Mother lied about being Indian?

Question

My mother has always said that we were part American Indian, I brought up a book about American Indian problems with White settlers and my mother said "Yeah, we ****** over everyone" She is always talking like we are just pure White, could all the Indian stuff had been a lie?

Answer 1

The MOST LIKELY thing is that she did not lie.. but has passed along family traditions (that could be based in distorted stories). In other words.. gr gr grandpa fibbed to gr grandma, gr grandma took his bedtime story at face value..

This is far more common in genealogy than people understand. It is exactly the reason WHY experienced researchers depend of finding solid documentation, of any family information.

Do your homework, and research your ancestry. FIND real info, which may or may not prove your lineage. She might be telling the truth, or she might just be passing traditions that are misleading.

Answer 2

I don't think that you understand. Most people through the generations of America do have one or more of many tribes in their ancestry. I know of two in mine. I don't consider myself Indian or any of the many other ethnicity's of my ancestors as I am basically Caucasian.

Answer 3

Not necessarily.  You will have to do some more digging.  Native Americans have had a hard time in dealing with the surrounding cultures and the US Government...even with the opposing side had good intentions.  This kind of treatment had mixed effects on some people.  I have family that full out denies that they are Native American, because at one point my family tried to distance themselves from that.  The easiest way to do that was to blend in.  In some places it was just unpopular to be Native American.

Sometimes it was an issue of keeping your family together and safe.

However, there were also a lot of people that did everything they could to claim that they were Native American when they weren't--because it was popular.  This irritates many Native Americans to no end understandable, but it makes those searching for the real, true thing more frustrating.

I would simply take all the notes on both sides of the issue as you can.  Then, put them aside.  Somewhere in them are clues to your geneaology.  They might give you ideas of other places to look for records when you get stumped or try to give more body to your research.

Answer 4

If you only knew how many families have phantom Indian heritage, it would make your head spin. In almost 30 years of research, I can probably count on one hand the number of families who came to me to prove their Indian heritage and it actually existed. Do your family tree and figure it out without any influence by family folklore. Families are well-meaning, but they tend to exagerate here and there. But the paperwork tells the truth.

Answer 5

This National Geographic site can help you:

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/geno...

Answer 6

It's entirely possible that you have some Native American in your lineage.  Some tribes mixed freely and intermarried with the white settlers, some tribes did not.  Your mother probably identifies more with the Caucasian race since any Native mixing  probably happened long ago and your heritage since then has been mainly white.

If you have good genealogy records for family living in Indian Territory around 1890 to 1910, you should check the Dawes rolls to find your ancestor's name.  If they are listed as a member of one of the "5 Civilized Tribes," then you do have some bit of Native American blood.  Other tribal info would be a little more difficult to unearth since written records from that time are fairly scarce.

:-)