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African and Native American Hair-type; THE COMB TEST


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African and Native American Hair-type; THE COMB TEST

 

One key historical mark that reveals issues of Colorism that existed in the Native American world would be a practice that became known as ‘the Comb Test’. Perhaps there has been some publications with regards to this subject but, my account would only be based on a personal experience. Nevertheless, as it was explained to me, this practice was common and widespread at least on the east coast of the States. However, there has been a serious mis-education when it comes to the whole truth about what life was like for millions of people who lived in North America before the coming of Columbus and the Colonial Movement. Even though the Native American world consisted of many different kinds of natives however, today we have been conditioned to define the American Indians (ie. Native Americans) by European construct. But sometimes when I look at my husband, who happens to be a ‘Black Indian’, I sometimes think about how back during the Civil Rights times, a common racist shout against Black people was to ‘Go Back to Africa’ and now, the deception becomes apparent. Because of this European tactic to ‘Divide & Conquer’, based on issues of Colorism as well as many other methods, the reality of Colorism that had already occurred amongst the native peoples became even more of a confusion. My husbands people though, mark both the ancient history and the more recent American Indian history too. As a Negro Indian [i.e. Black Indian], my husband reveals that not all people with nappy hair identifies with the term ‘Africa’ as it applies to the Mid-Atlantic African Slave Trade. For a certainty, all modern humans originated OUT OF AFRICA at one point in time, but also, just like many different kinds of people who are from other continents and countries all over the world and who have no known recent historical link to Africa, nevertheless, there are a significant presence of Native American Indians that fit todays physical description of ‘an African’ but have no recent historical link to Africa at all. Because their cultures were almost wiped out, therefore, some of them have intermixed with African Americans, have chosen to blend, or conveniently allowed people to define them as African Americans but many of them are not direct descendants. Over time, African American Descendants of Slaves have been made to absorb many other kinds of people into our culture and therefore, in order to better understand issues of Self-Hate and Colorism that has plagued us, it may be good to look deeper into our origins and formations. Following, will be four brief personal accounts with some of my relations that may better help to understand how, perhaps, the notion of ‘GOOD HAIR-BAD HAIR’ has been connected to Colorism and White Supremacy and used to classify Black African-typed people as being inferior to others.

 

1.       My husband’s paternal grandmother. She would be defined as ‘a Straight-Haired North American Indian’ woman. He took me to visit her from time to time, before and after we married and it was always enriching because, she was always willing to talk and share a lot about her life. But she was also very frank, abrupt and sometimes crude to the point that some of her grandchildren became offended and would not visit her. On one visit she told me that she remembered ‘the Trail of Tears’. She said that she was very young but remembered it very well. She was led out by hand with her people as they were forced marched out of their lands westwards to become a part of a Cherokee Reservation. She was not Cherokee though, but Sioux, however, there was no designated reservation for the Sioux, so for the many that were caught in the North Carolina woodlands, they were force marched to Cherokee lands. On another visit she told my husband and I about ‘the Comb Test’ and said that this was a common practice. She said it became incorporated into her Church and when a visitor would want to join the congregation, the preacher would then call that person up to the front of the church! She further explained that the preacher would pull out a comb and then run the comb through the hair of the person and if they did not have ‘STRAIGHT-TYPED HAIR’, they could not become a member of their church community. I fell back… LOL. She told us this story with a straight and stern face. I asked her was she serious and she confirmed.

 

On yet another occasion, she came to visit her son, my father-in-law. And as the family gathered around the table, I decided to ask her a question because I felt that her presence was so unique in how she compared to my father-in-law; her son. I said to her, “you have a beautiful skin tone but why is it that you are darker than your son and most of your children? She immediately smiled at me and then she threw her head back and paused. Then she looked straight forward, and it was almost as if she went into a trance. She looked as if she went far back in time and in her imagination while she was speaking of a very traumatic time in her childhood. She said, “I know. I am also darker than both of my brothers. I was my mother’s only daughter and she hated me.” Then she said that one day when she was a little girl, her mother punished her for not washing the dishes. Her mother led her outside and made her stay outside on the swing in the sun for a long time and ever since that time, her mother would tell her that she became dark because she was a bad girl. I could tell that her mind went back to that very experience and it seemed as if she was ‘that little girl’. But then after she told the story, she ‘came to’. Then she looked at me and said, she hated her mother and did not miss her after she died. She had no remorse. OMG! Anyway… fast forward … to one of her own sons, that was dubbed, the black one and he said that she was racist. My husband said that whenever they would go to visit this woman, his great-grandmother, who was a White woman, she would line all the children up—by color—LOL. My husband was always in the back!

 

 

2.       THE POW WOW—I learned by going to Pow Wows that many of the East Coast Natives adopt spiritual names that relate to a significant event in their life or based on the nature of animals common to their environment. So in the western parts of America the natives may adopt spirit names connected to perhaps the buffalo, bull, horse, coyote, or etc. And in the east coast, some natives refer to the fox, squirrel, rat (swamp rat), beaver, deer, and etc. There are many different tribal people from all over America and I met a native, a Straight-haired-Indian, who told me an interesting story that made me realize that I had mis-judged my husband who spoke about this very topic. So, I need to go back to the story that my husband had told me about some of his father’s people. He would constantly tell me how some of his relatives would have a particular hair-type but then all of a sudden, it would completely change. He said that he had an uncle who was young and had very tight curly hair and then he got sick and was hospitalized but, afterwards, his hair became bone straight. And, he continued to tell me other similar stories repeatedly until, I got sick and tired of it. One day, I told him, “Negro Please! You don’t have to worry about your hair changing as nappy as it is. Be sure, it won’t change at all. Smh!”  I didn’t believe it but then, when I went to the Pow Wow, this native man told me the same kind of story. I have since learned that there is such an occurrence in that some people do have this happening in that their hair will change texture or, they have a distinct combination-type hair texture, and not due to old age, but it is a commonality that occurs across the world in certain ethnic groups. This makes me wonder of the useless purpose of ‘the Comb Test’.  

