Welcome Native People and wellwishers, please introduce yourselves.

[mandyky]

One of my paternal great grandmas was Mohawk Iroquois.
I am from Upstate NY, now living in KY.

Hopefully we can help build up a healthy history of Native Americans in Demopedia and exchange tribal lore, reading lists, websites, etc.

[Desertrose]

1. Glad to see this group....can't claim Native blood...

at least not this lifetime ;)

But live in AZ and have spent time with Hopi, Navajo & Apache as well as others...have been told frequently that my heart is red.....


:thumbsup: mandyky thanks


DR

[mandyky]

2. When I lived in AZ I was told

a lot of white folks who go there on spiritual journeys are actually recycled NAs from another lifetime. They also said the present natives are probably recyled White folk who were unkind to the Nattive People... Karma, gotta love it.

[Desertrose]

3. I've heard that too....

could be....I think the best karma is the casinos...getting back the white mans $$


I was lucky to spend some time with a Hopi family on the rez.....and worked with some nice Diné folks when I was working on DK's campaign....

[NVMojo]

39. my research on some Indian casinos show that the white men involved

are the ones getting richer and they are unregulated if working with tribes ...compared to being on the strip in Vegas or Atlantic City so I am not sure it's the karma in the direction some may think it is.

[G_j]

13. a "used to be"

as opposed to a "wannabe"?

I can identify with that.

Good to see you DR!
:hug: :loveya: G_j

[Maddy McCall]

4. Maternal grandmother was Cherokee; Paternal grandfather was Choctaw

I'm a historian who specializes in American Indian history. Hi, all!

Also, I am looking for Natchez descendants with whom to correspond, so if anyone is of Natchez lineage, please PM me.

:hi:

[mandyky]

5. Welcome, I saw a post of yours in another forum

and was gonna invite you. We need historians! ;)

[Mabus]

6. Checking in

Southern Arapaho living in Kansas. Mom was full blood.

:hi:

[Broken_Hero]

34. Kansas?

Near Lawrence? Did you go to school at Haskell?

[dutchdemocrat]

7. Grandmother was Metis

Chippewa-French

[carolinayellowdog]

8. Northeast NC triracial researcher

Hey,

I live in a county with a significant Native population, about 10 per cent but occupying a quarter of the land area. Genealogical research has ID'd three family lines (in a nearby county) that were "mulatto" in colonial records but white as of the 1790 census. Family tradition is of "Indian blood" but there is likely African mixture as well. DNA test showed a 4-1 NA to African probability ratio.

May never get to the bottom of the mystery as there were many tribes in the area. But there is so much to learn in the process of exploring local history!

CYD

[Kadie]

9. Hi

My maternal great-grandmother was Cherokee. My husbands paternal grandmother was Choctaw. Glad to be a part of this new group.

[mandyky]

12. Welcome aboard!

What part of the country do you hail from?

[HEyHEY]

10. Hi, don't know if I really count

1/16 here, don't really know anything about my heritage and stuff, but I'll throw in what I can.

[mandyky]

11. Welcome!

Please feel free to join us as much as you want. I am putting together some web resources for a post. There are some great websites out there...

[Starkraven]

14. Some Cree here...

although my family would not talk about it much. They were entirely assimilated into white culture in Canada. In my own search for identity and spiritual sustenance I have found comfort and meaning in the old ways. Glad to see this group!

[kohodog]

15. Just a touch of Shawnee, probably not enough to have great effect.

That being said, I love the woods and mountains, streams and fields and creatures of all kinds that live there. It is a very powerful organic feeling that I cannot explain. Over the last few years I've been increasingly drawn to a few great books: The Wisdom Keepers; Black Elk Speaks, To Become a Human Bring. There are more that I am sure will come up later.

Maybe I'm one of the recycled, who knows. I have no clue why I'm so drawn by this, but am looking forward to learning and growing.

[gorbal]

16. I am part Mic Mac, not sure how much

They kept it hidden for years, so I don't know much about Mic Mac culture aside from some a few bawdy folk-tales. It was on my mothers side of the family, so even though I wasn't raised in the culture my mother raised me in a way that made me feel connected to the earth and other dimensions of reality.

I remember talking to my grandmother about the visions of faces that kept coming at me in the darkness and how they scared me as they contorted into more and more frightening apperations. Her advice "Stare them down".

My friends who also part native american say they have visions as well. Am I imprinting my own prejudices and wishes on the idea or is this common among those with "older" cultural links.

:)

[HeeBGBz]

17. Just a smattering of Cherokee

Some days I feel it strongly in me.

[Kire]

18. I was an Anthropology major.

Political Anthropology was my favorite class. That's where I learned about the Zapatistas, and my final paper was about the "Order of the Arrow", a "secret society" within the Boy Scouts of America, where we purport to go on vision quests and dance in costumes, and appropriate a ton of other NA imagery. I don't have a copy of my paper (I don't even remember if it was any good), but here is the official website of the OA:

http://www.oa-bsa.org/

I'm glad to see this group finally got here. I raised a question about starting a group like this a few weeks ago.

