Should I Not Say That I Have Native American/american Indian Roots If I Cannot Prove This?
My ancestry consists of Russian and Native American (Cherokee & Chickasaw)and I feel proud about it, but should I not say im NA that if I don’t have a tribal card? I feel like if you don’t have a card your just one of the hundreds of “white” people claiming that their great great grandmother was a Cherokee princess or something like that..idk that’s what I get the feeling of. Like I would be laughed at if I went to a pow wow or a reservation and said I was NA.Maybe it’s not like that at all,and that’s why i am asking…to either prove or vanquish my insecure assumptions.
As I said in the heading, I have no proof that this is apart of my history.All I know is what my mother told me when i was little,pictures I lost in storage, and some observations.It’s almost impossible to prove since my grandmother was adopted/orphan (not sure if she was full blood or half) and my grandfather who supposedly had a little I never met.I don’t even know my grandmothers real last name even if I wanted to try and trace my ancestry(she changed it twice idk why).I would ask my mother these questions which she probably knew, but she passed away when i was twelve and I was put into foster homes. Obviously I do not have much family, so please don’t leave a comment saying how I should ask family members trust me I would if I could!
I bring this up because not too long ago I met a girl who mentioned she is NA(don’t remember which tribe) so I got excited and told her I was Cherokee/Chickasaw. okay, well she brought up how she hardly gets paid anything and she ask about how much I get…I told her I don’t get anything..this confused her I guess and she asked If I was a tribal member,I said no..the conversation felt awkward and I could feel that she lost interest after I said that.soo this I why I ask…does it really matter?!
sorry if I rambled too much haha
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american indian is the legal term the government uses to identify us. they also have a legal definition of who is an american indian. according to them, you must be an enrolled member of a federally recognized native nation. that’s colonialism.
beyond that each native nation has a way of determining who is and isn’t a citizen of their nation. enrollment means citizenship. so you are either a citizen or not..there is no part citizenship. some nations follow blood quantum others do not. my nation traces through the mothers side so if your mother was a mohawk, then you are a mohawk.
i have no idea what tribe your friend is from but if she is getting some money it is not from the government. its from her nation as the government does not give us anything. that’s a huge myth in this country.
so bottom line is, you are not an american indian because you do not have citizenship in a nation, you are not part of their culture, and more importantly, they don’t even know who you are. see our nations are family and if you claim to be a member of the family, then you better be sure someone knows who you are.
the most you can claim is to be a descendant of an american indian. nothing more. that’s even assuming it is true which you yourself cast doubt on. do not claim to be native especially among those of us who are native. we will know very quickly you aren’t and then will think you are exactly what you fear being..a wannabe.
and just to clear up some misconceptions from other answerers..no, most americans are not part native. in fact of all the dna tests done on people with a family story of native blood, only 2%-5% ever find its true.
ETA: your rewording does clarify. no that is not insulting. you have an ancestor who was native and you know this is true. you still would not call yourself native for the above reasons. however there is no need to deny the fact that you are related to one. just don’t do what so many do and start playing ndn for the crowds.
No. Some of us have no way of showing it explicitly, but still do. For example, it’s written all over my genealogy, but the gov’t still won’t let me see a dime.
Kanien and Sarah are correct.
Leave it to the non-natives to line up to answer a question about Native Americans.
Anyhow,I think it’s good that rather than just calling yourself Native, you questioned if you should. The answer is No. If you are not enrolled with a tribe or part of a Native community, you are not Native and should not claim to be. The truth is, if you have no card or links to a community, most Natives will see you as yet another white claiming to be Native. You have been raised white, you live white, you are white. And you have no proof or even a way to prove that you are any thing except white genetically. If, by some miracle, you are able to prove you have Native American lineage, great. But that still leaves you with having a Native ancestor, not being Native yourself.
As for the replies that you got, stereotypical looks do not determine if you are Native American. We do not all have high cheekbones or almond eyes. As for a rough face, I know plenty of Native Americans with BEAUTIFUL skin. WTF Facial features and skin tone vary from tribe to tribe. Some are darker, some are lighter. Some are tall, some are short.
The answer about “seeing a dime from the government” reflects total ignorance. When will people realize that we don’t get government handouts? There is no free money, no free college, no tax free living. Any money that comes is based on the tribe in which a someone is enrolled and the income of that tribe. And for all those who think that’s such a big handout, do the math. The majority of revenue of tribal nations (if any) gets reinvested into the community for roads, schools, medical centers, housing, etc. How much do you really think is left over?
