Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All I know is that many of the people who call themselves Cherokee or some other tribe that look NOTHING like true Native Americans. Why are so many fake people trying to pass for Native American when they are clearly not.
Many try to establish a certain percentage Cherokee so they can claim benefits, particularly scholarships for their children. The scholarships do not apply to adopted children, so that wouldn't help me. I'm just interested in my heritage.
Ummm... I don't know if the above post was directed at me, but I never claimed I decsended from a princess anything. My story, which does have verification, is that my g-grandmother was somehow placed with a white family to avoid being sent away. She assimilated into the white world. Like many did. They land there is awash in gas and coal, I inherited a small acerage and get royalities----oh, do you know what I mean by royalities? It has nothing to do with being a princess. Its a small amount of the money earned from the gas production.......well, go figure!
BTW, how do you do this test?---Thanks for the info!
I just find it interesting I have so many different ancestors, hey its a hobby, chill out!
No honey...you chill out
I'm the one who took a DNA test,have a gedcom file, use triangulation software on gedmatch,constantly updating and downloading my relative finder/ancestry finder spreadsheets, have uploaded my raw dna file to dodecad, mdlp, harappa,etc to get alternative analysis...which means it really is a hobby for me!
The post wasn't aimed at you...just generally. I know so many people who claim Cherokee heritage from places like..um, Boston.
Yeah,,lots o' Cherokees there.
Not.
It's $99. The tests are CHEAP now. Super cheap.
It's time to let Dna tell the truth, not family legends.
I also find it funny how I am biracial and I am viewed as not mixed by white people and when I say I am mixed and can prove it because both my parents are obviously different races. and got my paper trail in the form of my birth certificate...yet I am LABELED as one thing by white people.
Whereas...white people who say they are native american get to brag about being mixed and disregard my own very recent admixture. They get to choose to be white when it suits them and then get to play the native american card when they want to seem, uh, exotic. I don't even think it's about getting benefits. I can't tell you how many times I'm at a party and some person will ask what my background is...there is always some white girl who has to chime in "I'm mixed too! I'm part Cherokee!"
It's like the mixed race olympics or something. But lucky them..phenotypically they can pull the caucasian card and not have to deal with the reality of being viewed as an actual minority. All the perks...none of the downsides!
I just shake my head. I guarantee only the smart people will get it and others wont'.
Guarantee.
That's why I think one should just forget whatever great great great grandma told someone without a paper trail. Spit in a tube. Send it to the 23andme lab...and be prepared for the truth. Maybe one really is native. YEah! ANd maybe one isn't or it's too far back to count. Some tests will take you all the way back to the crossing of the Bering Straight. That's too far back for me. 23andme's AncestryComposition goes back 500 years which is still recent in geneological years.
Last edited by apriltrainer; 02-22-2013 at 02:01 AM..
My very white cousin was so convinced he was part Cherokee. Spouting stuff about how evil the white men were.(despite the fact he is CAUCASIAN!) Now don't get me wrong, I know someone can look very white and be native. When I was in the army one of the girls was a red haired, freckled card carrying member of the Cherokee nation! ....to the end of the post...
Thank you so much for sharing that with us. What an interesting story. I can understand your cousin's point of view of feeling bored with just white ancestry. I wish I could say I had something more exotic in me too but I don't. I've always thought of myself as just a piece of old stale white bread. That is until I started looking into my Celt heritage and found a lot of very interesting history or just lore about them. Now I'm prouder to announce my heritage because the Celts were quite something back in their hayday and also had some rather humorous traditions as well. My Celts ancestors are probably where I got my bizzare sense of humor.
So anyway, I bow to you, my Celt sister, as I thank you again for sharing your story. It was from an angle I had never heard before.
I wonder if the "I'm descended from a Cherokee princess!" story has some kind of traceable genesis. For example, was this a story parents once told children at bedtime or something and it morphed into people growing up believing it was their actual heritage? It's just weird that there are so many of them, it's always Cherokee, and it's always a "princess" (Did Cherokees actually have something equivalent to a princess anyway??? I'm thinking it just means a daughter of someone of high rank in an Indian society structure, but "princess" is pretty much a European monarchy term.)
