The Cherokee in the family TRUTH or FICTION-claiming Native American-Dem. Senate Candidate Warren controversy

Here's another link where I got enough info to form my own opinion:

[link to news.yahoo.com]

The second link stated that on the 1894 application for marriage her ggg-grandma was listed as Cherokee on the electronic copy but they couldn't find the original.

I find it hard to believe that someone would fake the copy to claim that as heritage for such a thing.

If someone says they are of Scottish and German ancestry people don't ask for proof and there are a lot of people who couldn't prove it if they arrived here before Ellis Island was created. These people "landed" in North Carolina or Virginia and migrated west. Many people that were here this far back have mixed ancestry and can't prove any of it. She at least has something electronically that states it. Why does everyone criticize people for saying they have Native American ancestry, if they aren't looking for tribal membership, does it even matter? People of German descent feel celebrating October-fest is fun, Irish descent love to celebrate St. Patty's Day. She wanted to meet others others most likely to learn more about some of her ancestors. WHY IS THIS SUCH A HOT TOPIC WITH PEOPLE?

The people on the rez have a joke that some people if they get a cut and bleed will bleed out all of there native heritage-LOL.

Then there's the joke about people claiming that their ggg grandmother was a Cherokee princess. I've really not heard anyone claim this myself although many people from the Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas area claim native ancestry and it's usually one of the C's (Cherokee, Choctow, Chickasaw,etc.)

It just seems there is a movement to make people feel bad for mentioning their heritage if it is Native American but there is no backlash for claiming other European heritage. Is there a reason for this?

Every American I've ever met, and I met a few while working in the ME, claimed to have some Cherokee blood.

Boy howdy, them Cherokees put themselves about a bit, didn't they!?

Yeah, because they were one of the 5 civilized tribes. That's what they were called. The 5 C tribes. They intermarried and got to choose on the census whether they wanted to be listed as white or black. Most chose white, those that chose black usually did so because that was the group of people they lived around or hung out with or perhaps mixed with but yes, the Cherokees do have a lot of "white" descendants.

for the afternoon

Okay--bump for evening...so many pins today. Normally, people would just gab and opinion give over this type of stuff but important new has been going on today.

I have Iroquois ancestry.

And you should be proud.

What's with people doubting someones ancestry? People are almost ashamed now to admit their native american because of issues just like this one in the news.

Probably a hit piece.

She is a killing machine and would kick TPTBs ass.

10 years ago, I had a genetic test to prove my ancestry.

That's so cool. Did you know Iroquois from family or did it narrow the tribe in your genetic test.

I've thought about doing it for a whole bunch of ancestry things but not sure about giving someone my DNA, but at this point the hospitals most likely all have it in a database somewhere anyway.

No, it wasn't tribe specific, just the percentage of the racial ancestry. The tribe information was from family. What shocked me, was the percentage of Asian, at 20%. My aunt said it was probably Mongol, but my DNA test said East Asian specifically. That would probably be Japanese.

On a side note, I remeber a Special on TV about ancestry, when the DNA testing for ancestry was starting to get popular years ago. They had tested a black lady, and she turned out to be 67% caucasian.

Yeah, I remember when it started getting popular I was warned by a conspiracy theorist never to do it because then THEY have your DNA. Now, they most likely have it anyway through doctors offices. I would love to get mine done but only if I knew they already had mine on file somewhere.

Does anyone know if labs keep peoples blood stuff/info?

Final shameless bump for Saturday crowd.

My gggrandma was also Cherokee. I applying for work or school claming Native America statis did not work for me, reason being one has to prove Native America by being on the "Roll". About 100 years ago all that were willing Native Ameicans were put on a roll or list to prove Native American statis. My ggrandma who was half Native American hide her Native American heritage because of extreme prejudice against Native American at that time and because my family never put on the "Roll" I can never claim Cherokee.

There are many people in the same situation.

Here's another problem, though. If it was your gg-grandma that was Cherokee then your g-grandparent is half, your grandparent 1/4 and your parent 1/8 and yourself 1/16. You would have to also prove yourself a Cherokee of the Eastern Band (they take up to 1/16), the Cherokee in Oklahoma only take up to 1/8.

The blood quantum thing is strange, too. I have 3 out of 4 grandparents with Native American blood, but only 1 of them spoke of it with horror stories and it was rare he would even talk about it. The other 2 did not talk about it all because of the shame and prejudice that came with it back then, it was better to pass as white. But still even if all 4 grandparents were Cherokee, it doesn't make you any more Cherokee than if just 1 was because of the way blood quantum is counted--from what I understand.

Obviously, if people were passing I can understand why they shouldn't get some of the same things the "sufferer's" have gotten, such as membership or other things that could be considered privilege but I don't understand why people are supposed to feel shame in learning more of their own heritage or be ridiculed because they don't have their "papers" like a pedigree dog. When people visit Ireland because they want to see where their gggrandparents came from they don't get the same re-action for some reason and they don't need to supply papers even if they have a German surname.