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Well, sure. Since the only people in the country when Columbus (who never actually arrived in the U.S. ... ) were Native Americans. So, if that's your criteria, 100% would have Native American blood.
Several years ago, my wife discovered that she has some Native American ancestry. One her colonial ancestors married one. It was a reward for a good deed. Can't remember exactly. We forget that getting married for love is a modern concept.
I think some whites say because its the "in" thing to do.
I don't hear it often though,but I'm in the northeastern Usa.
I think its more popular down south, and my theory is some people made an African ancestor morph into a Native American.
I think some whites say because its the "in" thing to do.
I don't hear it often though,but I'm in the northeastern Usa.
I think its more popular down south, and my theory is some people made an African ancestor morph into a Native American.
I grew up in NJ, and I used to hear a lot of people claim that they had NDN ancestry growing up. I was pretty skeptical about that even as a kid. I think you're correct--it's some sort of bizarre "in" thing to claim.
I have no such ancestry, and we've always known that. However, my sister does our genealogy and was talking to my brothers about it, and they seem to have thought we had some NDN ancestry because my oldest brother, now deceased, told them that. I have no idea why he would have said something like that to them, but it isn't true.
I remember when I was a child in Virginia, and the "in" thing was to have a Cherokee princess as a grandmother. All of my friends claimed to have one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaseMan
I always wonder where that came from. Seems like a weird "trend" in genealogy.
It's what I call "aspirational genealogy." People want to claim some piece of heritage that they think makes them look good, whether that link is genuine or not. When the movie "Dances With Wolves" came out, there was a big upsurge in people claiming native American ancestry.
On the PBS series that Henry Louis Gates Jr. has hosted, like "Finding your Roots," they've been using "DNA genealogy" to try to push understandings of family heritage past where paper records run out. And one of the things he's found to be common among people of African-American heritage is oral histories of native American ancestors. But in many of the cases they've checked so far, there's actually no native American DNA present.
IOW, it's a common romantic idea which often is not true.
DNA genealogy is full of surprises for many people. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., graduate of Yale, distinguished professor of African American Studies at Harvard, perhaps the most celebrated scholar and teacher in his field, found out through DNA analysis that his heritage is actually 50% European. And he has the intelligence to see the irony in that, and to regard the fact with humor.
My maternal grandmother's father was illegitimate. Nobody knows who his biological father was. So perhaps I have some Native American/Indian blood or not in my ancestry.
My family tree includes a great-great-grandmother with an "Indian sounding" name, so it's often claimed that we are 1/[whatever] native American. That being said, I agree with an earlier post that most people who claim partial Native American ancestry really have partial Negroid ancestry. Like the Melungeons of Appalachia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YaFace
Since nobody was "Native American" (the people you speak of are Mongoloid, and came from Asia) and the true "Native Americans" were the people who were here in 1776 when the USA became a country, I would say a HUGE percentage of white people.
I realize this is an old post and probably a troll to boot, but it's completely wrong. "Americans" consist of residents of both North America and South America. Canadians are technical Americans, as are Brazilians. The year 1776 has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this thread.
That being said, I agree with an earlier post that most people who claim partial Native American ancestry really have partial Negroid ancestry.
If you're going to be such a stickler about the use of the word "American," you really should be more diligent against the use of obsolete words like "Negroid," which obtains from now thoroughly discredited racial theories. Notice that the NPR story uses the more accurate term "of African descent."
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