I'm of Dutch and English descent. My sister who does the genealogy found out last year that the g-g-grandmother who arrived here from England in 1863 was actually born in Dublin, so that was a bit of a surprise, and some of the Dutch came over with French-and Spanish-sounding last names, but we can't get any farther back than The Netherlands on them.
No royalty. Farmers and mill workers.
She has sent for the DNA results, and we're waiting for that to come back, but we really don't expect any big surprises. Probably not even a Lenape mixed up with my Jersey Dutch ancestors.
Everyone claims they have a cherokee princess grandma.
Always a Cherokee
Always 1/8th
Always a Princess (all native women were called princesses back then, but some uninformed nutjobs today think they're part royalty because of that)
Always a Grandma on the mother's side
I don't dispute with people when they claim they have native ancestors, but once they go get drunk while wearing a headdress, and then claim that they can do it because they're "part indian" and "it's my culture!!", then yeah I can't take that seriously.
Based upon what I know of the eastern band of the cherokee which was the original Cherokee.
The Cherokee Clans had no princesses. Cherokees were matrilineal . Women owned the land and the clans. The chief inherited the title through his mother. When a woman married she had to marry from another clan. She could divorce her husband, by putting his person items outside their home and he had to return to his original clan. She kept the children. Women were on the council and were advisors on many levels.
There were 7 clans (originally 14) in the Cherokee nation headed by a senior chief and council. The white chief in peacetime, the red chief during war. Again women determined who would be chief. Plus each clan had a chief and council.
Cherokee were not migratory but lived in towns and had log cabins similar to the long houses of their Iroquis relations. Men would go off and hunt, raid or fight and the women stayed home and planted crops, etc. Maybe better to say they lived in towns and weren't specifically migratory as in following the herds.
There were no Tee Pees, no Pow Wows, none of that stuff that might be associated with western tribes or maybe the Cherokee once they moved west. There were about 4 festivals a year where they got together and made decisions, etc. They wore cloth, not what you think of as leather outfits that we used to see on tv/movies. Men might have worn something like chaps when they were out hunting or anything moving through the brush and all.
Perhaps I am off some, but not by much.
Today
The Eastern Band of the Cherokee bases tribal membership only on source lineage to specific government rolls and it must be more than 1/32. They do NOT use DNA except for establishing paternity. Even if you are 50% you cannot qualify for membership without sourced lineage. Hence not much reason to try for membership for benefits, if any unless you have that documentation.
My theory on why so many claim a Cherokee ancestor is that the Cherokee assimilated and intermarried with white traders, etc from early on. So many people had a relative who was Cherokee and stories grow from there.
Last edited by theoldnorthstate; 02-22-2013 at 06:19 PM..
Based upon what I know of the eastern band of the cherokee which was the original Cherokee.
The Cherokee Clans had no princesses. Cherokees were matrilineal . Women owned the land and the clans. The chief inherited the title through his mother. When a woman married she had to marry from another clan. She could divorce her husband, by putting his person items outside their home and he had to return to his original clan. She kept the children. Women were on the council and were advisors on many levels.
There were 7 clans (originally 14) in the Cherokee nation headed by a senior chief and council. The white chief in peacetime, the red chief during war. Again women determined who would be chief. Plus each clan had a chief and council.
Cherokee were not migratory but lived in towns and had log cabins similar to the long houses of their Iroquis relations. Men would go off and hunt, raid or fight and the women stayed home and planted crops, etc. Maybe better to say they lived in towns and weren't specifically migratory as in following the herds.
There were no Tee Pees, no Pow Wows, none of that stuff that might be associated with western tribes or maybe the Cherokee once they moved west. There were about 4 festivals a year where they got together and made decisions, etc. They wore cloth, not what you think of as leather outfits that we used to see on tv/movies. Men might have worn something like chaps when they were out hunting or anything moving through the brush and all.
