My theory on Africans, Native Americans, and African Americans (Indians, Germans, eyes)

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by HoodsofATL

Corn was a staple for food and crops for most-to-all indigenous throughout America, and they also used every part of the animal that they had hunted so chit'lins could have been introduced by the Natives to the Africans/African Americans

Same thing for people in parts of West Africa (Senegal, Gambia). The fact that African descendants in the Americas eat corn and chitlins is not necessarily a result of contact with Native Americans.

[yarddawg]

Originally Posted by HoodsofATL

History is written by the victor. With that said I believe that the interaction and relationship of Africans and the Natives was ignored, undocumented, and/or received no attention whatsoever. But from what I've read so far, my family history, and (my) logic has all pointed to just that. And BTW you're right about the Carribean about Africans and the Native Americans of North America did have a quasi-unison. But based on your logic on South America, the descendants of their ancestry should have more Spaniard blood rather than Native and that's not the case, in particular

Huh? Bits and pieces of it are pretty well documented. The colonists kept natives as slaves before they started importing Africans and there was overlap of several decades so there were a lot of natives and Africans living in close proximity in a few areas. South Carolina comes to mind immediately. Stuff happens.

In the early part of the 20th century a tool named Walter A. Plecker used Jim Crow one-drop laws to define all of the native americans remaining in Virginia out of existence based on them being part African. They're still having the devil's own time trying to get tribal recognition because of it. He also did fun stuff like research other people's genealogy and re-issue them a "colored" birth certificate if he found anything other than white ancestors even if the family had considered themselves "white" for three or four generations. To make it extra-special he would then often revise the race of the ancestors between them and the non-white individual in Virginia's official records. He could do that because he was the head of vital records. Google him, it's enough to make you grind your teeth. One branch of my family tree came from southwestern Virginia and because of all the record-revising I really have no clue what they were ethnically other than not 100% European.

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by yarddawg

Huh? Bits and pieces of it are pretty well documented. The colonists kept natives as slaves before they started importing Africans and there was overlap of several decades so there were a lot of natives and Africans living in close proximity in a few areas. South Carolina comes to mind immediately. Stuff happens.

In the early part of the 20th century a tool named Walter A. Plecker used Jim Crow one-drop laws to define all of the native americans remaining in Virginia out of existence based on them being part African. They're still having the devil's own time trying to get tribal recognition because of it. He also did fun stuff like research other people's genealogy and re-issue them a "colored" birth certificate if he found anything other than white ancestors even if the family had considered themselves "white" for three or four generations. To make it extra-special he would then often revise the race of the ancestors between them and the non-white individual in Virginia's official records. He could do that because he was the head of vital records. Google him, it's enough to make you grind your teeth. One branch of my family tree came from southwestern Virginia and because of all the record-revising I really have no clue what they were ethnically other than not 100% European.

Are you talking about people such as the Chickahominy?

[yarddawg]

Originally Posted by Lucario

Are you talking about people such as the Chickahominy?

Yeah, Chickahominy, Monacan, Nansemond, Rappahannock, Pamunkey and Mattaponi. Maybe a few others. Most (all?) have state recognition but Virginia destroyed or altered the records that are normally used to gain federal recognition.

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by yarddawg

Yeah, Chickahominy, Monacan, Nansemond, Rappahannock, Pamunkey and Mattaponi. Maybe a few others. Most (all?) have state recognition but Virginia destroyed or altered the records that are normally used to gain federal recognition.

I have friends with that background. Interesting people.

[thriftylefty]

During the Lewis and Clark Expedition, York, William Clark's body servant was a fascination to all the Native Americans along the journey. They had never seen a Black Man before. Many of the tribes had special names for York based on the fact that he was so odd looking to them. One tribe in particular called him a name roughly translated to mean a white man with black skin. Only the Seminoles to my knowledge have any significant ties to Native American culture as they are a Black sub-group of the Creeks.

Similarities between Black and South American culture can be attributed to the fact that the Spanish used the South American sugar cane plantations to train Africans into Slave culture before selling them in North America. Only 5% of the Africans taken to the new world were brought to North America.
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[Lucario]

Originally Posted by thriftylefty

During the Lewis and Clark Expedition, York, William Clark's body servant was a fascination to all the Native Americans along the journey. They had never seen a Black Man before. Many of the tribes had special names for York based on the fact that he was so odd looking to them. One tribe in particular called him a name roughly translated to mean a white man with black skin. Only the Seminoles to my knowledge have any significant ties to Native American culture as they are a Black sub-group of the Creeks.

Similarities between Black and South American culture can be attributed to the fact that the Spanish used the South American sugar cane plantations to train Africans into Slave culture before selling them in North America. Only 5% of the Africans taken to the new world were brought to North America.
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I am not quite sure of your point. Would you use the same construction when referring to North American culture? Black folks have greatly influenced North American culture as well as South American. So it makes sense to say that both North and South American culture have a lot of influence from that originally brought over by Black folks from Africa.

[ABQConvict]

Intermarriage between Natives and Africans was not uncommon. It was at least as common as intermarriage between Natives and Whites. Sadly, many Native Americans in the southwest are unusually racist in my experience. Probably from lack of experience/knowledge about races other than Whites (Spanish and Anglo).

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

Intermarriage between Natives and Africans was not uncommon. It was at least as common as intermarriage between Natives and Whites. Sadly, many Native Americans in the southwest are unusually racist in my experience. Probably from lack of experience/knowledge about races other than Whites (Spanish and Anglo).

I have an aunt that lives/works in a Native American area, and she agrees with this.

[thriftylefty]

Originally Posted by Lucario

I am not quite sure of your point. Would you use the same construction when referring to North American culture? Black folks have greatly influenced North American culture as well as South American. So it makes sense to say that both North and South American culture have a lot of influence from that originally brought over by Black folks from Africa.

Sure , North and South American culture have been influenced by African culture. Although Slavery under the Spanish was more brutal than Slavery under the English, they allowed more mixing between Spanish , African and Indian cultures, That's why in Brasil there are more people who are equally mixed with European, African and Indian heritage, than in the US.

When two distant cultures share certain a feature, that feature is referred to as a "Cultural Universal" for instance one reason many Black people in South America took to the Catholic Faith is that it resembled African rituals. Its many saints reminded them of their many deities.

In reference to the OP's theory, It is difficult to attribute all similarities between ethnic groups to the presence of cultural exchange. Language is the best indicator of exchange. I have heard some African Americans say "Okie Dokie" which is Creek.