Black Indians

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Afro-Native Americans
Notable Black Indians: Bessie Coleman · Jimi Hendrix · James Earl Jones  · Aaliyah  · Beyonce Knowles  · Rosa Parks
Total population
182,494 (2000)[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (especially the Southern United States or in locations populated by Southern descendants).
Languages
American English
Religions
Various
Related ethnic groups
African Americans · Native Americans in the United States · Freedmen · Other Native peoples of the Americas  · Zambos · Cafuzos ·

Black Indians is a term generally used to describe Americans who have significant traces of both sub-Saharan African and Native American or Indigenous American ancestry. The term may also include African Americans who, for a long time, were seamlessly embedded within Native American tribes and identities throughout the Americas. Subsequently, although no longer having social, cultural or linguistic ties to Native peoples, many Africans Americans have Native American ancestry.

Contents 1 Overview 2 History 2.1 Native American slave ownership 2.2 Cherokee Freedmen 3 Genealogy 4 Notable Black Indians 5 References 6 See also 7 External links 8 Further reading

[edit] Overview

African slaves brought to the United States and their descendants have had a history of cultural exchange and notably intermarriage with Native Americans and other African slaves who possessed Native American ancestry (largely in the American South).^{[citation needed]} This cultural mixing is also believed to be the reason why certain phenotypes (physical characteristics) common within Native peoples also occur in the African-American population.^{[citation needed]} These may include longer and/or less kinky hair texture than commonly appears in people of sub-Saharan African origin (sometimes called "indian hair" by fellow blacks), slanted eyes, many times with an epicanthal fold also common among many Native people as well as Asians, eyes sometimes widely spaced apart, an aquiline nose or hooknose, and skin coloration that can range from light brown/tan to reddish.^{[citation needed]}

Native American groups have had both positive and strained relationships with Africans and African Americans they encountered.^{[citation needed]} Some groups were more accepting of Africans than others and welcomed them as full members of their respective cultures and communities. Some Native Americans, especially as they became more assimilated into the dominant American culture (aided in large part by White intermarriage with Natives), came to treat African Americans with contempt, as did much of the White population.^{[citation needed]} There were disagreements among Native peoples concerning the role of African people in their communities; some tribal factions (notably the Keetoowah Society of the Cherokee) were opposed to slavery. ^{[2][dubious – discuss]} Other American Indians saw uses for slavery and did not oppose it for others; wthis was part of a wider split among Native people who were either for or against assimilation into the increasingly dominant white American culture of the early-to-mid 19th century.^{[3][dubious – discuss]}

After the American Civil War, some African Americans participated in warfare against Native Americans, especially in the Western frontier states as members of military units such as the Buffalo Soldiers. On the other hand, many Native Americans and African-descended people fought alongside one another in armed struggles of resistance against U.S. expansion into Native territories, as well as resistance against slavery and racism.

There are efforts underway to promote greater cooperation and understanding among both contemporary African American and Native American tribal groups. Some intermarriage still occurs between these groups; some African Americans who descend from or who identify as Black Indians identify strongly with the Native cultural traditions with which they were raised.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

The earliest recorded example of African slaves escaping from European colonists and being absorbed by American Indians occurred as far back as 1526. In June of that year, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon established a Spanish colony near the mouth of the Pee Dee River in what is now eastern South Carolina. The Spanish settlement was named San Miquel de Guadalupe. Amongst the settlement were 100 enslaved Africans. In 1526, the first African slaves fled the colony and were taken in by the local Native Americans^[4]

In 1622 the European colony of Jamestown was overrun by Native Americans. The African slaves did not share the same fate as the Europeans who were killed, but were instead taken and integrated into the Native American communities.

Several colonial advertisements made direct reference to the integration of African Americans into the Native American communities. For example ...ran off with his Indian wife... had kin among the Indians...part Indian and speaks their language good.^[5]

In South Carolina, colonists became so concerned about the possible threat posed by the mixed African and Indian population that was arising as runaway Africans escaped to the Indians that they passed a new law in 1725. This law stipulated a fine of 200 pounds on anyone who brought a slave to the frontier regions of the colony. In 1751 the colony of South Carolina found it necessary to issue another law, warning that having Africans in proximity to Indians was deemed detrimental to the security of the colony.

