In the South, it seems like everybody’s great grandmother was a Cherokee.......................
If it’s DNA, then that’s pretty clear. As far as the Cherokee “we gotta agree you’re in our tribe” stuff, that’s just impediment to keep from having to share the gambling wealth, IMO.
The Cherokee tried very hard to assimilate into colonial American society by marrying their daughters to influential settlers who were overwhelming male and severely limited on potential marriage partners. We find this in both my own and my wife's family tree.
This was very common if you had ancestry on the frontiers of what is now Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Kentucky (then claimed by Virginia) or Tennessee (then claimed by North Carolina). The Cherokee were one of the first tribes with a formal written language, to dress in white man's clothes and to send their children to white man's schools.
They were dumbfounded to discover that all these efforts did not spare them from the removal order of 1838 although if they lived in remote enough areas of aforementioned territories and/or were intermarried enough with white settlers, they may have escaped notice.
The rate of settlement was slower in the South and had more geographical depth. Native Americans weren’t as overwhelmed by the onslaught of colonists. Even prior to independence, many had begun to detribalize on their own and to integrate into early American society.
Ain’t that the truth. It often makes me wonder if there actually is a Cherokee tribe or just a club made up of white people pretending to be Indians.
It's probably true.
I think that the DNA testing is one cause. My DNA test didn’t show any indigenous DNA but my family tree shows two sources - one is of course Cherokee, supposedly my ggg grandmother named Rachel. The other is simply listed as East Chesapeake bay shore Indian. No name. I’ve never tried to use these tenuous lines to get anything. Our granddaughter is however over one/third Native American through her birth father but its from South America. I did look into whether she can get a scholarship, we have an institution in our community that used to be called Haskell Indian Institute. Now its Haskell College I think. But you have to be registered with a tribe. Sounds racist to me.
But then, everyone’s Irish on St Patrick’s Day, right?
I was told the same for forty years until I made contact with other family members I did not know I had.
Our “Gen-u-wine Cher-O-kee Princess” turned out to be a German Italian orphan from Chicago.
Yeah, that is my families oral history as well. Funny thing is that when my sister actually put the work into doing a genealogy trace, no Indians showed up.
Did find a family member who fought in the Revolutionary War but spent most of his time on a prison ship.
My ancestors on both sides have been traced back 1640 when they settled in Massachusetts. This was over 130 years before the United States was declared a nation. Does that make me a Native American?
Heh mine and my grandmother were.
I should find out more lol.
My Great-Great Grandfather on Mom’s side was a French-Canadian trapper and he married a Mohawk squaw - none of the family ever claimed Indian heritage even though we have many times more Indian blood than Fugahontas Warren - I do claim to be Polish since my Dad’s side of the family was 100% until he married Mom and had his own kids - it’s the closest thing to “pure” in my lineage😎