I also have the family heritage of Native American. And the stories that go with it.
I have a great-uncle who spent much money and time to prove our heritage in an effort to be put on the tribal roll (which makes you an "official" Native American.
However, the Cherokees can decide to add you or not, no matter your proof.
And they declined to add him, in spite of the evidence.
I also have Choctaw blood from the other side of the family, but no one has ever attempted to "prove" it. Incidentally, we did not know this until my Grandmother passed away and we found documents about her father (who passed away when she was an infant). She never said anything about it, as it was looked down on when she was a child.
The difference between myself and Warren is that I have never claimed to be Native American, in any official documents, because you cannot do that legally.
The closest I come to claiming it was on the Census Documents you can check multi-racial, which I do.
If we would eliminate these bogus identity politic/affirmative action, it would do away with all of this.
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If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under - Ronald Reagan
Out here in the wild wild west, Elizabeth Warren would be called a "nosebleed Indian." She'd lose all her Native DNA in a good nosebleed.
To be honest, I find a lot of the controversy surrounding this to be irritating. Many Americans have stories of Native ancestry that have been passed down through the generations. As is the case with Elizabeth Warren, sometimes they're true.
But most people don't have a proper understanding of how DNA is passed down from generation to generation. This has been a hobby of mine the last several years as I have had mine and several family members DNA tested.
In my own genome, I have discovered that I inherited a huge amount of my maternal DNA from an Illinois great-great grandfather with roots back to early colonial times. I've had matches with folks who appear to be close relatives but are actually 7th cousins. But I've also lost any DNA connection to other ancestral lines because that DNA was not passed down to me. One cannot know these things without testing.
My mother, sister, and uncle all inherited a chunk of Native American DNA on chromosome six. They all inherited that piece from my maternal grandfather. But, alas, I inherited that stretch of DNA from my grandmother. I have worked with Native Americans for years and could have used that DNA for bragging rights. Our research has led us to think it may have come from a half-Native great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother who died in 1785. Some think she was Shawnee, others Chowanoke.
Where folks go wrong is when they claim special rights based on such a tenuous connection to some long-dead Native American. I am descended from that part-Native woman along with my other relatives, but I didn't inherit the Native DNA. Even if I did, I cannot say I'm an American Indian and should be given Affirmative Action rights to employment based on it. That's where Elizabeth Warren went wrong, in my opinion.
what DNA test did you use?
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
23andMe. I like that test because you get your Y-DNA and mitochondrial haplogroups as well as your autosomal DNA. For a fuller picture of the Y and the mito, FamilyTreeDNA.
They don't even have to pay taxes? Just not fair with all the drinking and junk going on.
There’s a casino near my home town. The tribe members get paid a couple thousand each month to sit at home. Free house if they live on the res. Each kid that is popped out is worth an additional 1 or 2k a month.
There’s a casino near my home town. The tribe members get paid a couple thousand each month to sit at home. Free house if they live on the res. Each kid that is popped out is worth an additional 1 or 2k a month.
There’s a casino near my home town. The tribe members get paid a couple thousand each month to sit at home. Free house if they live on the res. Each kid that is popped out is worth an additional 1 or 2k a month.
I don't know... You'd think if they were making that kind of money, they'd be able to fix up their home or have a decent car. I used to drive through a res to go to work and all the houses were really run down and most of the cars were, too. On the same land was a large Casino, of which the parking lot is always packed.
My wife and I drove by it years ago and decided to go inside to see what it looked like inside.
It looked nothing like in the movies or in Las Vegas. Carpet was old and worn. There was a fog of cigarette smoke everywhere. It was dingy and dark. We didn't even walk through the whole floor. Walked in and right back out. And we still smelled like an ashtray for a while after leaving.
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