 

 

3.       BLACKFEET Comb Test—My husband’s father lived in the Piedmont area and his people have a long history in this region. However, some of the decision that he made was spurred by the government’s programs aimed at wiping out the Native Americans. He marks a very crucial and historical time of conflict that revolved around the World Wars. The Federal government passed a law known as the Racial Integrity Act (RIA) in order to deal the American Indians and the federal reports concluded on the repercussions of this law years later. Initially, the natives had three choices; (1) they could be defined as White if they were light skinned enough, (2) they had to remain on reservations if they still wanted to be listed as Natives, or (3) they had to be defined as ‘Colored’ and be defined with the Negro ‘race’ if they signed up for the military. In general, and as a result of this RIA, the federal government documents later reported that almost 90% of the Native American men married White women and completely left the reservations and became ‘White’ if they could pass (this is what my father-in-law’s, father chose to do, but he was too dark skinned to pass as White). Only a few natives remained on the reservations and as a result many of them that remained became very impoverished. And finally, there was a small percentage of natives that were aggressive and did not want to be defined as White nor chose to remain on the reservations, therefore, they bonded with the African American community; and this is what my father-in-law chose to do. However, he married a part-Blackfeet woman. My husband’s mother, at my first glance, appeared to be an African American woman, but the story behind the picture of her grandmother displayed in her house was about a woman that came from Montana, was forced out of Blackfeet country with her people who faced harsh times of starvation. They were driven at first to Nebraska, and then some of them were taken by wagonloads further east to Maryland.  My husband’s mother was a little girl at the same time that some famous Blackfeet Indians were being pressed hard by the government and were resisting annihilation. Black-and-White photos captured some of the Blackfeet Indians during the 1930s and there was one famous depiction of a Blackfeet on a subway rail in the Capital. But the very brief written documents about the Blackfeet Indians has been severely White washed and painted a very different view of a much bigger story!

 

The oral story about the Blackfeet Indians has some color to it! Although my husband’s mother has that same distinct forehead that I see in a lot of pictures of Blackfeet Indians, her hair was also nappy, no doubt due to being intermixed on the east coast, however, there are small bits and pieces of early stories of the Blackfeet that does include the African presence before the Great Starvation. And also unfortunately, my mother-in-law conducted her own ‘Comb-Test’ amongst her own children and grandchildren. She made a point of announcing to me and her own son, my husband, that our firstborn baby would not be lucky enough to have ‘hair like Papa’. Both of our sons were born and grew nappy hair like her and all of her children and grandchildren. And like my husband, who has the same prominent forehead and hairline as she did, one of my sons were born with the same traits. Our first son developed some physical features of the Sioux while our younger son developed some physical features of the Blackfeet.

 

 

4.       THE ETHIOPIAN YOUNG MEN—As a Biology Major, my further research began with my personal stories about my family here as an African American Descendant of Slaves. Yet, even though, through by son’s paternal line, they are Third Generation Native Indians starting with my father-in-law and Second-Generation Black Indians, and come from a long line of Natives, however, their maternal links to Africa through myself becomes the Agar that makes them so complete. The American government has damaged and fragmented the American Indian populations so intensely that the Black Indian Identity is almost gone. For this reason, and as my sons grew up, I became so happy to see their African traits develop. I enjoyed taking my sons to the barber shop to get the trendy African American haircut styles such as the High top, Box Cut, fade, and corn rolling their hair. I remember how all the Black young men grew out their afros over the summer and turned up in school for the 7th grade with these large ‘Jackson 5 afros’. And I could see that my older son began to look like my maternal origins more and more, as he grew up. He looked to me like East Africans, but I had no idea that he would receive this same confirmation from many East African and Middle Eastern people! I remember one day that we went to dine at a buffet restaurant in North Carolina and a rather large group of Ethiopian young men came into the restaurant to eat. They walked passed our table and sat over near the window and they were close enough so that their conversations in a foreign tongue could easily be heard as they talked amongst themselves. I noticed that they looked a lot like my son who was sitting at the table with us. But then my thoughts were confirmed by those men that day. At one point, my son stood up because he wanted to go to the sushi bar and he turned and began to walk towards their table because it was in the pathway of the direction to the sushi bar. As my son began to walk briskly towards that direction, the men stopped talking abruptly and looked directly at my son, and three of them immediately stood straight up and began to reach out their hand as if to shake hands with my son. Meanwhile, my son, who had no clue what was transpiring, kept on walking past their table and so, the three men looked baffled and then they slowly sat down and continued speaking in another language. Apparently, they must have assumed my son was going to greet them. I was so amazed at how much he looked like those young Ethiopian men, but it was not until I did more research that I could really appreciate his traits. And as he grew up, however, there was one unique trait that he began to express that really caught me by surprise.

