I need to go to that museum in Culpeper, I live just down the highway  
and I've heard so many good things about it.

Since finding out that my own 7-great grandmother was a Powhatan, I  
had thought, from time to time, about the possibility of associating  
myself with the remnants of the tribes here in Va., just to learn  
more, but then thought the better of it. It was so long ago, and I am  
sure many, if not most, native peoples are sick of the "Indian  
wannabees" that must be knocking on their doors, with the popularity  
of Native American culture in the last few decades. I wouldn't want  
to seem disrespectful of them, esp. when you consider the harm the  
other, greater percentage of my white ancestors did to their  
ancestors. We've taken away so much and left them so little. But I do  
hope the Virginia tribes will get the federal recognition they have  
been trying to get for so long. Talk about a slap in the face- how  
would I like it if I had to get 'permission' from the government to  
be 'recognized' as being what I am, and have been for 10,000 years?

Nancy


-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



>
> Dear Anita and Emma?:
>
> Your statements both are valid.   In the old days (30 years ago or  
> earlier),
> it wasn't fashionable to admit to Indian let alone black ancestry.
> Everything was SHHHHHH!!!   After the Hemings/Jefferson news event  
> of several years
> ago, I noticed that phenotypically white folks were admitting very  
> proudly that
> they had black ancestry.....what a difference a few years  
> make ;-0!!    I also
> suspect the previously impoverished Indian tribes have had a economic
> turnaround with the advent of casinos on the reserves which has  
> brought out every
> Indian wannabe out of the woodwork.  It is a shame that has  
> happened as it has
> caused some of these tribes to block out folks who are valid  
> members of the
> tribe.   To illustrate my first point,   I recall a funny incident  
> related to me by
> a fellow member of AAHGS (Afro-American Historical and Geneaological
> Society), the largest black geneaology group in the US.   As a  
> retired person, she
> frequently volunteered on the old 4th floor location of the  
> National Archives in
> DC helping out novice geneaologists.   One day a few months after the
> Hemings/Jefferson news broke a very excited, young white man  
> approached her with a
> request to help research his black ancestors.   She remarked    
> chuckling, how
> much had changed in her lifetime with regards to race!   I do  
> recall on the
> African Lives program from last year on PBS, the Penn State  
> geneticist Mark Shriver
> who did the geneaology for the 8 prominent African-Americans,  
> commented that
> there was a sizeable percentage of the present day white population  
> whose had
> ancestors dating from the 17th-early 19th century with either  
> Indian or black
> ancestry.   Shriver checked his own DNA and found out he had 11%  
> African
> ancestry!   People forget that intimate contact between white and  
> black indentured
> servants was primarily consensual which diminished with the death  
> of the
> indentured servitude system.   An interesting book entitled "We  
> Were Always Free,
> The Maddens of Culpeper County, A 200 Year Family History" by   T.  
> O. Madden,
> the   great grandson of Willis Madden touches on this. Amazon.com:  
> We Were
> Always Free: The Maddens Of Culpeper County, Virginia, A 200-year  
> Family History
> (The Virginia Bookshelf): Books: T. O. Madden,Ann L. Miller   He  
> was the free
> black grandson of an Irish indentured servant mother and a black  
> enslaved
> father.   The children and subsequent generations were free and  
> Madden by the time
> of the CW was the biggest taxpayers in Culpeper County.   He owned  
> a popular
> tavern and inn just southeast of Culpeper CH which was ironically  
> trashed by
> the Union Army.   The Madden family still lives in Culpeper and  
> Willis Madden's
> story is prominently featured in the wonderful Culpeper County  
> Historical
> Museum.
>
>
> Anita L. Henderson
>
>
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