And mama outlaw needs to do a little research about The Trail of Tears. She is most definitely not walking it. Please do not compare the history of Native people to that of a white person trying to do their family tree. There is no comparison.
Edit @ your edit: I don’t think there is anything wrong with saying you are a decendant of a Native American, or you have family who is Native since you do. Nothing wrong with being proud of who your family is as long as you know who you are.
Also, you said that this seems to be a taboo subject. I’m sorry if I came across as rude. It’s not so much the subject, rather the fact that the majority of answers people give reflect such ignorance. And there are so many questions on here about people claiming to be Native American and having no ties or lineage. It gets very irriating. Your edit did clear up a lot. Maybe your mom’s cousin would be able to answer some questions for you if you can contact her.
As for a powwow, most are open to the public. There is no need to explain your ansestory to get in. Check one out sometime.
I have to agree with my girls up there.
I can tell you that I wouldn’t be angry if you claimed Native Ancestry IF you knew a little something about it. I hate it when people know nothing of Natives yet claim it and argue up a storm without knowing exactly where they are coming from. I see that your only claiming to be a decedent, and that’s fine, but until you can find out more, I wouldn’t go around telling everyone you are part Native, the question of “which tribe” will always come up and you’ll always be ridiculed, especially with everyone these days claiming Native Ancestry, as a Native myself, I can truthfully tell you that it really gets on my nerves when you get white people saying I’m 1/8348954120 Native, how much is that? It just gets old real fast, find out more, at least which Tribe you have roots in, then by all means, claim it proudly.
The U.S. sure has a funny way of determining who is native american or not. The blood quantum was made by Europeans. And native americans in the U.S. follow it. If a full blooded native american for some reason did not have a tribal member card, would that make him/her less NA? No. A card is just issued by a government, it doesn’t change your genetics.
Now with that said, you are not native american. You shouldn’t claim it. All you know are stories. You haven’t even taken a DNA ancestry test to verify if this is true or not. Many white people think they are native american ancestry but actually are not. What did your grandmother look like? Did she look indigenous? That is important because even if your grandma was half NA, you’d be 12.5% which is nothing. You are white. Do you even have NA features such as almond eyes, round face, high cheekbones, brown skin, dark hair?
It seems many think it’s cool or exciting to claim NA when they don’t even know if it’s true or not. Why? Native Americans in this continent do not appreciate that. I certainly don’t.
I think if you want to be a member of Cherokee culture, you have to be related through your mother, and she through hers, and it sounds like your grandmother’s identity is lost to history. You might be able to find out more about her, but if SHE did not have a clan relationships through her mother, you are not “really” Cherokee.
Still, you might find others who have Cherokee blood but no tribal membership, and you do have reason to find out who your family is. Tribal acceptance might not be your goal so much as learning about your specific ancestors, through some of the common experiences they had. You might want to learn if your grandfather was really an orphan or separated from his parents and put in a boarding school to be Christianized.
I really don’t know how different Native American tribes feel about we lost people whose ancestors dropped out of the Native American life. I think it’s OK to raise the questions. How did people feel about a Cherokee man who married a white woman, or a Cherokee woman who married a white man? How did those ancestors so many of us have, who were only vaguely Indian, come to be hanging around to intermarry with our European ancestors? Were they rejected by their own people somehow? Were they kidnapped? Were they runaway daughters? Are people like you and me still walking the Trail of Tears?
You didn’t ramble. It’s an interesting question.
I am a *descendant* of the Chowanoke (Chowan) tribe. I am proud of this, just like I am proud of being Irish, English, and German. My blood quantom makes me 99.05 percent something besides American Indian. However, that one drop of blood helps make me who I am. It’s probably wrong to say you are native if you were not raised that way, but I don’t see a problem with claiming your heritage. It is true that many, many white people do have at least a little bit of native blood, especially those with southern roots who have been in this country since it began. My stars, one person can produce thousands of descendants. It is not difficult to believe there is native blood in many white people. I am happy to claim ALL of my heritage.
racism literally sucks!! whether on the basis of religion color or sect,,, people should never judge
My husband is NA, his great grandfather was a Huron chief. He never felt that he “looked native” enough to mention it as part of his heritage which made me sad.
When I mentioned that to an elder, the man laughed and said something I hope all of you take to heart.
“It is not the amount of native blood that flows through your veins, but the amount of native pride that flows through your spirit.”
The social obsession with how a person looks is ridiculous and we need to get past that. Embrace your heritage no matter what it is and what you look like. Who cares if you “appear” like a stereotype?