 

 

My oldest son went off to college and moved into the dormitory community when he was about twenty. But it was only a few weeks later that he told me that he had decided to cut his braids and get a barber shop cut. So, a few days later, I drove up to the campus to visit him and I was taken by surprise to see his new look. He opened the passenger car door and sat down in the car and my mouth dropped open as I gazed at his profile and look at his Mediterranean typed nose. … I said, “Okay, what happened to your hair!!!” He did a silent laugh and said, “I don’t know.” Then I said, “Where are your naps!? What happened to your hair!? It is BONE SRAIGHT! OMG! You look like a Gypsy. You’ve got a White woman’s bump in your nose. What am I going to tell you father? He is going to joke me! … I ran my fingers through his hair. So much for ‘the Comb Test!’ smh. To this day, my oldest son’s hair has no naps. When he grows it out, it is very, very Black and has soft big straight-type curls but, nonetheless, there are no naps!—at all! His hair texture resembles many Ethiopians in that he has a combination type hair texture. He lost the bushy afro that he used to have. His hairline has receded, and he looks like he could be one of Haile Selassie’s sons. Umh. What a thought. Well, I wrote some of my personal experiences with respect to ‘African traits’ [i.e. ???] because of the deeper research that I have done with regards to the ancient scripts of the distant past and to better explain the problems of today that has arisen due to issues of Self-Hatred and Colorism that has plagued the world. These four personal experiences are sort of an introduction to a better understanding of the past.

 

 

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Thank you for this thread Chev, I love hearing PERSONAL TESTIMONIES to hisorical events!
I place much more value in them than I do in mere "information" presented in history books because they provide much more detail as well as an aire of legitimacy that contemporary historic scholarship doesn't for me.

A few quick points I'd like to make................


1. Having a White racist mother herself, your husband's grandmother was actually MIXED RACE and that explains how a lot of the poision of racism came into many of these so-called "Native American" communities down the line.
This is one of the reasons I'm so specific and detail orieinted when it comes to defining race and insisting that mixed people are MIXED PEOPLE and shouldn't be called "Black" or "White" or "Native American".
....to prevent confusion.

Which leads me to my 2nd point.


2. I'm careful to separate TRUE Native Americans who tend to be brown skinned with straight Black hair and more rounded features....from MIXED RACE people who CLAIM to be Native Americans but actually have predominately Caucasian genes.
These fake $5 Indians who own many of the casinos in the United States tend to be nearly White skinned and are very racist against not only AfroAmericans but even TRUE Native Americans!

This causes confusion for a lot of AfroAmericans because often times they'll encounter racism or read about a racist incident from one of these FAKE Indians and then make the mistake of believing "Native Americans" did this or felt this way.

Many of these fake phony $5 Indians actually owned slaves but few people know that they were actually either Caucasians or Caucasians with only a trace amount of Native American ancestry DISGUISING themselves as Native Americans.

 


3. Although you didn't go into detail on it, people should know that Africans have been living in the Americas WITH the Native Americans for hundreds if not thousands of years BEFORE Columbus.
Hell, even Columbus reported seeing Black African "tribes" who dwelled with the Native Americans.

Mansa Musa's brother Abubakari and a crew of other Africans saild over here during the 13th century and the Olmec heads of African men with helmets could very well be more evidence of this.

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I have some thoughts on all of this subject. I was very interested to hear Chevdove elucidate on the Black Foot Indians.  My father told us his mother, who was not married to his father, was a native American woman.  I had no reason to doubt this because there was big portrait of her in a round ornate picture frame, that hung in my parents' bedroom. Because this picture was not in color i can only deduce that her skin color was medium tone, being neither dark nor light.  She had an abundant crop of hair that was probably black in color, and wavy rather than straight in texture.  It was styled in a long braid that was twisted in a knot pinned in the center of her forehead. She had high cheekbones,  thin lips and a well sculpted nose and almond-shaped eyes. She was beautiful.  This picture hung in that room all during my childhood, and me and my siblings referred to her as "our Indian grandmother".  My grandfather who was born in Missouri and grew up in Kansas. a territory he left as a young man in his 20's to seek out his fortune in Chicago even before the "Great Migration" which started around 1915.   He had married another woman and still lived in Chicago  and would come to visit us from time to time during the years he was alive.  He, oddly enough, was light complexioned, had freckles and nappy red hair.  Anyhow. i seemed to have  remembered him once saying about my dad's mother, the woman he had not wed, who was about 5 years older than him and had died young, was a Black Foot Indian.  This stuck with me as a kid of about 8 years old because, in all of my childish innocence,  i wondered if she had black feet. But in my mindless youth, i never paid much  attention to anything my parents had to say bout their forbears.  Fast forward many years when i came to realize the importance of tracing  my roots.  In doing  research about my family tree, i saw that the Indian tribes that inhabited the area in Missouri and Kansas where my father and his people were from,  were of the Osage nation, and i thought that was probably the tribe my grandmother was from, and that i was confused about my "black foot" memories.  But, maybe she was a Black Foot who migrated to Kansas from nearby  Nebraska where  Chevdove placed some members of the Black Foot tribe. To me, that makes my grandmother more special because according to Chevdove,  this tribe  put up a fight when it came to government intervention.  😡 

 

