Native American Heritage Anyone?

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I am 1/8 Choctaw and 1/8 Blackfoot, both from my mom's side.

No offense but I dont need to explain what my heritage means to me, it is what it is.Each of my maternal grandparents is/was half NA and they were matched by their parents bc they were both "mutts" as called by their own parents and family members. All that matter is that they loved each other and made a few kids who went on to make me and mine. The racism aspect isnt just towards the NA people either, my own grandfather doesn't like to claim a few of us grandchildren bc we are "too white faced to look like his blood". Try facing that every time you see your grandpa.
 
It sounds like there are many here whose hearts are indian. that makes my heart smile. thank you for sharing what it means to you to be Native.

i am not asking people to defend i am sorry if it came across that way but i am asking if people could explain it to me to help me understand what it means to them. i know what it meas to me but i have always been confused by people who are not of the culture and claim it as theirs. i just wondered what it meant to them. thats why i asked. what does it mean to you? white privledge allows a lot of people to grab onto things but not have to live them. and we cant decide to be italian one day or something else the next. and natives i know identify as their tribe first ad being Native second. just an FYI. but aside from that i have never had anyone explain what it means to them to be able to claim i am 1/19th native. yes it may be the truth but whAt does that mean to them? it was interest in gaining understading i have found a lot of people just have romantic ideas that are not grounded entirely in reality. I love BYC and respect most everyone on here so i thought what a great opportunity to hear what people on here thought.

so if you dont want to "explain" dont! and if youll be so kind to share what it means to you please do. but again i meant no offense by it. Just wanted info and was stating my experience. thanks

your grandfather must have dealt with a lot of hatred. i guess that is what comes with genocide and having your culture stripped from you and yours. many of my family are cautious of whites and doctors and the BIA and so forth. I am really sorry that happened to you and that the hatred he experienced created that for your family. that is truly sad.

Maybe that is the confusion with me. in the 70's a large percentage of native girls were forcred into being sterilized as early as 14 by IHS doctors without their knowledge. the last boarding school in canada was closed in 1994 or 1995. these were forced on us. my parents were beaten if they spoke our language my uncle was killed and buried at these schools by white christians because he spoke his native tounge and they stuffed soap into his mouth and beat him he choked on it and died. they would come and take all the children from the tribes and our people could not even leave the reservations until the 1970s in some places. this is not hundreds of years ago this genocide and culturalcide is ongoing. our language is gone. our religion taken it is hard to trust. we are just dumb indians and our reservations are equal to third world contries in some places. there are some gains but very recently and the old ones caution us they have made deals before there have been broken promises. we are a strong but broken people in a lot of ways. so to hear a white woman or man say i am 1/16th native nooksack and have no real idea about what kind of pain it takes to hold that identity intact in spite of all the damage.. it is bewildering to many of us. why claim this when so many seek t destroy it... all of a sudden it is okay to be me? and you want to associate with that? I feel confused and taken aback what does that mean to associate yourself with this culture?

and again to be clear if you do not wish to share what it means then dont. i was hoping to understand what it means to people so that i can share it with my people maybe bridge a gap. maybe if i can understand then others will too. maybe many natives are not like this... i speak only for me. i am not racist i am stating the experiences that have shaped us and only a few of those. i thought BYC members would be able to share with me what it means to them and then i could see and as i call you all brothers and sisters anyway. regardless of heritage. i myself have many children i joke and say we have a tribe within a tribe... but one thing i know is that everything we do impacts 7 generations.... i want to change the world we live in.. not just the poeple in it. and again you may not be indian but your heart can be indian.... so i want to see peoples hearts. i willingly share mine. thanks for listening i mean no ill will just exploring peoples definitions of self. ONLY SHARE IF YOU WANT! thanks so much blessings
 
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I understand what you are asking, and understand completely why you are confused. I wasn't in any way offended, and I hope I didn't come across as I was. I sincerely apologize if I did. I was confused when I was younger, but as I got older some things became clearer to me. Both sides of my family had many secrets, and it was hard as a child to understand why. My father's side was more open, and as I got older they passed down stories, memories, and the reasons why they waited to tell them. It made sense as I got older, and in a way I'm as guarded as they are now because some people do pass judgement on me. My grandmother always told us to pick our battles, and it took me a long time to figure that one out.

