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Native Americans (Indians) actually migrated from Central Asia to Alaska from the Bering straight and eventually settled around North America so they aren’t really native. The Vikings were the first inhabitants of America so technically blonde haired whites are the real native Americans
The Norse visits to the American continent took place toward the end of the 10th Century CE. Immigrants from Asia who became the American Indians began arriving in a migration which took place between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.
Everyone here has immigrant ancestors, anyone born here is a native American. Anyone born here, or anyone from elsewhere who has become a naturalized citizen, is a real American.
I can trace my ancestry back to the Mayflower on 3 branches and the Vikings on another. Although I'm proud of those facts it does not make me any more American than my cousins wife who immigrated from Poland 10 years ago.
The word Nation means a homogeneous society. Our Posterity in the Preamble means Our Race.
Nation does mean that. It also means (sovereign) state. Posterity does not mean that; it means future generations.
You can pretend that the only relevant definitions of words are the ones that you like and/or make up, but such self-indulgence means nothing to anyone else.
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Originally Posted by KindredBorn
If one takes the time they can locate from original sources what many words in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence really mean.
You're posturing as a philologist is amusing in light of what you now proceed to claim.
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Originally Posted by KindredBorn
Read Federalist #2 for starters. Thomas Jefferson suggested to read Shakespeare to know English in its purest form.
The English language predates Shakespeare by over a millennium, a period during which its West Germanic vocabulary was heavily augmented by loan-words from North Germanic Danish and then French (not a Germanic language at all), among many others radical changes to the language brought by the various Germanic tribes to British shores. Not the least of these was the Great Vowel Shift, which ushered in the period of Modern English, but grammar and spelling - indeed, every aspect of the language - underwent significant changes. And Shakespeare was arguably the most prolific individual inventor of new words English has ever seen.
The very idea of linguistic purity is only so much racial/jingoistic clap-trap, and the notion that Shakespeare's canon or that the man himself represent some sort of original and untainted state of English is laughable.
By the way, Thomas Jefferson did not write any of the Federalist Papers. No. 2 was written by John Jay and had nothing to do with either English or Shakespeare. You are apparently confused over a personal/private letter written by Jefferson (as opposed to the Federalist Papers, which were intended for public consumption), in which he commented on the utility of reading Shakespeare in understanding the scope and capacity (he never mentioned 'purity' or even implied as much) of English. Indeed, while Jefferson admired Shakespeare greatly, he was an advocate for a common movement at the time among the literati to 'improve' Shakespeare - which, of course, involved altering the original texts. Not exactly the thing done by someone who reveres something as the pinnacle of purity.
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Originally Posted by KindredBorn
Kind and Natural children can be found in Henry V. There were Kind and Natural children prior to 1865.
My goal is helping folks understand why the Founders used certain words...remember their language was Middle English.
The period of Middle English ended around 1500, over two and a half centuries before the Founders did their founding. Even the Early Modern English period was long over by the time of the Founders.
You have done nothing here except demonstrate your gross misunderstanding of language and considerable confusion over who wrote something and what that something comprised.
There's no magic date that designates "real" Americans. There's not even a magic language or culture of origin or religion that delineates "real" Americans. New Mexico, named after the Aztec state and not the modern country of Mexico, predates the English and Dutch colonizing efforts on the Atlantic coast. After St. Augustine in Florida, the Spanish were putting down roots in northern New Mexico around 1595. Most of the early Spanish family descendants are still living there. The French came next to Port Royal a few years before Jamestown. I had an ancestor sailing with Henry Hudson on the 1609 trip up the Hudson River to the eventual site of Albany and his kids settled along the river valley. My French Huguenot ancestors and kin were refugees fleeing religious persecution (and the plague) settling in the relative safety of New York, Virginia, and South Carolina in the 1600s. African slaves arrived in 1619. None of these settlers spoke English or followed any one preferred religion. i heard people still speaking a version of French in Missouri in the 1970s. The Cajun culture and language still exists. The Gullah have a distinct language and culture. My early German settler ancestors spoke and published newspapers in German well into the 1900s. The image some people have of an America that was somehow homogeneous and uniform before some acceptable date is laughable. It has always been a very diverse and multicultural society. That is a strength not a weakness.
My mom is from Japan, my dad is a white American. Am I really American? Lol. I sure feel 100 percent American, even though I was born in Japan 🇯🇵. ( my dad was a US marine) I do believe most Americans accept racial minorities I think Americans accept other people who are different from them for the most part if you don't bother them and mind your own business. My mother and I had a discussion that was sort of related to this topic. She said she hates that some white people think African Americans/ american blacks don't belong in America or to America when blacks have been in America since the beginning of the USA. She said blacks have been in America and have roots in America that go further than some white Americans. So there's that.
Quite frankly, I don't really have a big issue with this type of inquiry. It puts the onus on recent immigrants and their descendants who are of other ethnic origins to prove that they are loyal Americans. It seems like more of a good thing than a bad thing. I feel like Italian-Americans rose to the occasion at least in part because we had something to prove.
I really don't have issues with these types of inquiries either although ...
I think there are a lot of American people who are tired of being divided. Suspicious of the labeling & bored to tears with the partisan rhetoric & sophistry. Many Americans have lost trust & sometimes respect for a government, that sometimes (no matter which 'team' is in office atm) acts irresponsibly & incompetently.
Although never codified by law 'E pluribus unum' (Latin for "Out of many, one" alternatively translated as "One out of many" or "One from many") was considered the de facto motto of the United States until 1956 when the United States Congress passed an act (H. J. Resolution 396), adopting "In God We Trust" as the official motto.
Native Americans (Indians) actually migrated from Central Asia to Alaska from the Bering straight and eventually settled around North America so they aren’t really native. The Vikings were the first inhabitants of America so technically blonde haired whites are the real native Americans
Arriving by boat makes you native, but walking over doesn't? That's quite a stretch and seems a rather arbitrary distinction. Try again.
When we lived in New Mexico I can remember driving to Arizona because my mom wanted to look up some kin on her mother's side of the family. My dad parked in front of this building and gave us kids strict instructions to "stay in the car" as he and my mom went inside. There were some Apache kids throwing a football around and they kept looking over at us, motioning for me and my brother to join them. We were tempted but we knew our sisters would rat on us. They were in that building for about an hour and finally came out with some old guy wearing a cowboy hat. They stood out front talking for a while and he handed my mom some papers. They contained information about some of our relatives, not much as I recall.
One of my sister's kids took those papers to school for a project on Native Americans and I never saw them again.
My uncle told me that we have at least three ancestors that signed the Declaration of Independence. I remember one of the names was Hart and another was Smith. I never did a search on them to find out how we were related.
The reason I feel like an American is because I was born here and so were my parents. Hell, I never set foot out of this country.
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