 Also, my hair which started out as being a sandy reddish color and frizzy in texture, eventually turned brown and become quite bushy.   However, as the years  continued to pass, the texture of my hair continued to gradually change becoming thinner and quite silky.  Now in my 80s i have long straight white hair  (which i tuck under styled wigs when i go out because it is thin on top. ). Also a dentist once told me that my teeth had unusual characteristics that he'd never seen before but these traits were possibly native American in origin. 😬

 

 My late brother-in-law, who was married to my older sister, was another example of someone whose hair nappy hair changed texture as he aged, it being almost straight at the year of his untimely death at age 50.  He was a very exotic looking man.  Tall, slender, amber in color,  a  long narrow  face, a keen acquiline nose.  It's so weird that my tall, slender 14-year-old great-grandson looks the same way altho he and this brother-in-law  are in no way related; never  even knew  each other. Ironically,  this grandson's other great-grandmother on his father's side obvious has native American blood lines...  She actually looks like an Indian squaw in her old age, complete with long braids.    

 

So tell me,  do i sound like a person who is full of self-hate?  Like somebody who is lost and wants to be white?? Like somebody who should be riveted on Africa?  When y'all talk about this "self-hate" thing, leave me out. i am, who i am and have no problem with this.  And, i like all of my different blood lines, including the Scotch-Irish ones.  i especially like my alien, Type "O" Rh-negative blood.  👽

 

OK. I'm done.  

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17 hours ago, Cynique said:

So tell me,  do i sound like a person who is full of self-hate?  Like somebody who is lost and wants to be white?? Like somebody who should be riveted on Africa?  When y'all talk about this "self-hate" thing, leave me out. i am, who i am and have no problem with this.  And, i like all of my different blood lines, including the Scotch-Irish ones.  i especially like my alien, Type "O" Rh-negative blood.  👽

 

@Cynique This is too funny! You know though that if you are alien, then we are all aliens! LOL. Your RH-negative Type "O" blood is only one aspect of this alien presence and I told you I was told I had blue eyes when I was born. And, I have had red hair for years until it began to darken. LOL. But I am not broadcasting my blue eyes at all, though! LOL. I KEEPS DAT on the down low. LOL.

 

 

 

 

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Thank you for this thread Chev, I love hearing PERSONAL TESTIMONIES to hisorical events!

 

You are most welcome, my brother!

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Having a White racist mother herself,

 

@Pioneer1 Are you speaking in reference to my story? If so, then, yes, my husband's grandmother was MIXED RACED. But due to her 'racist' mother marrying an Indian and abusing her in that way about her father, she obviously did not like it and guess what? She grew up and met and married another Native American! LOL! So, while my husband's grandmother was mixed-raced, though she did the same thing that her 'racist mother' did and marry 'an Indian' and, it was not necessarily out of love, but women back in those days married due to needing to financially taken care of and they had been passed over by the kind of men that they really wanted. My husband's grandmother would always say that her 'racist' mother hated the INDIAN that she married. She would tell us that the woman would always refer to her husband as 'THAT OLE INDIAN'. LOL. But then, I touched upon it briefly, by saying that this same grandmother of my husband was also defined as being 'racist'. She had 13 kids! Most of her kids were very light skinned but a few of them came out dark like her Native American husband and also her genes from her Native father and, she did show that she had problems with COLORISM herself. One of her sons, was dubeed 'the Black One' and it was he that said in my very presence, "Mama is racist".

 

 

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

that explains how a lot of the poision of racism came into many of these so-called "Native American" communities down the line.

 

So true.

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

This is one of the reasons I'm so specific and detail orieinted when it comes to defining race and insisting that mixed people are MIXED PEOPLE and shouldn't be called "Black" or "White" or "Native American".
....to prevent confusion.

 

Yeah, but this is too difficult, IMO. Therefore, I don't really agree. Culture has a lot to do with how people are identified too. Therefore, by expecting people to identify as being Mixed-raced, biracial and etc. can be disrespectful in some regards. Some biracial people and mixed raced people do cosign onto ther Black culture and become much more beneficial to the Black cultures than Black people who are possessed with issues of Self-Hatred! 

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19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

2. I'm careful to separate TRUE Native Americans who tend to be brown skinned with straight Black hair and more rounded features....from MIXED RACE people who CLAIM to be Native Americans but actually have predominately Caucasian genes.

 

I don't know @Pioneer1 The problem with this is that the PEOPLE in this land have been here for many thousands of years and so, the straight hairs that are White skinned are just as much TRUE Native Americans and the BROWN INDIANS. In many regards, the Native American World is more MATRIARCHAL and this is due to the 'CAUCASIAN' expression and much more earlier ASIATIC origins that goes way back in time. 

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

.from MIXED RACE people who CLAIM to be Native Americans but actually have predominately Caucasian genes.

 

@Pioneer1I king of agree with you here, but it is because the 'Caucasian genes' you refer to kind of MARK a recent time period of about 6000 years ago and with the more dominant Paternal presence. But the Native Americans that go way back prior to the 6000 year mark were also WHITE and/or BROWN and they are more matriarchal. So, this COLOR ISSUE was bad in the Native American world long before the Caucasians and then long before Columbus, and this is what is not being brought out. 

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Although you didn't go into detail on it, people should know that Africans have been living in the Americas WITH the Native Americans for hundreds if not thousands of years BEFORE Columbus.
Hell, even Columbus reported seeing Black African "tribes" who dwelled with the Native Americans.

