Are you a reeeeeeal "part" Injun?
A guest rant from Mike a.k.a. Pensmoke, a Christian hip hop artist and mixed-blood Tsalagi (Cherokee):Cherokee.
What do you think of when you hear the word? If you are a member of any other tribal nation you may laugh upon hearing the word. It may make you think of blonde-haired, blue-eyed wannabe Indians wearing turkey feathers at powwows. It may make you think of people asking you "Are you Indian?" and when you answer yes they reply that their great-great-great-grandma was a real "Cherokee princess."
I myself don't think I have ever met someone who was black, white, or other, that didn't claim to have some distant Cherokee ancestor. Growing up in the South, I would hear from the black folks the "I'm part Indian, that's why I got 'good hair'" legend. And of course the white people would boast about having high cheek bones and being tall due to their "Cherokee princess" ancestor.
It's a trip to me that the Cherokee people can be so "loved" and claimed and yet so hated at the same time by other Indians. We are hated on frequently. Many of the tribes out west say that the Cherokees are "fake Indians" or "paper Indians" because they have been mixing with the whites since the 1500s and have so many mixed-bloods in the tribe. Of course on the other side of things you have the non-Indians who regard the Cherokees as "magical" or "spiritual" and wise like a freakin' leprechaun or something.
Here is where I stand on the subject basically: If you are going to claim Cherokee ancestry at least try to learn the cultural heritage of the people. Don't go out and buy a dreamcatcher and a turkey feather warbonnet and go on websites and message boards saying "Mitakuye Oyasin" to everybody (which is Lakota, not Cherokee) and acting like some wise "medicine man" or how you think a "real Injun" would act. You look foolish.
Don't put on some Boy Scout-made "regalia" and go to a powwow making up your own "dance style" and looking like an idiot. If you want to learn, then learn things the right way. If I had a dime for every time someone told me they were "part" Indian I would be living in a mansion right now.
Like I said before, and many people have preached this until they are blue in the face too, Indians don't come in "parts." You are either an Indian or you are not. If you tell me you are "part" Indian I want to know some things. Are you enrolled with the tribe? (It don't matter to me because I am not either.) Where are your Indian ancestors from? What is your blood quantum? You know the language? The history and culture? The stories? If not, then we really don't have much to talk about on the subject of "Indianness," do we?
What do you think of when you hear the word? If you are a member of any other tribal nation you may laugh upon hearing the word. It may make you think of blonde-haired, blue-eyed wannabe Indians wearing turkey feathers at powwows. It may make you think of people asking you "Are you Indian?" and when you answer yes they reply that their great-great-great-grandma was a real "Cherokee princess."
I myself don't think I have ever met someone who was black, white, or other, that didn't claim to have some distant Cherokee ancestor. Growing up in the South, I would hear from the black folks the "I'm part Indian, that's why I got 'good hair'" legend. And of course the white people would boast about having high cheek bones and being tall due to their "Cherokee princess" ancestor.
It's a trip to me that the Cherokee people can be so "loved" and claimed and yet so hated at the same time by other Indians. We are hated on frequently. Many of the tribes out west say that the Cherokees are "fake Indians" or "paper Indians" because they have been mixing with the whites since the 1500s and have so many mixed-bloods in the tribe. Of course on the other side of things you have the non-Indians who regard the Cherokees as "magical" or "spiritual" and wise like a freakin' leprechaun or something.
Here is where I stand on the subject basically: If you are going to claim Cherokee ancestry at least try to learn the cultural heritage of the people. Don't go out and buy a dreamcatcher and a turkey feather warbonnet and go on websites and message boards saying "Mitakuye Oyasin" to everybody (which is Lakota, not Cherokee) and acting like some wise "medicine man" or how you think a "real Injun" would act. You look foolish.
Don't put on some Boy Scout-made "regalia" and go to a powwow making up your own "dance style" and looking like an idiot. If you want to learn, then learn things the right way. If I had a dime for every time someone told me they were "part" Indian I would be living in a mansion right now.
Like I said before, and many people have preached this until they are blue in the face too, Indians don't come in "parts." You are either an Indian or you are not. If you tell me you are "part" Indian I want to know some things. Are you enrolled with the tribe? (It don't matter to me because I am not either.) Where are your Indian ancestors from? What is your blood quantum? You know the language? The history and culture? The stories? If not, then we really don't have much to talk about on the subject of "Indianness," do we?
posted by Rob at 9:15 PM
1 Comments:
haha you're so right. I'm Navajo and when people tell me they are Cherokee i kind of look down on them because SOOO many people claim that they are 1/27th (or some ridiculous percentage )cherokee. But i totally agree with you. If someone claims to be indian they should at least practice the beliefs, not just say it's because of some physical attribute. I was in a Native Museum the other day and this white, blond hair, blue eyed couple came up to me and claimed to be Cherokee. then the husband grabbed her cheeks and said "that's were these high cheek bones come from" as if his wife was a horse or something! so that's why i have such a prejudice against people claiming to be Cherokee. But if you do practice the beliefs then i do believe that you are Cherokee or any other tribe. hopefully people will eventually learn to stop that nonsense but i highly doubt it.
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