Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood? The history of ....

[riversedge]

I recall learning bits and pieces of this history way back in grad school. And with the recent dude calling Sen. Warren Pocahontas, I was reminded of the history of the Cherokee (some of it). Very good article.

I have a few friends living in OK last several years. They say it is not unusual to hear many say they have Native American heritage--anyone living in OK probably has some--expect the newer transplants.



Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood?


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/10/cherokee_blood_why_do_so_many_americans_believe_they_have_cherokee_ancestry.html

The history of a myth.
By Gregory D. Smithers


150929_HIST_Cherokee
Dennis Wolfe, a Cherokee indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, 1980.

Photo courtesy Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

“I cannot say when I first heard of my Indian blood, but as a boy I heard it spoken of in a general way,” Charles Phelps, a resident of Winston-Salem in North Carolina, told a federal census taker near the beginning of the 20th century. Like many Americans at the time, Phelps had a vague understanding of his Native American ancestry. On one point, however, his memory seemed curiously specific: His Indian identity was a product of his “Cherokee blood.”


The tradition of claiming a Cherokee ancestor continues into the present. Today, more Americans claim descent from at least one Cherokee ancestor than any other Native American group. Across the United States, Americans tell and retell stories of long-lost Cherokee ancestors. These tales of family genealogies become murkier with each passing generation, but like Phelps, contemporary Americans profess their belief despite not being able to point directly to a Cherokee in their family tree.

Recent demographic data reveals the extent to which Americans believe they’re part Cherokee. In 2000, the federal census reported that 729,533 Americans self-identified as Cherokee. By 2010, that number increased, with the Census Bureau reporting that 819,105 Americans claimed at least one Cherokee ancestor. Census data also indicates that the vast majority of people self-identifying as Cherokee—almost 70 percent of respondents—claim they are mixed-race Cherokees.

Why do so many Americans claim to possess “Cherokee blood”? The answer requires us to peel back the layers of Cherokee history and tradition.


Most scholars agree that the Cherokees, an Iroquoian-speaking people, have lived in what is today the Southeastern United States—Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama—since at least A.D. 1000. When Europeans first encountered the Cherokees in the mid–16th century, Cherokee people had well-established social and cultural traditions. Cherokee people lived in small towns and belonged to one of seven matrilineal clans. Cherokee women enjoyed great political and social power in the Cherokee society. Not only did a child inherit the clan identity of his or her mother, women oversaw the adoption of captives and other outsiders into the responsibilities of clan membership.

To claim Cherokee blood is to authenticate your American-ness.

As European colonialism engulfed Cherokee Country during the 17th and 18th centuries, however, Cherokees began altering their social and cultural traditions to better meet the challenges of their times. One important tradition that adapted to new realities was marriage.

The Cherokee tradition of exogamous marriage, or marrying outside of one’s clan, evolved during the 17th and 18th centuries as Cherokees encountered Europeans on a more frequent basis. Some sought to solidify alliances with Europeans through intermarriage.
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[SamKnause]

1. Because my grandmother on my father's side was half Cherokee.

[flyingfysh]

2. In my case, I found out what the true story was

I had always heard that my grandmother was one quarter Cherokee. I looked into this and found people who appear to be my relatives on the Dawes Roll, which is the official government list of the members of the "Five Civilized Tribes" at the time. There application had a large rubber stamp across it, "REJECTED". I read the details, and it turns out they originally tried to claim Chickasaw. They were turned down for that, and then tried to claim Choctaw. They also tried to claim Mississippi Choctaw. They were turned down for all that. The documentation has no mention of Cherokee in their case.

The reason for doing this is that people on the Dawes Roll were entitled to land grants (ironic, considering that their original lands were stolen from them), so it appears that some of my ancestors were scoundrels, trying to get land that they were not entitled to.

A DNA test confirmed: no Native ancestry.

[MosheFeingold]

3. I'm native american

Of the Tribe of Levi. Pretty sure Mel Brooks is also a member.

[tonyt53]

4. I was always told that during the Trail of Tears, younger females married off to whites.

I had my DNA run, and it verified what my mom had said. Her mother's family came out of eastern TN when my grandmother was a child. She was half Cherokee.

So when somebody tells me to leave the country if i don't like trump, I just them they should be deported out of my country.