Wanting to be Native American goes beyond writers. I can't count how many times I have heard the "my great, great, great great-grandmother was a Cherokee princess" story when someone has learned that I am part Native American. Really, how many Cherokee princesses could there have been?

I believe that people want to connect to something exotic, and the stories of native peoples is exotic in American folklore.

"Cherokee Princess" is code. Race mixture is something Americans, especially in the old south, found uncomfortable. It seems fantastically odd that the formula of convenience with which mixed-race ancestry is simultaneously explained and hidden is the Cherokee princess, because at one time, back when that myth became part of my own family store of explanatory bullshit, Jackson's genocidal war on the Civilized Tribes was still a local memory -- and not the kind of memory that's preserved in Oklahoma, where the remnant of the tribes ended up, but in the communities from which they had disappeared.

And it isn't just about race mixture -- it's about a mixture of narratives. First, there's the exotic thing you detected, and then there's a remaining shadow of guilt from a distant crime (not the guilt from Jim Crow, which was constant and visible, mind you, but the shadow of another guilt -- such is the romance of the southlands). It's a lot easier to deal with the debts of guilt when you imagine yourself to be on both sides of the thing, while simultaneously relocating your self to an exotic place when we were at one with nature and weren't yet the cramped and guilty bastards that we have since become.

I can't help but roll my eyes every time I hear this. People think that because I'm obviously of a Native American heritage that I find these type of tidbits absolutely astonishing. No---I don't. That's the equivalent of me saying I'm one-eighth English---big whoop.

As a writer and a Native American, a member of a Federally NON-recognized tribe (The Nipmuck of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island) I can only say it's a drive people have to be something or somebody of value in a society they don't feel special in as citizens. These people feel alone and want to be a part of a culture still fighting for recognition and acceptance as citizen in bondage. It's romantic and allows them the chance to capitalize on an aura of deprivation and noble struggle. I mean do any other people on the planet need an ID card from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to prove their cultural heritage? The most painful paart for me is to have people make a buck off of the idea they can draw a characature of a people no longer represented as Cigar Store statues.

I fit that category, my grandfather told me that the only memories he had of his mother was of her brushing her long black hair. She died while he was so young, he did not know what tribe. I also claim irish history and if I meet an Irishman, I am sure I will confess to being part Irish.....So..If you meet an Englishman, go ahead and tell him you are part English..I am suren he will be astonished. It is called conversation. It is a skill developed to get "aquainted" with one another. We tell each other things about ourselves...

I come from one of the oldest tribes - Levi. It is not exotic, hardly worthy of romatacising and certainly not easy to be in a minroity that you cannot claim in anyway.

Further, I muddied the waters by actually marrying a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York State/Canada. So my children in the least have claimed that on University funding applications and received the funds. So it is not a question of wanting to be Native American but in how to be even when mixed by one half and look comepletly Tuetonic.

Honestly, my grandmother was not a "princess"; however, she was Chief of my tribe in the 70's. Laura Townsend, Owyhee Reservation near Elko, Nevada.

Uh, lighten up chickenstock. Lots of people have Native American heritage. Just because they are not the requisite 1/2 of 1/4, doesn't mean their native ancestors never existed. Why do you want to deny them part of their heritage? Personally, my great-grandmother was Cherokee and is on the Dawes Rolls. That makes me at most 1/8, in the off-chance that she was full Cherokee and not mixed at all.

So, yeah I am mostly European. Does that mean that my great-grandmother doesn't exist and isn't an important part of my heritage? No.

Exactly why does it irritate you if others are proud of their Native heritage, even if its not 100%. Wouldn't it be much worse if they were ashamed of it?

Btw, I am also Welsh, Irish, English, Scottish and Austrian, as well as Cherokee. Do I tell people this in conversation? Sure I do! It's called making conversation and telling others about yourself. Others also tell me about their heritage. It is interesting to know and learn about our ancestors. Why exactly does this bother you?

You may be a wannabe if...
Your grandmother was a Cherokee Princess--and so was your grandfather.

You may be a wannabe if...
you claim to be one-third Indian.

Need I go on any longer? :-)

My Uncle Hawk staunching refused to accept the term Native American. He said 'they've called me an Indian all my life and they can call me that when I die." He was a tough old man, necessary I guess if you are an Indian, and he looked the part. Me, on the other hand, I have blue eyes and English rose skin and didn't embrace the idea of either description. People aren't usually all that nice to Indians and those wannabes trying to find deeper meaning in their lives by sitting in a sweat lodge and calling themselves "Feather Somebody or other" rendered me tied-tongued when it came to telling anyone I'm a Native American. We all look for idenity and if I could wish for one in the modern world what would it be? Perhaps the Mohawks who walked the steel skyscrapers in NYC or perhaps looking to the past some exotic Indian fighting the forked tongue youknowwhos?