 

Yes!!! But the problem here is that, in many regards the Africans are also Native Americans. They were not a separate group, but they are Native Americans, this is what is not being admitted. This then becomes a serious problem. Columbus may have seen BLack AFrican tribes, but also he definitely saw 'Negro Native Americans'. As you said, Abubakari was here!!! And, AFrican kings and people came around the AD 1300s mark and met earlier 'Negro Natives' and this is a distinct issue here. The Europeans have drawn the line, incorrectly. They want to define Native Indians that were 'Negro' as being 'Africans' but many of them had nothing to do with the continent of Africa and had been in the Americans even before the Olmecs and before the 1500s BC. But the Europeans want to define THE AZTECS who came over here from Spain in the AD 1300s as being American Indians, but then, they want to define the Black Africans that came during the same time as being AFRICANS!!! 

19 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Mansa Musa's brother Abubakari and a crew of other Africans saild over here during the 13th century and the Olmec heads of African men with helmets could very well be more evidence of this.

 

Again, I know about this history too. And they remained over here due to a fleet that sailed, but the Aztecs are defined as being Native Americans, but yet not these AFricans who came at the same time span!!! Both of these movements into the Americas about a hundred years before Columbus was as a result of the BLACK DEATH PLAGUE that began to occure in AD 1335. The Aztecas were actually Spanish people that came by the millions.

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17 hours ago, Cynique said:

I have some thoughts on all of this subject.

 

 

17 hours ago, Cynique said:

I have some thoughts on all of this subject. I was very interested to hear Chevdove elucidate on the Black Foot Indians.  My father told us his mother, who was not married to his father, was a native American woman.  I had no reason to doubt this because there was big portrait of her in a round ornate picture frame, that hung in my parents' bedroom.

@Cynique Thank you! This is an awesome story!

 

I got a tell you a quick story about my husband educating me on his mother's people, the BLACKFEET. I see too, that you did mention both, the BLACKFEET and THE BLACKFOOT. When I went to my first Pow Wow, I bought my two young sons, a shirt that had BLACKFOOT on it and my husband had a fit! He made me go back and return them because he said that the Blackfoot Indians were completely separate from the Blackfeet Indians. They are not the same. But over the years, I have been researching and trying to understand the distinction, but seems this information is kept hidden.

 

Most Blackfeet Indians that I meet are blatant and say the same thing as my husband. They do NOT connect with the Blackfoot at all. But based on my research, I do believe that there may have been some connection but they may have split due to issues of Colorism! The Federal government list them separately though, but I believe that in Canada, they may have been connected. They supposedly have two separate reservations though in the Pacific Northwest. Scientist do say that, out of all the people in the world that carry the "O" Negative blood type, it is the Blackfoot that are the only ones that are significant in North America, then this blood type is significant in Mexico too. But not the Blackfeet. So, I think that your oral history and your connection to Blackfoot is amazing! And as you did say, the Osage were concentrated in Kansas and Missouri! Wow! 

17 hours ago, Cynique said:

Now in my 80s i have long straight white hair  (which i tuck under styled wigs when i go out because it is thin on top. ). Also a dentist once told me that my teeth had unusual characteristics that he'd never seen before but these traits were possibly native American in origin. 😬

 

Interesting! You know, both my mother and one of my aunts, her sister, had this happen too!!! My mother's hair was Jet Black and my aunt actually had red hair and she had an afro. But now, their hair turned as yours did-- silky white and bone straight. 

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17 hours ago, Cynique said:

Ironically,  this grandson's other great-grandmother on his father's side obvious has native American blood lines...  She actually looks like an Indian squaw in her old age, complete with long braids.    

 

Interesting again. There seems to be a lot of hidden history, yet to come out! My mother's mother, as I did say in the past, was part Native American and part East Indian and so, the hair texture obviously shows up in mixed-raced African Americans showing these links!!!

 

But the Colorism and racis that existed in the Pre-Columbian World was really bad. And my mother's mother was really bad too, with her racism. She had a lot of children. I have a lot of aunts and uncles from her, and they all constantly say that she was racist. My aunt of which I was close to, was the lighter skinned one, and she had a 'mean streak'--lol. She was blunt. All of my aunts including my mother say that she was very attractive when she was younger and had a lot of attention, but then, they all did. But they all said that "Ma and Pa favored her over the others because she was light skinned like Ma". @Cynique My aunts would always say this and even she said this too! And that's when I had to laugh. One time I came to visit her in the nursing home and I sat beside her and asked her questions. She loved all of her nieces and nephews and would get angry if we did not come to visit her. Her siblings would come too, and at times she would slam the door in their faces  and leave them outside in the hallway during visits. LOL. She hated my mother's second husband, and I think it's because he made a pass at her. But anyway, one day she told me, that "Ma and Pa spoiled her" LOL. I think she blamed them for causing her to become anti-social. She never married and she had no kinds. At any rate, I never met my maternal grandmother, but after hearing all of the stories about her, I'm kinda glad I didn't meet her. LOL. But her ancestry and that of her parents is interesting!

 

I am so glad to hear you background. And, because you said that you married a Black man, then, you may understand how important it is too, though to embrace Africa!!! 

18 hours ago, Cynique said:

So tell me,  do i sound like a person who is full of self-hate?  Like somebody who is lost and wants to be white?? Like somebody who should be riveted on Africa?  When y'all talk about this "self-hate" thing, leave me out. i am, who i am and have no problem with this. 