Perhaps I am off some, but not by much.
Today
The Eastern Band of the Cherokee bases tribal membership only on source lineage to specific government rolls and it must be more than 1/32. They do NOT use DNA except for establishing paternity. Even if you are 50% you cannot qualify for membership without sourced lineage. Hence not much reason to try for membership for benefits, if any unless you have that documentation.
My theory on why so many claim a Cherokee ancestor is that the Cherokee assimilated and intermarried with white traders, etc from early on. So many people had a relative who was Cherokee and stories grow from there.
DNA can still be very useful. It will shut the people up who do keep claiming to be Cherokee who aren't. AND TOTALLY Agree with one of the above posters about those people who get all drunk put on headresses and then start claiming they can do it because "they are indian and it's their culture."
I am not even Native American and I would be offended.
Plus as someone who is MIXED RACE... I am sick of playing the mixed race olympics with white people who love to out mix me...
I do not understand! I am telling ya, everytime I get asked what I am I always always always have a white person, usually a fellow female, (so much for sisterhood) that feels the need to compete and starts throwing out all the various ethnicities...
as If I coulnd't claim just as much European too except...except..I can't add Cherokee princess. But inevitably this girl..ex.. a girl from Boston is IRISH, French, Italian, maybe a little russian, Greek, etc.etc. ad nauseuam..and then..and then..
the inevitable Cherokee princess.
There are just SO so many in Boston! HA HA HA!
Uh, if you want to be mixed so bad..go find yourself someone to mix with. Oh wait, the kind of people who claim Cherokee princesses wouldn't actually be the kind that would actually even think of sleeping with a person of color. Best to claim it even if it is false. The deed was done by one's ancestor. you can claim a bit of nonwhiteness...
SAD. As a Person who is half white.. BE PROUD OF YOUR EUROPEAN HERITAGE. HEck, if some of you with false histories of Cherokee grandmothers won't...I'll celebrate it for ya! I am going to celebrate the heck out of St. Paddy's day. Whether you join me or not!
And please..please..stop playing the mixed race olympics with people that are recently very mixed. It's tiresome.
Last edited by apriltrainer; 02-22-2013 at 07:15 PM..
I might have heard it before about Cherokees being matriarchal but hearing it again put a big ole smile on my face. I have no N/A in me at all yet the thought of women taking charge on such a male dominated planet is pretty cool. I especially liked your mention of all a woman had to do to divorce her husband was to put his stuff outside the house. he he. My imagination gets the better of me sometimes and being a visual person I can see a man on his way home from hunting and everyone in town is staring at him with either pity or a snicker on their face because they've already seen his stuff sitting outside his house. He's thinking, "What? What you looking at? Why's everybody staring at me?" I must have a cruel streak in me because that vision gives me a chuckle. How embarrassing that must of been for men. Everyone can see your wife's had enough of your shenanigans and is kicking you to the curb. It's bad enough in private, but a real punch in the gut done in public. Only a woman run society would come up with something so, so castrating - for lack of a better word.
Don't worry though, I have a heart and I adore men, I'm not bashing. It just sort of makes up for all the male run societies that treated, and some countries still do treat, their women as nothing more than chattle. I doubt the Cherokee women back then would have allowed the white man's law - of that same era - to let a man beat his wife with a stick as long as it was less than 1/4” in diameter be apart of their community. In fact it might have been the reverse. However cruelty to a spouse be they male or female is not right. I just wanted to clarify that I know that.
Anyway, why is it always a princess who is the ancestor? It's like people who feel they were reincarnated are never ordinary folks, they were always kings, pharohs, queens or empresses. I'm sure I would have been just an ordinary shelep(?)trying to make it from day to day – I'm too uncouth in this life to have ever been royality.