So me? I did plait my grandmother's long black braids; listened to tales of blood conditions making a beeline from one of the ancient Cherokee princesses to my hospitalized little cousin and I make my living as a writer, but rarely claim the Indian part of my racial mix. It seems so 'trendy' and for so long and I've done so little delving into it.

The original article made me think about those of us who want to be Indian, those who don't and the heavy reasons for each position. I'm entitled but do I want to go through all the contortions necessary to get that Identiy Card? No, I'm ashamed that I don't know what it means to be an Indian in 2008 Anerica, but I do know that I'm not ready to be a victim or be pitied. Will I look into it as I grow older? Perhaps? Opinions??

I'm Native American, I have a mix of Cree and Mohawk. I also am Irish, German, and Scott-Irish. While I don't go hopping around telling everyone what 'kind of stew' I seem to be, I am proud of all of my history. (By the way, I do have an 'Amer. Indian' family tree that goes back over a hundred years.) It's all in how you look, or rather appreciate everything you are. I listened to the stories my grandmother told me about her grandfather. How when they were pushed from their land and made to walk the trail of tears. How all of his immediate family died by the way side, and he was made to keep walking over their bodies. Okay, I'm not trying to bring up all the terrible things that happened. My point is this, he, as a young teen worked his way north again, after a few years. When he got back to his 'home' he found out his land and all were taken from him; he was still cursed at, and had signs that posted, 'No Injuns'. Unable to go into a bar, or even a restaurant. OK, here's the thing. I found courage in his story. An inner strength, and pride. Why do people have to pretend to be something their not?

Oh, and when I tell someone in 'conversation' that I'm also 'Indian', if it comes up. I always get that stupid 'How?' with the hand signal. Do they even know that the reason for their 'sign language' was because the tribes had different languages? It was a neutral go between when others where meet in between boundaries. Why isn't the Native American culture shown as diverse as others in the world? One more thing, I really don't ever want to see another old movie actor with red paint piled on his skin with a feather in his cap. Jeez!

I didn't mean to go on about this, sorry. Thank you for your time. Oh, and I tend to agree, not all Indians, 'look' Indian. Thanks again!

Not trying to be a jerk, but neither the Cree nor the Mohawk (Ontario and New York respectively) tribes are mentioned in any of the Trail of Tears info I read. It is my understanding the they were mostly Cherokee from the South (Georgia) and some Seminole from Florida. Maybe I'm wrong.

My own mother, a card-holding Cherokee, resembles what my professor, Vine Deloria Jr., often said in class. "They're just a bunch of disgruntled white folk, unsatisfied with their own culture, trying to clasp onto someone else's religion." He would usually add that they probably watched Dances With Wolves too many times...and in my mother's situation it was very true! We have proven ancestry, but we were not raised in the culture. She thinks like a whitey, so she is a whitey. She can't even say she's an apple, because she's just as white on the outside as the inside! Yet, Spirit calls us to our own path, and that is what groups on all sides forget. It is time to share wisdom, and segregation harms us all. We must realize our differences, but the similarities are overlooked when anyone thinks themselves "better" than anyone else. I am personally a priest in the Germanic blood of my family, although I have communed with Hopi and other natives in inipi ceremonies as well as Passover with Jewish friends. Every ceremony is good for people. We are all "the chosen people", and we'd better get that in our thick skulls before it's too late.

Haelsa,

Tiwasson

I never said I wasn't proud of my heritage. It just becomes wearisome when people come up to me, expecting me to speak Navajo. I only know a few words and the conversation often turns to, "You should learn! It's part of your heritage!" Yes, yes...thank you for reminding me. But sometimes people should be less overbearing. It's not my fault my father didn't want to teach me.

I'm saying because I'm obviously a minority (look at my skin color), people ask what minority I am. "Oh, you're Indian? What tribe?" Then they go on to say that they have some ancestry of another tribe. I'm not knowledgeable concerning other tribes, much less my own, so what should I say? "How nice." They obviously want me to say something intelligent regarding that tribe, but I can't. I'm not concerned with learning about other tribes just for their sake. I'm just a high school senior trying to get ready for college.