 

I agree because, HEY--you are here!--in this community dropping all of this knowledge! However, you married a Black man and so, your children have this ancestry too. So, I believe that you should be somewhat 'riveted on Africa' for their sake. That is one thing tht bugs me about my husbands people. They have benefitted due to African American Movement and their movement AIM (the American Indian Movement) did not form until after ours. So, they admit this and many of them connected with African Americans during the Civil Rights times. But some of them want to be separate now. There was almost nothing for them, so they were able to fight back for their rights with the help of Black people. Me and my father-in-law has some rounds on this issue! LOL.

 

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I've never identified as anything other than a member of a non white minority who was born and raised in this country, so marrying a man who was of the same category as me was a given and no big deal.  BTW,  I did forget to mention that i was told i had blue eyes when i was born, as do a lot of babies at birth. a temporary condition that changes during infancy. ( Eye color has a lot to do with body chemistry.) i got my fantasies about my RH negative blood from several sources, one being a documentary that explored the idea of this unusual blood type being alien in origin.  But, of course, no proof exists for this hypothesis.

 

i don't want to make this subject all about me, but i would like to clear up what may be some misconceptions. I have never been someone who ran behind white folks and sucked up to them, and as an individual, my personal policy has always been to treat them whatever way they treated me, which, as it turned out, has always been with civility. But  i have actually never had a white friend; they've all been acquaintances and I am not really compatible with the white vibe.  I am, instead, permeated with the essence of blackness that has been defined as soul. Nor have i ever been color-struck.  I've always valued intellect and wit above skin tone. i have, however, been the target of people who had  a problem with my light skin.    So, it's not that i reject my African roots, it's just that i put them on the same level as all my other blood lines that contribute to the hybrid creature who is me.  My  genesis began on the shores of this country centuries ago.  Even so, i have no great love for America.  i think it's a big lie, - a land that has not kept its promises.  i also think i am more typical than some realize.  Every black person has a personal history that makes her/him unique, which is perhaps why black unity has never coalesced. This post has obviously triggered something in me, prompting me to do some self-examination at the expense of what might be called a captive audience.  Sorry about that.  Didn't mean to hi-jack the tread.  

 

Thanks for the further information about the Black Foot/Feet tribes, Chevdove.  i guess i'll never know for sure about my grandmother, but i do know she did belong to a breed of native Americans. How cool is that?  

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6 hours ago, Cynique said:

BTW,  I did forget to mention that i was told i had blue eyes when i was born, as do a lot of babies at birth. a temporary condition that changes during infancy. ( Eye color has a lot to do with body chemistry.)

 

@Cynique Yes, this is true. But this runs in my family but, I am happy that my eyes did not stay blue. But, I am glad too, that you pointed this out because I have heard of this common birth of having blue eyes then going away. But I know that the combination of blue eyes with red hair is also distinct and again, this phenomenon runs in my family on my fathers side. 

 

And, no, you did not hi-jack this thread! I appreciate your input because it give balance! 

 

6 hours ago, Cynique said:

So, it's not that i reject my African roots, it's just that i put them on the same level as all my other blood lines that contribute to the hybrid creature who is me. 

 

And, this is your experiences, and I can respect this, however, Cynique there are other African-typed people of all color tones that have been struck harshly with racism and therefore, do not have this privilege that you do, in equating their African origins as being equal to their other blood lines. But for you and others that can do this is fortunate, especially being here, in America. 

6 hours ago, Cynique said:

Even so, i have no great love for America.  i think it's a big lie, - a land that has not kept its promises.

 

Yes, so true.

6 hours ago, Cynique said:

This post has obviously triggered something in me, prompting me to do some self-examination at the expense of what might be called a captive audience.  Sorry about that.

 

LOL! That is okay with me. I am happy to know your take on this subject!

 

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  • 9 months later...
Guest In response to hair type

Not all of us (native, indigenous Americans) have straight hair. That's a European settlers myth. Our hair ranges from kinky curly to straight. Please stop perpetuating racist myths about us. And yes, Europeans have set up a system where the only recognized tribes are those heavenly mixed with European blood. So the racism and colorism in the native/indigenous community definitely exists.

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On 1/15/2020 at 4:36 AM, Guest In response to hair type said:

Please stop perpetuating racist myths about us.

 

Of whom are you directing this comment?

 

When you say 'us'-- you are speaking in reference to me and my husband-- our hair type. 

My husband is a Full Native American and that is the purpose of this article; to address this very

topic of what you have stated.

 

It's not about 'PERPETUATING A RACIST MYTH', however, this is about how Native Americans in my family, and 

my experiences of them who have PERPETUATED A RACIST MYTH long before even White Europeans became involved.

You need to go back and read about HIAWATHA and his wife MINIHAHA and the comb!!! 

 

On 1/15/2020 at 4:36 AM, Guest In response to hair type said:

That's a European settlers myth.

 

Oh no! So NOT true!!! 

Again, long before this European Colonial Movement, Native Americans were extremely divided on issues of COLORISM and

issues like 'GOOD HAIR'. As I stated in the article, the COMB TEST was explained to me by his grandmother, a full blooded

Native American woman. You need to do some research. You need to got back before the Europeans came with this movement in order to address me, as an

African American descendant of slave, one who was selected on the basis of HAIR TYPE.

