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GOING NATIVE IN AMERICA - The Benefits of Becoming Indian
DER SPIEGEL (German magazine) ^ | ---- January 16, 2006 | Jörg Blech

Posted on 01/18/2006 5:43:33 AM PST by Atlantic Bridge

In the United States a growing number of white people are discovering their Native American roots. Some are doing so for financial gain, but most are just looking for the meaning of life.

A few weeks, Betty Baker was still just a white housewife. But now the woman, with her piercing blue eyes, goes by the name "Little Dove" --and has jettisoned her apron for an elaborate deerskin dress.

"I am an Indian and I've sensed this my whole life," says the 48-year-old Baker, who lives in a wooden house on the edge of the small town of Pinson, Alabama.

Five years ago, after her parents told her that her family probably had some Native American ancestry, she assembled documents and birth certificates and last September was accepted into the Cherokee Tribe of northeast Alabama. The cultural neophyte is now zealously learning the rituals and dances of her newly discovered ancestors.

(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: americanindians; cherokees; indians; nativeamericans; sioux; spiritualjourney
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To: MeanWestTexan

Correction, that's a Me108 Taifun AND a Me109.

Lots of WWI stuff, too and, of course, all the new things.

Allegedly, we'll get an F-22 this year.


81 posted on 01/18/2006 12:01:18 PM PST by MeanWestTexan (Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
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To: Atlantic Bridge
[S]ome ... Americans are really strange people.

Obviously, you've never met any Europeans. Or Asians or Australians or Africans.

Gambling is regulated by the individual states. Nevada, being something of a wasteland, found in niche market in vice. Others followed. Generally, Indian reservations are "sovereign" in the same ways that the states are sovereign. They cannot have their own foreign policy, but for the most part they are self-governing.

I trace by name back to a seventeenth century settler in Neu Amsterdam. Somehow, I've got to believe that I must have at least a little Casino-American in me after all those centuries.

82 posted on 01/18/2006 12:06:50 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (NYT Headline: 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of CBS: Fake But Accurate, Experts Say.')
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To: ryan71
Prove your 'Native American' blood today
83 posted on 01/18/2006 12:49:19 PM PST by joesnuffy (A camel once bit our sister.. but we knew what to do.. we gathered rocks and squashed her!)
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To: Atlantic Bridge
"who lives in a wooden house"

I'm struggling to understand the significance of this statement? Is it supposed to remind me of the three little pigs or what?
84 posted on 01/18/2006 12:55:55 PM PST by pepperdog
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To: martin_fierro

Disregarding all the other scams this guy has pulled the Indian tribe that he said he belonged to ought to sue him for being excessively ugly while lying about being an Indian.


85 posted on 01/18/2006 1:00:21 PM PST by pepperdog
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To: Atlantic Bridge

That last sentence of yours! Oh, the mental vision, it hurts my head!


86 posted on 01/18/2006 1:01:44 PM PST by pepperdog
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To: COBOL2Java

Many Americans may have some Native American blood. My paternal Grandfather hailed from Virginia and had family in Oklahoma, there is a picture of my father's Great-Grandmother who was pure Cherokee (yes Cherokee for those of you who don't believe that Cherokees intermarried with the white devil) and tales are told about her mean-streak. None of the kids in the family liked to get too close, they might get a knock up the side of the head just for looking cross-eyed at her. On my Mother's side of the family we have her Grandmother who was from Quebec and was French-Indian ancestry. I have a photo of her Great Grandmother who was Indian, married name: Ludivine Barbeau. Not sure of her tribe, but she did exist.
Some of my siblings, myself, my nieces, nephews etc... have some Native American physical features, including some who have the skin coloring. I have never been interested in joining a tribe, but I'm not about to deny my ancestry. I did attend a pow-wow once while visiting friends in New Mexico, but only as a tourist.


87 posted on 01/18/2006 1:11:02 PM PST by antceecee
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To: Smokin' Joe

If I am not mistaken...in Minnesota...and no as far as I know he has not applied for any bennies.


88 posted on 01/18/2006 1:46:09 PM PST by taxed2death (A few billion here, a few trillion there...we're all friends right?)
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To: taxed2death
Curious, because my wife is of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota. If you cannot prove ancestry, you do not become an enrolled member of the tribe. Period.

Are you sure your friend didn't just get scammed?

