<<Those Cherokees were sure prolific.>>
Blue, many settlers in the mid-West, where white women were scarce, married Cherokee women. For one thing, the Cherokees were not confined to reservations. Secondly, the women were usually literate, and Christian as well. And available.
My late husband not only claimed to be part Cherokee, but had an old photograph (of some forbear or other with a Cherokee wife) to prove it. And physically, he was a real throwback: his facial structure was the most "Indian" I have ever seen.
I don't think that so many Americans claim Cherokee (or just plain Indian) ancestry just because they think it is chic, as might appear to be the case.
I can tell a sad little story to illustrate my point. My youngest son was fascinated, when he was about seven or eight, with his Cherokee ancestry. We even found a grammar of the Cherokee language, and he mastered at least the Cherokee alphabet. Well, at school that year they had a "National Heritage Day," and you were supposed to dress up in the national costume of the ethnic group to which you belonged.
This was a New England town, Anglo, Italian, Irish, for the most part. Well, Conrad went in an Indian costume. What jeers! What sniggering! Little Indian chief, har, har! How's it going, Tonto? The only good Indian is a dead Indian, doofus! etc.
His first experience of prejudice, and aimed at him...It totally humiliated him, and made him a sworn enemy of prejudice, whomever it was aimed at.
Joan |
