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.
Even if the 1/32nd "indian" ancestry was true. I wouldn't even see the reason to point that out.
I do things like that if we're having a prolonged, honest discussion about ethnicity and there's time to go into every single little thing I am (I'm pretty mixed), but otherwise I only say what I'm most of (I get asked quite a bit).
/ Instant "guilt be gone:.
Identify with the pressed./
Among the other reasons mentioned in this thread, I thought of this also.
In the Sixties the Jet Set made it trendy to invite members of the Black Panthers to their soirees. I read that as a signal that they were "down with the struggle."
Most do not. If you are a white or black American, and have any actual indian ancestry, you are the rare exception.
How did so many people get this idea? It can't be a coincidence. What happened in the past, that caused so many people to believe they are native American? There has to be some kind of explanation.
We were just discussing this on another thread (maybe in Psychology) that was about stories parents told kids that they used to believe were true.
For some reason, many Americans, black and white, think they have Indian ancestry and then when they get their DNA checked, they found out it isn't true. They are almost always Cherokee, and the ancestor is almost always a "princess" great-grandmother.
Is it an old story parents a few generations ago told their kids that somehow they grew up thinking it was real and passed it down as fact?
I remember kids here in New Jersey claiming they had Cherokee great-grandmothers when I was in school.
It's weird. I wonder if the story can be traced back to a source somewhere.
She does it, because she is proud of who she is, and it makes some people feel she is one of them. Helps get votes from certain levels of her constituents. Some people are ashamed and hide the fact they have some indian blood. Others brag about it.
When you do genealogical research on a person, you often find that they do not have the ancestry that they believe. My maternal grandmother always told everyone that my grandfather was French. Fact: He was Dutch not French when I ran his family tree. She thought she was English as her maiden name had been Post and was a descendant of Stephen Post who came to U.S. in 1632 to be an officer at Ft Saybrook. Fact his grandparents on both sides had moved from Holland to England and Post was not really his family name. Fact: I ran her family tree, and found up to 2 generations back it had been Van der Post, and she was 3/4ths Dutch. Her family had been in the US since 1632, and they had dropped the Van der part of their name when they moved to England.
I used to volunteer at a Family History Center where people went to research their ancestry. I learned a lot of people are not what they think they are when it comes to ancestry. 1/32nd or more American Indian is very, very, common and a lot of people found they had American Indian ancestry back a few generations if their family was long established in this country. My wife is 1/16th Cherokee which she feels is great. Her mother, denied she had any Indian in her, and was 1/8th Cherokee. Her ancestry goes right back to an American Indian wife that Daniel Boone had taken when he was away from home for a period of time.
I know from experience helping people do research, that if your family has been in the country for 3 or 4 generations and more, it is not unusual to have Indian Ancestry. Especially starting in Oklahoma and going further north and towards the North East. A lot of people were real shocked to find who they really were in the blood lines.
Hmm. Most of my family came here in the nineteenth century, but there is one branch we've traced back to pre-Revolutionary New England. My sister had the DNA checked. Overwhelmingly British Isles, Scandinavian, and Western Europe, in that order, which was a little surprising because the majority of our ancestors came here from The Netherlands, which is Western Europe--but who knows where they were before that?
No American Indian ancestry whatsoever, but we never thought there was. Our biggest discovery was that our great-great-grandmother was born in Dublin, not England. Everyone always thinks I'm Irish and I denied it!
This seems to be more of a Southern phenomenon, and I'm not sure how widespread it actually is. Here in Wisconsin there are several Indian tribes still in existence, and I've never met any white or black person claiming to be part Native American.
No, I am telling you, I've lived in New Jersey all my life, and people here always claim Indian ancestry. I had this conversation about this phenomenon with someone I know a year or so ago and she looked at me, dead serious, and said, "Well, my boyfriend REALLY does have Indian ancestry--his great-grandmother was a Cherokee." It's so ingrained in people that they don't question it.
What I want to know is, how did all these supposed Cherokees end up in NEW JERSEY at a time when the actual tribes who are known to have lived here were already long gone?
My brother-in-law, who is black, was always told that his great-grandfather on his father's side was an Indian. Now we've traced his family back to the mid-nineteenth century--they lived in lower New York State and Central New Jersey--and there's no evidence of it. By that time any true Indian blood was pretty much gone from those parts. Eventually he did the DNA--not a speck of Indian ancestry.
/It's weird. I wonder if the story can be traced back to a source somewhere./
I wondered about this also. And though I couldn't find anything definitive in a quick search, I did find several sites that discussed the phenomenon and possible reasons for it. I suppose it makes sense that more than one family came up with the idea of ways to disguise or enhance blood lines of which they didn't approve.
(A classmate died this week. I feel sorry for any family historians in the future who depend on his obituary for reliable information!)
I wondered about this also. And though I couldn't find anything definitive in a quick search, I did find several sites that discussed the phenomenon and possible reasons for it. I suppose it makes sense that more than one family came up with the idea of ways to disguise or enhance blood lines of which they didn't approve.
(A classmate died this week. I feel sorry for any family historians in the future who depend on his obituary for reliable information!)
I just find it very curious that it's almost always a Cherokee and a great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother. And she is usually a daughter of a high-ranking man (they didn't actually HAVE princesses, lol). When a story is told like that over and over and the details remain the same, there must have been some original source that started these tales, like a popular bedtime story or something that eventually became part of family lore as if it were true.
It's kind of like being a detective. I want to find out how this started.
No, I am telling you, I've lived in New Jersey all my life, and people here always claim Indian ancestry. I had this conversation about this phenomenon with someone I know a year or so ago and she looked at me, dead serious, and said, "Well, my boyfriend REALLY does have Indian ancestry--his great-grandmother was a Cherokee." It's so ingrained in people that they don't question it.
What I want to know is, how did all these supposed Cherokees end up in NEW JERSEY at a time when the actual tribes who are known to have lived here were already long gone?
My brother-in-law, who is black, was always told that his great-grandfather on his father's side was an Indian. Now we've traced his family back to the mid-nineteenth century--they lived in lower New York State and Central New Jersey--and there's no evidence of it. By that time any true Indian blood was pretty much gone from those parts. Eventually he did the DNA--not a speck of Indian ancestry.
Well, I was born in "lower New York state" (note number in my screen name ), and can only speak for myself, but how this 'part Cherokee' was from NY was my father who was born in Oklahoma met my mother in NY when he was on leave in the Army, and that's where he stayed after they got married.
So, some people do get around- geographically speaking.
I just find it very curious that it's almost always a Cherokee and a great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother. And she is usually a daughter of a high-ranking man (they didn't actually HAVE princesses, lol). When a story is told like that over and over and the details remain the same, there must have been some original source that started these tales, like a popular bedtime story or something that eventually became part of family lore as if it were true.
It's kind of like being a detective. I want to find out how this started.
Well, I'm nearly as curious as you about the origins of things. Maybe this site provides the earliest known example?
I find it very dubious that most white people I know who claim some Native ancestry, actually have light hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. For that matter, many Americans I know with Greek and Italian names have blonde hair and fair skin. While I, who am well-documented as totally northwest European ancestry, have dark hair and dark eyes.
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.
), and can only speak for myself, but how this 'part Cherokee' was from NY was my father who was born in Oklahoma met my mother in NY when he was on leave in the Army, and that's where he stayed after they got married. 