I might have heard it before about Cherokees being matriarchal but hearing it again put a big ole smile on my face. I have no N/A in me at all yet the thought of women taking charge on such a male dominated planet is pretty cool. I especially liked your mention of all a woman had to do to divorce her husband was to put his stuff outside the house. he he. My imagination gets the better of me sometimes and being a visual person I can see a man on his way home from hunting and everyone in town is staring at him with either pity or a snicker on their face because they've already seen his stuff sitting outside his house. He's thinking, "What? What you looking at? Why's everybody staring at me?" I must have a cruel streak in me because that vision gives me a chuckle. How embarrassing that must of been for men. Everyone can see your wife's had enough of your shenanigans and is kicking you to the curb. It's bad enough in private, but a real punch in the gut done in public. Only a woman run society would come up with something so, so castrating - for lack of a better word.
Don't worry though, I have a heart and I adore men, I'm not bashing. It just sort of makes up for all the male run societies that treated, and some countries still do treat, their women as nothing more than chattle. I doubt the Cherokee women back then would have allowed the white man's law - of that same era - to let a man beat his wife with a stick as long as it was less than 1/4” in diameter be apart of their community. In fact it might have been the reverse. However cruelty to a spouse be they male or female is not right. I just wanted to clarify that I know that.
Anyway, why is it always a princess who is the ancestor? It's like people who feel they were reincarnated are never ordinary folks, they were always kings, pharohs, queens or empresses. I'm sure I would have been just an ordinary shelep(?)trying to make it from day to day – I'm too uncouth in this life to have ever been royality.
Speaking of reincarnation....I went to this festival a few years back where a woman was reading past lives. Unfortunately I was not a queen, pharoh or a cherokee princess.
But I was a soldier in Genghis Khan's army. I raped and pillaged and killed.
(I don't believe in reincarnation at all but I thought it was pretty..hilarious that I was just so violent in my past. She also read my boyfriends and I had supposedly raped and killed him on my genghis khan adventures....) The horror!
Anyways, the matrilineal line sounds great. The unfortunate thing is Cherokee women did allow the white man's law. Or at least were forced to accept it. The Trail of Tears and forced relocation for many of them tells you that the White man's law sometimes trumped ALL.
The fact that some Cherokee woman and men didn't register and aren't on these rolls because they didn't want to register as Native...
I'm sure not wanting to identify played a part. After watching your family and friends endure forced relocation...no wonder some native americans didn't want to register as native and didn't pass on their culture or history and became these legendary princess or warriors when they were probably just farmers!
Still..I don't think the majority of white america has cherokee ancestors. I do think after seeing my boyfriends Dna results that ALOT of old families that have roots here since the Mayflower may actually have a small percentage of it. But I think if one is from Vermont(like my bf) it aint' Cherokee. It's whatever tribe was native to that area at the time of admixture.
My white ancestors are pretty recent. My german ancestors came in 1890. My Irish? 1903. I have no idea why my cousin even thought there was time for our European ancestors to come here from Ellis island(for my German ones, Or my Irish relative landing in Nova Scotia and then sneaking over to the East coast.). in order to meet some cherokee princess to put it in the bloodline.
A simple search for some people will clear ALOT of that up.
And if you do find out one is native from a Dna test like my boyfriend and you are from Maine or Washington State...do some RESEARCH. Find out the tribes that lived in the area around the generation you would have received that percentage. You'd really HONOR your heritage by not throwing around Cherokee. ANd one even might feel more connected to it.
I know that I could have just got my DNA test that said I was 50.3 percent European and stopped there. But I wanted to research the other parts...and I felt the more I REALLY LEARNED. THE closer I feel a part of them, no matter the generational distance.
I am glad I didn't just see I was 50.3 percent European and decide to go to a map and decide to celebrate my Polish heritage.(because I am not Polish! I'm actually German and Irish!)
Do you guys get it? I am half European but I am not just picking out some nationality that isn't even MINE. That's what alot of white Americans do if they think they have Native American Ancestry. 9 times out of 10- they claim cherokee.
If you find our you are indeed partially Native...don't just pick Cherokee. Do the research. Don't be lazy. If you really are proud of it..you will want to know. Honor your ancestors. Not strangers.
Last edited by apriltrainer; 02-23-2013 at 06:15 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
