to be remembering it here...but it's kind of funny too!

[madison2000]

9. I had a friend who was half black half cherokee

and she was lovely- I didn't know that a lot of blacks said it. She was from the quad cities in IL and I'm sure it was true.

[tjdee]

14. As Maddy says, sometimes it's totally legit.

I suspect I do have some Native American background, particularly on my father's side, but man, it was everyone's tune in that inner city in the Northeast where very likely it wasn't true all the time.

[AntiCoup2K4]

22. Jimi Hendrix was.

He spent much of his childhood with his full blood Cherokee grandmother while his parents worked out their "issues"

[Maddy McCall]

10. Most African Americans wouldn't be lying if they said that.

Many times, slaves and Indians intermarried, especially in the original coastal colonies.

And, edited to add, if you look at the Lumbee Indians, you see lots of African heritage. And they were the only minority group ever to successfully turn back the Klan...It's a cool story--if you have time, read about them.

[tjdee]

18. Certainly that's the case...

My mom's family has a very weird past, which goes back to "the islands" and Scotland even, but there's only one or two of the older folks who know what it is. And as I mention above, I think my father's side has some Native American ancestry...but in my experience black people aren't as into genealogy and ancestry.

I'd argue that it is because you can only go back so far, as slavery really destroyed the black family...Alex Haley is very much the oddity as far as that is concerned.

I'm pretty sure the folks I knew had no clue.

Unless some black folks want to disagree?

[jmm]

13. Did they say you had "good hair" too?

I can't be the only one whose noticed a correlation between claims of being part Indian and having "good hair." Of course many black people are part Indian. My paternal grandmother in African American but my paternal grandfather is Native American (1/2 Cherokee, 1/2 Blackfoot.).

[tjdee]

16. That's why they asked me ROFLMAO!

People would meet me and be like "Are you Indian, because you have "good hair""? I'd be like "????????"

Course, that didn't matter much, because even people who didn't have "good hair" (ugh) said they were "Indian" too.

[jmm]

23. Those without "good hair" must've been

the descendants of Cherokee Princesses who just weren't blessed manageable hair. Amazing how many of them are running around. Kind of like with reincarnation, there are a whole lot of Catherine of Arragons running around but not as many anonymous chamber maids.

[madison2000]

20. I don't know if I ever saw her real hair. I think she had a "fall"

That's a whole other story- until I lived in a racially mixed neighborhood (in Chicago) I had no idea how much time, money, and effort black women spent on their hair. There were many more hair salons catering to black clients than any other kind of salon. When I first moved to Hyde Park I made an appt at a salon catering to black women and I got a lady who had probably never cut hair like mine before- it was pretty funny... finally I just asked her to stop. The shop owner redid my haircut the next day, but that was the first time I realized I had walked into a whole different world of hair!

[tjdee]

21. Oh you just don't knoooowwww....

It is a different world of hair... I would venture to say that hair is the most important cosmetic issue for a black woman (I don't want to generalize, but I guess that's what I'm doing--and I don't give a shit about my hair most days). I have known many a woman back in the day to go out of the house with no makeup, in jeans, torn up sneakers...but with the most coiffed do ever.

But, now younger white women are doing similar things--a number of the young actresses, for example, rely on falls and hairpieces from time to time.

[Maddy McCall]

11. Choctaw from my father's side; Cherokee from my mother's side.

[JohnKleeb]

15. Is that how you got an interest in Native American History?

[Maddy McCall]

17. Yes. My grandmother's family were some of the original founders...

of some East Texas towns. My I-don't-know-how-many-times-great grandfather was given a large land grant in east Texas.

Plus, there is just something entrancing about Indian history--especially when you read the words of the great chiefs who opposed land treaties and removal. They were underdogs, but they had balls of granite, and their speeches are so clever.

And gender history in American Indian life, and how it changed after Euro contact, completely fascinates me.

All in all, it's a fun thing to study and research. :-)

[kcwayne]

12. My Great Grandfather was 1/2 half Cherokee and he lived on a reservation

until he was in his 20's. My father was born on that reservation, because my grandparents were migrant workers and when my grandmother went into labor, they were nearby and they went to stay with my grandmother's relatives. That makes me 1/16th Cherokee.

[JimmyJazz]

19. I'm 1/4 cherokee