Can you help? who I would contact to find out about our indian ancestors.?

Question

My grandmother was born in the mountains of Mesquite New Mexico sometime in the 1800.

I have one picture of my great-grandmother whom looks very much indian.

One day my father was approached by a man who told him "my brother don't be ashamed of your race, we are who we are". my fathers response was "I'm not ashamed".

they exchanged words in a language I did not understand.

My father knew very little about his mother. All he knew was that on his birth-cerificate it stated his mother as being indian. I tried for many years to get information for him. I contacted several agencies and was told without a birth-certificate for his mother we could not be given any information.

My father has now past away and I'm at it again! my siblings and I would like our children to become more familiar with the indian culture and find any other relatives we may have. My father loved Pow-wows and I know that if he was ashamed in any way, it was that he knew nothing about his ancestors.

Answer 1

New Mexico, I believe, is one of the states with the largest number of Native Americans and one of the highest percentages of population being Native American, mainly Pueblo and Navajo. If you could determine what tribe your grandmother was born into, perhaps from her place of birth, you could probably get more information from the reserve records.

Answer 2

Start with the most recent, which is your father's death certificate and then of course, you already note that HIS birth certificate shows her to be Indian.  Your father's dates will lead to his mother/ father in the census.  1930 is the latest one open for research, so if he was born prior to then, he should show up with them.  If he was born after, then we would simply look for both mom and dad in earlier records.  There are Indian censuses taken .. I cannot answer for the exact location, but I will assume that they are available with ancestry.com.  The normal census would normally also indicate mom's race; depending on her date of marriage, it is also possible that her parents are findable.

All of this is standard research.  I don't understand the birth certificate comment.. early births in NM won't have certificates, but that does not mean that other records do not exist.

You are welcome to send dad's name/ dates, and what you have about grandma (dates of birth/death if possible), and I'll be happy to run it through ancestry.com.  click on my avatar thingie, and you can send through my profile.