My grandmother from my mothers side was from Austria. She was in concentration camps, and some very bad things happened to her there. She was somehow smuggled to this country, but lost all of her family. She refused to speak of any family members she lost. I think she carried a lot of guilt, and shame. She was very guarded about her past. She knew my fathers side, and also of the things my fathers family suffered. She always treated them with great respect, and they always spoke of her with great love and respect even after she passed away.

From what I understand now, both sides of my family agreed to let the children decide on their own what path to follow. They all went out of their way to show us all aspects of spirituality, religion, no religion. Whatever we asked in that respect was answered honestly, and openly. They let us choose when the time came. That to me was the best gift they could offer. They also made it quite clear that judging someone elses choices were not to be tolerated. There was no bickering between sides, no questions, and no arguements. Just respect for what we chose when the time came, if that makes sense.
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Bluemoon
 
Jkioneil,
I appreciate what you have to say and have a better understanding of why you asked the question. I would be curious as well.
I have to say I've never heard of the Nooksack or Malahat tribes, and would love to hear anything you'd care to share about your culture. Though I haven't done any reading in many years, native culture and art still fascinates me.
 
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Jkoinel
Not Native here, but I grew up in Alaska in a town that was perhaps a quarter Native in population. I understand some of what you are talking about. The children were removed from their parents, placed in schools and not allowed to use their languages, clothing or traditional skills. In only a generation, the cultural connection was almost completely severed. Missionaries, who did not understand the culture, encouraged the destruction of traditional clothing, art and homes, saying that the objects were idols and symbols of pagan worship. A housepole that showed the history of an important family event was considered an idol, and its burning was a way of showing faith in the Christian god. I think at one time, there was only a single person left who know who to weave a Chilkat blanket. The Tlingets where I grew up have been working hard to reclaim their cultural heritage. I don't think any of my childhood friends spoke Tlinget, and very few of their parents did either. Many of their grandparents still knew the language, and by the time I was in highschool, they had elders coming into the school to teach.

I don't think it is easy for mainstream America to acknowledge not only the active genocide of Native peoples, but the cultural genocide that continued well into the 20th century. I also think that few Americans will acknowledge that the lovely Cherokee woman in their family tree may actually have been a light skinned African American and her ethnicity was cleansed to a more acceptable version of brown.

My BIL has a smidge of Native blood, he considers himself white/European American.

I call myself an American mutt. As far as I know, I am of only European ancestry, but since parts of the family have been in the Americas for 250 years, it is impossible to know without a great deal of research. I know I had a grandmother from Norway, a great-grand from Australia, a great-grand from Wales and two great-grands from Denmark. After that, it's all a mess.
 
My grandpa was adopted. I know he lived with the cherokees. How can i find out who his real parents were? Also my moms dad died when she was 5. My grandma wont talk about him. Think it be tacky if i asked my great grandma.
 
I am Mexican and therefore a mix of several tribes (some are tribal and others are ethnic groups because they are larger and don't follow tribal rules but rules more similar to municipalities).

The Spanish were more cruel than the English and the French. They didn't seek segregation and then extermination as in the USA but forced assimilation and fealty/loyaly to the crown. All for the greater glory of the Holy Roman Empire, work, souls and rare earth minerals.

So they moved us around so we couldn't speak each other's languages and therefore not reach a critical mass for rebellion.

Although there were many rebellions and 2 revolutions which the Mexican Indians and mixed people (mestizos) won, the victories were short lived because the Native forces were completely depleted and had nowhere to run for replenishment....the Mexican born Spaniards...soon asked for help from Europe or the USA, restarted the war and ended the short lived Native governments.

I am Purepecha (Tarascan), Y'oeme (Yaqui) and Raramuri (Tarahumara) and currently live on a Lakota reservation.
 
I'm 1/16... something. My Great-Grandmother refused to acknowledge it. She's out of the Missouri area. Anthropologist friends have speculated whether the Natives in that area were Oto? Not sure. It's all very vague. I wish I knew more.
 
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