[Lakeside Granny]

4 of my grand-children are 1/8 Cherokee but they have never used it to get special treatment what so ever, nor has my son-in-law who is 1/4.

Fauxcahontus used it for education, to get ahead in a job and politically.

If the tribes stop recognizing after 1/16, she ISN’T NATIVE AMERICAN.

[CottonBall]

Good for your kids! I really believe that not taking free handouts and standing on one’s own feet, makes people stronger and more capable. Just look at the groups that are getting free stuff, they are falling far behind the whites and the Asians.

when I got my teaching credential in Texas, I had a fellow student ask me if she should tell her illegitimate daughter that her father was Hispanic. I told her she should tell her that her father was Asian.

[STARLIT]

So, by the numbers:
you are half of a parent 50%
you are 1/4 of a grandparent 25%
you are 1/8 of a great-grandparent 12.5%
you are 1/16 of a great-great-grandparent 6.25%
and you are 1/32 of a great-great-great-grandparent 3.125%

By 6 generations ago, if no one married a relative, the percent of DNA from a single ancestor is a mere 1.5625% so by 7 generations ago, the percentage is so small as to not make much difference, as the percentage of DNA shared by all humans is 99.9%; chimpanzees share about 98% of a person’s DNA.

So, more than 6 generations would not be significant, even though their DNA can influence a child, such as a child being born with bright red curly hair when all know relatives have black hair, etc.

So, if your great-great-grandmother was Indian, your grandmother would have been 25% Indian, which is less than half, so she should have listed herself as white. The general rule is 50% or so, but obviously varies. E.g., some with a black ancestor might appear white after only 2 generations; some might still appear black after 4 generations.

As is the case in every single one of these stories, you start with your own birth certificate and work backwards one generation at a time using birth/marriage/death certificates. A Census would be useless in determining your ancestry, as either a Census taker listed the race and might call a white man an Indian or a black if the white person had a dark complexion, or call an Indian or a black person white if the skin was paler than others of the same race.

Of course, if you could find her in the Dawes or other Rolls, you would have your proof positive. The best places for searching those would be either the National Archives of the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/). And, don’t forget the B.I.A. (Bureau of Indian Affairs).

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By 6 generations ago, if no one married a relative, the percent of DNA from a single ancestor is a mere 1.5625%

NIKK..My maiden name is also on my mother’s side of the family.

[hoosiermama]

Shouldn’t the university charge her with Fraud? Fraudahontus!
Make her pay back the perks she has received.

[JustSurrounded]

My sons went to school with a boy who was 1/4 Native American. His mother was adamant that the set-asides were not for him, that they were for people in true need. He had a typical upper middle-class suburban upbringing and got into Princeton on his own merits ... not by exploiting his genetics. I thought that was a very admirable stand.