Maybe, you Native Americans who did not mix with us don't choose to deal with this subject, and think it is all well with your hair texture variation,

but this is NOT so with the kind of Natives that did intermix with Black African Slaves. smh.

 

We, AFrican Americans were selected on these basis of HAIR TYPE and I have both heritages, so if you are not of the 

Black African heritage and don't like this topic, you have that privilege, but you don't have any right to try and 

cencor me based on my experiences with both Native American and European attacks against my person.

 

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  • 6 months later...
Guest Alulkoy
On 1/29/2020 at 10:27 AM, Chevdove said:

 

Of whom are you directing this comment?

 

When you say 'us'-- you are speaking in reference to me and my husband-- our hair type. 

My husband is a Full Native American and that is the purpose of this article; to address this very

topic of what you have stated.

 

It's not about 'PERPETUATING A RACIST MYTH', however, this is about how Native Americans in my family, and 

my experiences of them who have PERPETUATED A RACIST MYTH long before even White Europeans became involved.

You need to go back and read about HIAWATHA and his wife MINIHAHA and the comb!!! 

 

 

Oh no! So NOT true!!! 

Again, long before this European Colonial Movement, Native Americans were extremely divided on issues of COLORISM and

issues like 'GOOD HAIR'. As I stated in the article, the COMB TEST was explained to me by his grandmother, a full blooded

Native American woman. You need to do some research. You need to got back before the Europeans came with this movement in order to address me, as an

African American descendant of slave, one who was selected on the basis of HAIR TYPE.

Maybe, you Native Americans who did not mix with us don't choose to deal with this subject, and think it is all well with your hair texture variation,

but this is NOT so with the kind of Natives that did intermix with Black African Slaves. smh.

 

We, AFrican Americans were selected on these basis of HAIR TYPE and I have both heritages, so if you are not of the 

Black African heritage and don't like this topic, you have that privilege, but you don't have any right to try and 

cencor me based on my experiences with both Native American and European attacks against my person.

 

There were no Black Natives Nor White Natives before Columbus. They came on ships after the fact. You are Bring modern Black colorism to NativenAmerica, before there were any Blacks here. None of of the shit you say makes any sense! You are someone else said that the Aztecs were from Spain!!! Lol!! You wish! They are descendants of the same ancestral stock as all other Natives from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego! Genetic sequencing has proven that Black Americans and White Americans has no Native American DNA in any great number! You mention self hate, but that’s exactly what it is Self Hate, and colorism by AAs! There is no documented African remains other than the direct ancestors of modern Native Americans . I know you people want to think you are Native with NA ancestors but the truth is you are all at least 25% European from Britain, Scotland and Ireland’s! Exactly were most slave traders immigrated from. I guarantee you all have no more than .01-1.0 percent NA blood if any at all, from 10 generations ago when your enslaved ancestors got to America. NAs have the Genetics, Culture, Identity, and language, and are all over the Americas, at first contact with Euros, while blacks are only founded on the Easter part of both continents north and south! You have no proof, other than pathetic myths. Sad!!

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On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

There were no Black Natives Nor White Natives before Columbus.

 

What!? You can't be serious! LOL. 

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

before there were any Blacks here.

 

LOL!

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

You are someone else said that the Aztecs were from Spain!!! Lol!! You wish!

 

The Aztecs definitely are late comers to America! You need to read!

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

Genetic sequencing has proven that Black Americans and White Americans has no Native American DNA in any great number!

 

Not the kind with the massive Neanderthal head, you're right! Thank God!

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

There is no documented African remains other than the direct ancestors of modern Native Americans .

 

There is NO SUCH TRUTH TO MODERN Native Americans having no African ancestry and no African remains in the Americans. Without African DNA you would all still be Neanderthals. The only DNA to clean that mess up is Africans, ancient Africans way before Columbus. There is no such truth as 'modern Native Americans' unless they had inter-bred with Africans. You are a complete idiot.

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

You have no proof, other than pathetic myths. Sad!!

 

Trust me, I would never want to be an original Native American! LOL. 

 

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16 hours ago, Chevdove said:

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

You are someone else said that the Aztecs were from Spain!!! Lol!! You wish!

 

The Aztecs definitely are late comers to America! You need to read!

 

 

About 600 A.D. the empire of Teotihuacan was overthrown. Centuries later another empire was created by the people of the city of Tollan (Tula), known as the Toltecs. Their empire lasted from about the tenth to the twelfth century. Near the end of the twelfth century Tula was captured and burned by its enemies. The Aztecs did not come to the valley of Mexico until the fourteenth century (1300s).

https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/aztecs.htm

 

Like I said, the Aztecs were late comers. Although references are scarce to even Africans at the time of the 1300s BC coming over to the Americas, however, there are references. And although it is strange to hear that Aztecs migrated down into Mexico from 'another land', however, there are references that speak of this. I saw a video years ago, and may still have the link that did say that a million people migrated from Europe into Mexico about 100 years prior to Columbus and became known as 'Mexica' [Aztecs]. So, you may not believe it, but that is what has been reported although very vaguely. This time period of the 1300s when certain Africans also came to the Americas was due to the Bubonic Plague. So no, you won't find many references about this because we are taught that Columbus was the mark at 1492, but this is not true. 

 

16 hours ago, Chevdove said:

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, Guest Alulkoy said:

There is no documented African remains other than the direct ancestors of modern Native Americans .