In 1726 the British governor of colonial New York exacted a promise from the Iroquois Indians to return all runaway slaves who had joined up with them. This same promise was extracted from the Huron Indians in 1764 and from the Delaware Indians in 1765. Despite their promises, no esacaped slaves were ever returned by these tribes, who continued to provide a safe and secure home for escaped slaves.

An 1835 census of the Cherokee showed that fully 10% were of African descent.^[5]

[edit] Native American slave ownership

Slavery existed among Native Americans before it was introduced by the Europeans, although unlike the chattel slavery that was introduced. In oral tradition, for instance, Cherokees saw slavery as the result of failure in warfare, and as a temporary status pending adoption or release.^[6] As the US Constitution and the laws of several states permitted slavery, Native Americans were legally allowed to continue owning slaves, including those brought from Africa by Europeans. The Cherokee tribe had the most members who held black slaves more than any Native American tribe.^[7] Records from the time period show several cases of brutal treatment of black slaves by their masters. Many African-descended people were held as slaves by members of Native groups, and some later recounted their lives for a WPA oral history project in the 1930s.^[8]

[edit] Cherokee Freedmen

Main article: Cherokee Freedmen Controversy

The Cherokee Nation, in a tribal Supreme Court ruling, reinstated about 1,000 African American members into their community in March 2006 after denying them membership in the mid-1970s. In response, there was a movement among many in the Cherokee Nation to force a referendum requiring Cherokee blood for citizenship in the tribe, which would effectively reverse the decision; the decision was indeed revoked in March 2007 amid much controversy^[9]. The argument is that the African American descendants hold no Native blood and therefore should not qualify for membership, and voting rights, in the Cherokee Nation.^[10]

An advocacy group representing the African American members claims that they are entitled to membership as they are indeed part Cherokee by blood, even though this is not immediately evident from the existing historical records (most notably the highly controversial Dawes Commission enrollment records, which tended to exclude those of African descent from being officially considered "Indian" for the purposes of tribal enrollment, even if they also clearly possessed Native ancestry and testified as such).^[11][12]

Before the Dawes Commission was established, "(t)he majority of the people with African blood living in the Cherokee nation prior to the Civil war lived there as slaves of Cherokee citizens or as free black non citizens, usually the descendants of Cherokee men and women with African blood...In 1863, the Cherokee government outlawed slavery through acts of the tribal council. In 1866, a treaty was signed with the US government in which the Cherokee government agreed to give citizenship to those people with African blood living in the Cherokee nations who were not already citizens. African Cherokee people participated as full citizens of that nation, holding office, voting, running businesses, etc.^[13]

After the Dawes Commission, those African American "freedmen" of the Cherokee and the other Five Civilized Tribes were often treated as harshly as any other African American. Degrees of continued acceptance into tribal structures were very low throughout the ensuing decades, with some tribes restricting membership to those with a documented Native ancestor on the Dawes Commission listings. Because of the apparent deliberate exclusion of most people with African blood on these "blood rolls", it was difficult for Black Indians to establish official ties with those Native groups they genetically belonged to. Many of the freedmen feel that their continued exclusion from tribal membership, and the continued resistance to their efforts to gain recognition, is racially motivated.^{[14] [15]}

[edit] Genealogy

Many modern African Americans have taken an interest in genealogy and are learning about Native American heritage within their individual families. Some African Americans have knowledge of Native ancestry through oral history of the family and try to confirm these anecdotal stories of Native ancestry through genealogical research and DNA testing. Because of such findings, some have petitioned to be registered as members of Native American tribes and have met with some resistance.