Anybody know any good Anthropologist jokes?

Consider me a well-wisher.

Kire

[azndndude]

19. azndndude- navajo here in tempe az- Yah eeh teeh!

[arikara]

20. My grandmother was Cherokee

she was born in Oklahoma and her family emigrated to the Canadian prairies when she was a teenager. I would love to locate some of our long-lost family from the Cherokee nation.

[Eloriel]

21. a little blood, more spirit

My maternal great grandmother was Lakota. I was in my 40s when I learned that I had ANY Native blood, and when my geneology-researching cousin said Lakota, I burst into tears -- recognition and relief. I'm so drawn to the Plains Indians, much less so most of the other tribes. But it's not just a precious little Native blood; I've also been there, done that. I have remembered at least 3 Native lifetimes and I believe there were many more.

One of the most incredible experiences of my entire lifetime was attending the Pendleton Round-Up (rodeo) in Oregon when we lived in Portland in the 1980s. We had the pleasure of being able to see the parade the Friday morning, with so many Native Americans on their horses, and in full Native dress. Oh! Be still my heart. I turned to my husband and said, only half jokingly, "If there's EVER a chance I could ever leave you for another man, this is it." There was something about the life force energy as well as the sheer beauty of these Native men...

But that was just the start. On Saturday morning was the Pow Wow. Before it started, we wandered over by the encampment, where there were probably a hundred or maybe more tipis, and a few of the craftspeople had tables of their wares. As I gazed into the forest of tipis, I nearly flipped out. I felt that I could have walked in there, among those tipis, and gone into another world, another time and place, and not come back. It actually took some willpower not to try it. I was mesmerized.

But there was more to come. The Pow Wow itself. O.M.G. Talk about mesmerized. I can't explain it, how deeply moving, how totally engulfed I was by the music, the chants, the dances, the dress, the everything.

All this was MUCH more than merely being enchanted by what I saw. This was total immersion experience for me -- tho not total enough for my taste, LOL. I've never experienced anything like it, and had it been much more intense -- well, I don't think I'd have retained consciousness. But it was joyful and a teensy bit painful to be so close (and yet so far away) to being almost "home" on this planet.

[MemphisTiger]

22. Hi, mother full Apache and dad half Cherokee

[Lowell]

23. Metis

My dad's side of the family is Metis, Pasamaquody, Penobscot, Cree and French from Canada. He always said he was one of those "damn French Indians" and wouldn't elaborate too much. He prided himself on butchering the English language so we never really knew exactly what he was trying to tell us.

My mom's side of the family is Swiss, Miami and Shawnee. My grandmother was close to the culture and took all of her grandchildren, 46 of us, to pow wows and told us stories about when all the Creator's creatures spoke the same language. She died at the age of 98, but she left each of us with great stories.

I've never considered myself an Indian, because I think to claim that distinction you have to live the culture. My grandfather came to Florida in the 1940s and stayed until a few years before he died. I was born and raised here. It wasn't until after he walked on that I met many of my metis cousins in Maine. That said, I am proud of my heritage and ancestors. Like the name, Metis, implies I am the result of a blending of cultures and races yet can not claim any tribal affiliation.

I do know that my great-great grandfather, Jean-Baptist, was hung in Manitoba late in the 19th century. He rode with Louis Riel in the Metis quest for a sovereign homeland.

[DeepGreen]

24. I am not native american. I would be proud to say I am.

[Wetzelbill]

25. ok, I'll check in here

I am an enrolled Blackfeet Indian, also Nez Perce and some Chippewa Cree.

[UncleNoel]

26. Anthropologist and Linguist Back When...

I did my Ph.D. dissertation on Shawnee Myth and Ethnohistory at Indiana University under C. F. Voegelin.

I put up a site to put unpublished stuff and other things online as I have been lugging them around the world for many years as I did other things.

http://www.shawnee-traditions.com

You can find out about me there if you are interested, but most of all you find out about the wondrous Shawnee tribe...

[sepia_steel]

27. Hello, people

I've been around here for about a year. I'm half Choctaw. I ended up here in Orange County, CA after growing up in a small-town reservation in Oklahoma. I lived in Texas off-and-on, and got married in Tulsa, and now we're here. I couldn't stand the general mentality of the area, it just wasn't me. Husband got a great job, so off we went. :)

Nice to meet ya!

[Wetzelbill]

28. nice to have you here

[CountAllVotes]

29. I'm a mixture of things

but my dear late mother was adopted and raised by a Cherokee/Choctaw woman born in Mississippi. I was raised around many Indian people. Am I really "Indian". I really do not know. If tried to research my mother with no luck as to finding her identity which makes me suspect that she was probably also Indian. She was born in 1923 and was adopted that year in the south (Tennessee).

