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I assume we're not counting Peruvians, Mexicans, etc. of Amerindian descent as American Indians in this thread?
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Originally Posted by polo89
I've encountered alot of this in the South also. Alot of swarthy Whites, who look like they have native-american in them. I know a few CERTIFIED Native-American/Whites. Same applies with lighter-toned Black Creoles with Native-American in them. Beyonce's a good example.
There were a lot of stories of quite a few early Scots-Irish settlers who hit the hills and "went native." Some would have mixed children. Others would just wear the clothes. I'm betting after a few generations in the mountains, people lost track of which group was which (especially if you could tell a good story).
I assume we're not counting Peruvians, Mexicans, etc. of Amerindian descent as American Indians in this thread?
I wouldn't imagine - they're not native to the territory now known as the US. That would be like including (for example) Taiwanese aboriginals, who are certainly native to somewhere, but not the United States.
I wouldn't imagine - they're not native to the territory now known as the US. That would be like including (for example) Taiwanese aboriginals, who are certainly native to somewhere, but not the United States.
Some Nortemexicanos may belong to tribes that originally lived in the U.S. The border is pretty fuzzy/arbitrary down there.
In Wisconsin over the years, the worst numbers for poverty, crime, drug abuse, etc., are often batted back-and-forth between the central city (black) Milwaukee and the Menomonee reservation in NE Wisconsin. This also holds true for many of the poorest counties in the country, which are generally either reservation or inner city. The plight of both are actually often quite similar (dependent on the reservation/city), one in an urban setting and the other rural. Going back to the OP, yes, blacks tend to be the cause celebre (government sanctioned slavery) while natives are forgotten (government directed genocide). I believe someone above mentioned location - you can see black/Hispanic/etc poverty right in NYC/Chicago/LA, while you have to live out in the sticks to be familiar with reservation poverty.
Regardless, living in Wisconsin I've had a lot of contact with natives and have many friends who are (off-reservation) natives. It's odd to me hearing people from around the country that never come in contact with them/don't know the first thing about their history or current plight, because it was just a part of growing up in NE Wisconsin for all of us. Some tribes have done very well for themselves; many are devastated. I don't see much changing in the future.
I wouldn't imagine - they're not native to the territory now known as the US. That would be like including (for example) Taiwanese aboriginals, who are certainly native to somewhere, but not the United States.
Taiwan is another continent. The vast majority of Native American (North, central and South America) share the same DNA. There was much movement of Native people over the border. Not just between the U.S and Mexico but between Canada and the U.S aswell. There was trade between southerwestern pueblos with Mesoamerica. And languages from the uto-aztecan language family stretched from what is now Oregon and Idaho all the way south to present day El Salvador, Central America. Modern borders do NOT define Native people.
I don't they are forgotten here in Oregon. And I think they are also quite visible. If you want to talk about forgotten minorities there are the Pacific Islanders. They have small communities here in the Portland area. They are seen in the Portland and the surrounding area from time to time. They are far less visible than the Native American Indians who often hold culture events here for all to attend as well as operate casinos.
But how many people think of the Pacific Islanders in other parts of the country? Yet most people are still familiar with the Native American Indians. So I wouldn't call them the "forgotten minority."
Whose culture is forgotten probably depends upon what part of the country they were trying to live in at the time someone else came over and decided they didn't belong there.
Gee! Based on the replies I read here, there are plenty of "Native Americans" or "indians" around. There culture seems to be preserved by their tribes and laws that apply to them such as special privileges in fishing licences, traditional hunting and activities on reservations.
I guess if you look, you will find them. Even here in New Hampshire I find people proud of their Indian heritage. They even get tattoos with designs related to their heritage.
To somehow think that because your dead ancestors are from another part of this planet, that you are somehow not native being born in the United States is just stupid. You are not responsible for the actions of your ancestors.. The world is a smaller place then it was, find something better to guilt about.
I don't "blame" any group of people generically or unilaterally and I'm not invested in "guilting" anyone. There is truth and merit in your opinion, defensive though it is. On closer inspection, when you are in a community where you can see people from certain families that "settled" a particular area and they have passed down certain wealth, power, and financial benefits to their descendants that was ill-begotten (through rape, murder, slavery, cheating, and other illegal means- often even by the legal standards of their own society) and then you have the descendants of those who were on the receiving end of their misdeeds, then it is fair to raise issues of accountability. That is not an issue of race as much as it is family lines, although racial and cultural difference lies at the heart of where these problems started: certain people were treated inhumanely because they were thought to be less than human.
In many communities across the United States, you have situations like this where its not "all of group X" generically pointing fingers at "all of another group Y." In California, for example, its documented that many Indian communities were being exterminated 100-150 years ago to the benefit of certain individuals. The names of the families involved in the genocide are known, their descendants still benefit from stolen land and resources gained as a consequence of that, and the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the survivors still fight for the right be recognized as legally still existing. On one hand you have government culpability for honoring their laws only to the benefit and protection of some, not all. On the other hand, there is civil culpability for the individuals (that's why people who stole from Jews during WWII still make the news today when the stolen goods are discovered).
You don't have to assume guilt about that on behalf of any race to acknowledge, just as a human, things that happened were WRONG. Every person who shares a skin tone need not be held responsible, nobody needs to be denied access to college, but it is morally and ethically wrong for people whose ancestors have committed terrible crimes to still financially benefit from those crimes and not right the wrong. Only to the extent that descendants benefit financially and socially, that they know they are benefiting and do nothing, does that, in my opinion, make them at all culpable. Of course we are not responsible for the actions of our ancestors; we are only responsible for our own actions (or lack of action).
Of course, business in the American way usually means getting ahead by any and all means necessary, putting the self and one's money first ahead of ethics and doing the right thing.......no illusions about that. Unfortunately few who "have" seem to be in the moral right. Leaving the mostly "have-nots" to get into pissing matches....
I live in LA, me and my family are native, mixed with Mexican and when it comes to me and my brother, part Italian as well. LA has one of the largest populations by numbers of Native Americans but if you look at them you'll probably think they're Mexican In my high school there was one a grade above me that said she was half native, I saw a teen that would always wear an AIM shirt, and there was a Chumash girl in my PE class, I also think the probably homeless man in a pow wow T shirt is probably native, but as far as I know we don't have our own neighborhood or anything, I think there's a significant community in a part of Long Beach.
And Americans as a whole seem to forget about us as modern human beings, they'll use our image from 200 years ago, they'll think of us as a foreign other in casinos and reservations but modern native american issues don't seem to be known outside Indian country.
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and 
. That is all I have to say about it.
In my high school there was one a grade above me that said she was half native, I saw a teen that would always wear an AIM shirt, and there was a Chumash girl in my PE class, I also think the probably homeless man in a pow wow T shirt is probably native, but as far as I know we don't have our own neighborhood or anything, I think there's a significant community in a part of Long Beach.