89 posted on 01/18/2006 1:52:23 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: loreldan

"My guess is that they are of French ancestry but don't want to admit it! :~)"

French, Italian, German, Polish, Czech etc.

Political correctness has made pride in one's European origins something something to be ashamed. It is no wonder some seek to identify with a favored group.

Is there a TV on today that doesn't have a black guy dating a white girl. What is the message?


90 posted on 01/18/2006 2:01:33 PM PST by School of Rational Thought (Republican - The thinking people's party)
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To: antceecee
I did attend a pow-wow once while visiting friends in New Mexico, but only as a tourist.

An interesting factoid - Christianity is not unwelcome but certainly is not an offical religion on any reservation. No good can come as long as the nature/great spirit veneration is the law of the land.

Too bad Jesus is the whiteman and the enemy - reservation politics needs a little christian humility and polity to make it all bearable.

91 posted on 01/18/2006 2:18:50 PM PST by i.l.e. (Tagline - this space for sale....)
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To: yarddog
He must be 1/32. I think that is the cut off for most tribes. Here are some interesting things I've found out while researching a family member's Indian heritage: In Oklahoma there are quite a few people who are 1/32 or more Indian. But because of the treatment of Indian people in the early years many didn't admit their Indian blood. And those that did said they were less than they really were, because if you were full blood the government might appoint someone to oversee your affairs. So now people who are really truly Indian can't prove it because their ancestor's were never entered on the rolls and some that can prove it can't prove they are a high enough percentage to get tribal benefits.
92 posted on 01/18/2006 2:20:05 PM PST by pepperdog
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To: pepperdog
Could be although it might be more than 1/32nd. I am sure my Daughter would have insurance on the children even if they were allowed to go to the Indian hospital.

He frankly doesn't look at all Indian, but his Father does. I think I will ask, next time I talk to her.

93 posted on 01/18/2006 2:34:08 PM PST by yarddog
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To: i.l.e.

My Native American ancestors on my Mother's side were baptized Catholic by French Missionaries. On my Father's side... I'm not too sure what if any religion they followed.
The Pow-Wow was at Taos and it was truly a tourist event... There were even refreshment and souvenir stands with native american craft items....


94 posted on 01/18/2006 3:04:21 PM PST by antceecee
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To: Troublemaker

Ping. Get ready to laugh - I know how much you like these stories :o).


95 posted on 01/18/2006 3:21:03 PM PST by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: Issaquahking

Thanks. Oops.


96 posted on 01/18/2006 3:55:25 PM PST by neodad (Rule Number 1: Be Armed)
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To: ABN 505
Being "Indian" is a political, not racial, issue. There are numerous "black" Cherokee, as well as "black" Seminole.

In fact, the Cherokee held numerous slaves, and when the Dawes Rolls were prepared, those people, a well as their masters, were enrolled in the tribe.

That this should also be the case in Connecticut is not troubling.

97 posted on 01/18/2006 4:47:29 PM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: taxed2death
Neither the Chippewa nor the Cherokee "let" just anybody in. You must demonstrate that you had an enrolled ancestor, and you do that by checking out the Dawes Rolls. No ancestor, no membership.

The Iriquois keep their membership records SECRET so to prove your right to be enrolled you must do it with non-Iriquois records.

98 posted on 01/18/2006 4:52:05 PM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: kenth

Many non-confederation Iriquois are unaware that the name for such folks is "Mingo", not "Cherokee". For the most part, it doesn't make much difference since both are part of the same larger group.


99 posted on 01/18/2006 4:57:20 PM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: fish hawk
Fur Shur, but the Iriquois couldn't speak of womenfolk and their kind without the use of the SUFFIX "-sqa".

Then there's the Abenaki, and their word for woman is "Squaw". Except for one small band the Abenaki have become totally assimilated. Because of objection on the part of other Indians, the federal government is currently refusing them "recognition".

In fact, the same tribes are the ones who started the rumor that the Abenaki word "Squaw" meant whore. This was part of a campaign to totally delegitimize the existince of the Abenaki.

In the extreme, though, tribes like the Pawnee viewed the women of any alien tribe to be whores and such which is why reject the use of this perfectly usable and necessary word (not that the Pawnee aren't also part of the vicious campaign against the Abenaki).

100 posted on 01/18/2006 5:02:37 PM PST by muawiyah (-)
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