However, in part because of continued recent intermarriage between African-Americans and Native Americans, and also due to increased awareness of Black Indians in general, it has been fairly easy for younger generations of mixed African/Native people to become more easily recognized in their respective ethnic groups. It is even debated that Black people have more noticeable Native heritage than many whites claim (a major factor in the Cherokee freedmen controversy). Even among Native peoples themselves, some of these physical features have been confused with being Sub-Saharan African due to the negative influence of the one-drop rule.^[16]

[edit] Notable Black Indians

• Aaliyah, grandmother is Native American. ^[17]
• Monica "Monica" Arnold, is part Native American ^[18]
• Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges, is part Native American ^[19]
• Bessie Coleman, part Cherokee^[20]
• Vivica A. Fox, is part Native American ^[21]
• Redd Foxx, is part Seminole^[22]
• Meagan Good, is part Native American ^{[23] [24]}
• Regina Hall, is part Native American ^[25]
• Ciara "Ciara" Harris, is part Native American ^[26]
• Jimi Hendrix, part Cherokee^[27]
• Shar Jackson, is part Cherokee ^[28]
• Illinois Jacquet, Mother was Sioux and father Creole.^[29]
• James Earl Jones, part Cherokee and Choctaw^[30][31]
• Kimberly "Lil' Kim" Jones, is part Native American, ^[32]
• Christopher Judge, part Cherokee
• Eartha Kitt, part Cherokee
• Beyonce Knowles, part Native American ^[33]
• Sanaa Lathan, is part Native American ^[34]
• Edmonia Lewis, part Ojibwa^[35]
• Amber Littlejohn, part Cherokee
• LisaRaye McCoy, is part Native American ^[36]
• Chrisette Michele, is part Native American
• Rosa Parks, part Cherokee-Creek^[37]
• Oscar Pettiford, Mother was Choctaw and father part Cherokee.^[38][39]
• Martha Redbone, Native American Music Award winning Soul music of Shawnee, Choctaw ^[40]
• Della Reese, part Cherokee^[41]
• Wendy Raquel Robinson, is part Native American ^[42]
• Diana Ross, is part Cherokee ^[43]
• Al Sharpton, is part Cherokee ^[44]
• Jada Pinkett Smith, part Cherokee ^[45]
• Will Smith, is part Native American ^[46]
• Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, mother is part Native American ^[47]
• Tina Turner, part Cherokee and Navajo^[48]
• Kerry Washington, is part Native American ^[49]
• Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, is part Native American ^[50]
• Lynn Whitfield, is part Cherokee ^[51]
• Mykelti Williamson, part Blackfeet^[52]
• Keke Wyatt, is part Cherokee ^[53]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

• Aframerindian Slave Narratives
• The Binay Tribe - Black Indians & Inter-tribal Native American Association
• The Chahta Nation
• Cherokee Nation
• Freedmen Five Tribes
• Video: Black Indians, an American Story
• List: African Descendants of Amerindian Extraction
• African-Native American Scholars
• African Americans - Black Indians In American West History
• Cherokee Trails
• The African-Native American
• Black Indians, by Dr Arthur N Lewin
• William Loren Katz Official Website
• Sequoyah Research Center
• Black Indians in Mexico
• AfriGeneas: Black/Indian Relations
• Melungeons.com: 'Black Indian' Lists
• Documentation: Black-Indian Jamaicans sold into slavery in Louisiana

[edit] Further reading

• Amir Nashid Ali Muhammad; Muslims in America - Seven Centuries of History ISBN 0-915957-75-2
• Sylviane A. Diouf; Servants of Allah - African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas ISBN 0-8147-1905-8
• Allan D. Austin; African Muslims in Antebellum America ISBN 0-415-91270-9
• --
• Tiya Miles; Ties that Bind : the Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom ISBN 0520241320
• J. Leitch Wright; The Only Land They Knew : American Indians in the Old South ISBN 0803298056
• Patrick Minges; Black Indian Slave Narratives ISBN 0895872986
• Jack D. Forbes; Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples ISBN 025206321X
• James F. Brooks; Confounding the Color Line: The Indian - Black Experience in North America ISBN 0803261942
• Claudio Saunt; Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family ISBN 0195313100