So I don't know what the qualifications are to be considered "Indian" really but I've always considered Indian people to be my people. :D

:toast:

[JanusAscending]

30. OHO , We could be distant "kin"

After recent correspondence with H20Man, I've discovered my great great Grandmother Addison was probably Onondaga, or Iroquois. What part of upstate NY were you from? My folks were from the Walton area of the Catskills. my Grandmother was born in Long Eddy. I think her Mom, whom I remember, lived in the Delhi Area. G.G.Gram Addison was full blooded Indian. I had assumed she might have been Mohawk, but H20Man thinks because of the area, and lack of history (records) she was more than likely Onondaga. Where in upstate NY did you live? He is going to ask an Elder Aunt of his if she recalls a family named Addison. (circa approx. 1880s) As all Indian history is passed down by word of mouth, as a rule. Gram Addison married a French man named Bovee'. I'm in the process of finding out from my late Mothers sister, if she recalls where Gram was buried. I know her daughter was buried in Walton, or maybe Bethel NY. DC

[preciousdove]

31. In honor of Native American Heritage Month 2005

My mother's family out of middle TN has Native American blood unfortunately I have not found the source but I suspect it is Rebeca Bell second wife b 1799 of Leander Hughes. The Bell families of Wilson Co TN are related to the "Bell Witch" Bells of Fentress County who claim Native American Heritage. My great-aunt as a young woman, looked as though she were very Native American and she married a man who was Choctaw/Chickasaw and Blackfoot-(his father sent as a slave to a farm in MS from an OK school).

My children have ancestor Clara Hoskins b 1822 in Ky who claimed to be Cherokee.

My maternal grandmother's widowed mother married Will Loomer who's mother Elizabeth Mary Badgero was Native American and was born on the border between Michigan and Canada in 1827. Grandma adored her stepfather who died before I was born and many of the things that made her special, she learned from him and taught to her grandchildren.

It is hard to find ties for those who were downplaying their heritage
but I always felt when it was time for me to know, I would.

[mandyky]

32. Welcome

your family's story sounds very interesting!

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[turtlelowe]

35. O-Si-Yo!

I am a citizen of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and a member of the Paint Clan. I currently work for a large corporation and serve as a member of their Native American Resource Group. Most of my family are from Kenwood, Oklahoma and if you know where that is, we are probably related. I graduated from Sequoyah High School (Indian boarding school) and Haskell Indian Nations University (all Indian university).
Wado

[Iktomiwicasa]

36. Fullblood Lakota

Enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Live in Kyle, S. Dakota on the Pine Ridge reservation.

[I Have A Dream]

37. I have no Native American blood, but I'm definitely a well wisher.

Too bad that there's not more action in this forum. I know that there are some people who are really excited about the forum but also disappointed because it's not visited very often (at least with posts).

[NVMojo]

38. I don't know how long this group has been here but I'm glad to see it!

I live by and work with the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone. Here is their website:

http://www.temoaktribe.com/

[BillE]

40. Chippewa tribe

I am currently living in Maryland and am a little over 1/4 Chippewa. I am a member of the Little Shell tribe of Montana. We are currently seeking federal recognition, though every time we think they are going to make a decision, it gets postponed for some reason. I grew up on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. It's been awhile since I have been back there, though most of my family still live there. I try to keep up with events of my tribe, but being so far away makes it difficult.

[Metta]

41. Strong supporter.

I've visited Navajo and Hopi lands when I was at the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago and have recently been honoring my totem animals and their medicine. I think natives, all oppressed people of color and poor folks should have free and greater access to resources, health, education particularly, as a token of reparations, where applicable, for past grievances from the government.

100% Lithuanian on my dad's side. 100% Polish on my mother's Grew up in the greater NYC area. Lived in Berkeley during the late '60s. Then, India and Thailand before settling in western PA.

[confludemocrat]

42. Pawnee/Muskogee originally from Oklahoma

grew up in northern California now in eastern Montana
very interested in native management of nature: "1491" by William C. Mann and "Tending the Wild : Native American Knowledge And the Management of California's Natural Resources" by M. Kat Anderson
and grassland and prairie restoration

[Popol Vuh]

43. From my Father

I am half Mexican and half Apache. My grandfather is from the northern area of Chihuahua Mexico where I get my mix.

In the last six years or so, I've had a strong calling to step back and reexamine my heritage and its history (basically to learn who am I ?). Since then I have learned so much of what was never taught to me from schools. And since that time I have also changed drastically spiritually. I have learned to have out of body experiences, and now I see things in a totally different light than before.

I wish the things I have learned over these six years would be taught in school. There's such a rich history of pre-european America.

[MorganaSeawalker]

44. Great Grandma was Chiricahua Apache

I'm in Santa Cruz Mountains, California. Shaman/Witch figures.

[CountAllVotes]

45. unrecognized member here

of the Cherokee & Choctaw tribes (likely 1/4 blood myself between the two tribes; also likely some Chickasaw too). My ancestors do appear on some of the "lists" but I have not pursued it.