African-Native American Research Forum Archive
Re: Documentation of Native American Ancestery
In Response To: Documentation of Native American Ancestery ()
When attempting to document your "native american" ancestry especially concerning the history of the Five Tribes you have to keep in mind the duplicity practiced by the nations. The attitude of the nations were no different in Indian Territory than the attitude in the south in general. If you had African blood and your maternal line was considered of African descent so were you.
It is true that there existed a double standard when it came to corroboration and too top it off in many cases the mixing with the African was considered illegal. Quite naturally anyone admitting to having a sexual union that resulted in a child could be punished for breaking the law. You couple that with the fact people of African ancestry had no legal rights in the territory nor were they citizens of the United States it was apparent the freedmen were at the mercy of the controlling parties in the territory.
There have been cases were people with African descendant mothers and Indian fathers contested the system for inclusion as citizens. However the inherent problem would always become one of "mama's baby daddy's maybe".
Frankly in my opinion this just allowed the continued abuse of the women in the territory and the African woman more so. This abuse occurred during slavery and following the antebellum period. It allowed for generations of "mixed blood" African's to be excluded from the same priveleges of citizenship as the mixed blood indian and mixed blood whites who in some cases had less "indian blood" than the "black indian".
[originally postd 26 May 1999]
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