In a message dated 3/3/07 9:17:37 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:


> This has nothing to do with fear and prejudice.  This has everything to do 
> with defining and enforcing membership requirements, with the decision being 
> put before the membership in a valid and legal way and voted upon by that 
> membership.  One either is eligible or one is not.  Political correctness 
> requires that no one of any race, religion, origin, sexual orientation, blah blah 
> blah, be denied membership in anything for any of those reasons, which 
> ultimately means that no one can have a club, an association, or any gathering of 
> any kind restricted by anything.  I’d bet my first-born’s inheritance that if 
> only Caucasians were at risk, public outcry would be minimal (and unreported 
> by the press) or non-existent.  Either the Cherokee are a self-regulating 
> group or they are not.  “Sad” would be if the federal government decides to 
> step in and wave its magic wand on behalf of the “disenfranchised.”
> 
> 
> Anita Wills <[log in to unmask]> wrote:  My brother took a DNA test which 
> showed our paternal line to be at least 1/2
> Native from Columbia South America. We were surprised at those results, as
> our forebearers were slaves in South Carolina. I have proved several Native
> lines and am a member of a State Recognized Tribe in Virginia. One of my
> friends has Sioux lines, but cannot join the tribe, because her mother was
> adopted out and her race was turned to white. I don't know what to think
> about this situation, but my hope is that we will all realize fear and
> prejudice are our greatest enemy. They will destroy us long before our
> enemies make it to the door.
> 
> Anita
> 
> 
> 

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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