 

 

I can see that you admit that African 'remains' stem from 'modern Native Americans'. But again, without the presence of the ancient African male, there would be absolutely no ancient Native American males. period. 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
Guest BaconIsDelicious

All these idiots being racist in the comments. Talking about "percentage" and stuff...smh.

 

What good does it do to shame those who are mixed? Isn't that discrimination against someone for not being your own race?

 

Further more, being mixed and wanting to know about the culture of both sides isn't a crime. Comon sense, people. 🙄

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BID

 

 

Are you mixed race?

 

There's no "shame" in being mixed.  
Problem is a lot of lies and inaccuracies are being told that is creating a lot of CONFUSION.

 

For a long time mixed peope (if they were mixed with African ancestry) were called "Black".  When most of them obvioulsy weren't.  
So now there's a backlash against this notion and people are arguing it out.

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Bacon, there is actually is no such thing as "mixed race."

 

Culture is a completely separate issue and you should learn about both of your parent's cultures.

 

We are all better served by learning about other cultures. That is one reason I operate this site, to provide a way for people to learn about different so called "Black" cultures.

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/14/2019 at 2:22 PM, Pioneer1 said:


Thank you for this thread Chev, I love hearing PERSONAL TESTIMONIES to hisorical events!
I place much more value in them than I do in mere "information" presented in history books because they provide much more detail as well as an aire of legitimacy that contemporary historic scholarship doesn't for me.

A few quick points I'd like to make................


1. Having a White racist mother herself, your husband's grandmother was actually MIXED RACE and that explains how a lot of the poision of racism came into many of these so-called "Native American" communities down the line.
This is one of the reasons I'm so specific and detail orieinted when it comes to defining race and insisting that mixed people are MIXED PEOPLE and shouldn't be called "Black" or "White" or "Native American".
....to prevent confusion.

Which leads me to my 2nd point.


2. I'm careful to separate TRUE Native Americans who tend to be brown skinned with straight Black hair and more rounded features....from MIXED RACE people who CLAIM to be Native Americans but actually have predominately Caucasian genes.
These fake $5 Indians who own many of the casinos in the United States tend to be nearly White skinned and are very racist against not only AfroAmericans but even TRUE Native Americans!

This causes confusion for a lot of AfroAmericans because often times they'll encounter racism or read about a racist incident from one of these FAKE Indians and then make the mistake of believing "Native Americans" did this or felt this way.

Many of these fake phony $5 Indians actually owned slaves but few people know that they were actually either Caucasians or Caucasians with only a trace amount of Native American ancestry DISGUISING themselves as Native Americans.

 


3. Although you didn't go into detail on it, people should know that Africans have been living in the Americas WITH the Native Americans for hundreds if not thousands of years BEFORE Columbus.
Hell, even Columbus reported seeing Black African "tribes" who dwelled with the Native Americans.

Mansa Musa's brother Abubakari and a crew of other Africans saild over here during the 13th century and the Olmec heads of African men with helmets could very well be more evidence of this.

I know this comment is old, but I really do have a problem with you calling pale Native people “fake”. Yes, $5 Indians and pretendians do exist, but that doesn’t mean you can alienate actual Native people from their identities because they’re pale—we’re hurt by having our identities appropriated by white people too! Being indigenous isn’t about blood quantum or skin tone (and blood quantum is itself white supremacist bullshit designed to “breed out the Indian”), it’s about having a real, tangible connection to your family, culture, and community. If you have Native family, if you identify as Native, if you put effort into reconnecting with and reclaiming your culture, if you care about Native issues—every second of every day, that is, you don’t get to put on and take off being Native like a coat—you’re Native. I’m mixed-race and quite pale; I’m also not any less Néhiyaw. Native people come in all shades, and we’re all still Native. That’s not to say that we don’t have privilege over brown and black Natives—we do, and it’s our job to use that privilege to protect and uplift brown and black indigenous people—but we aren’t Indian-Lite. 

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Thanks for taking the time to share your insight Maybe.

 

I currently reside in Indian territory in Oklahoma. One of the things I learned in the book I'm reading. Is that when oil was discovered on the land, it was not uncommon for a white man to marry an indigenous woman who "owned" the land, that woman would "disappear" shortly after the marriage and the land would be taken over by her white male husband.

 

That of course is not to suggest that is your history. The problem is the situations are complex and wrought with a tremendous amount of evil and violence.

 

The impact of genocide will be felt for as long as there are people who know the history.

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On 2/16/2021 at 1:21 PM, Guest maeve said:

but I really do have a problem with you calling pale Native people “fake”. Yes, $5 Indians and pretendians do exist, but that doesn’t mean you can alienate actual Native people from their identities because they’re pale—we’re hurt by having our identities appropriated by white people too!

 

Oh WOW! Thank you for this comment and I absolutely agree. 

 

On 2/16/2021 at 1:21 PM, Guest maeve said:

Being indigenous isn’t about blood quantum or skin tone (and blood quantum is itself white supremacist bullshit designed to “breed out the Indian”), it’s about having a real, tangible connection to your family, culture, and community. If you have Native family, if you identify as Native, if you put effort into reconnecting with and reclaiming your culture, if you care about Native issues—every second of every day, that is, you don’t get to put on and take off being Native like a coat—you’re Native. I’m mixed-race and quite pale; I’m also not any less Néhiyaw. Native people come in all shades, and we’re all still Native. That’s not to say that we don’t have privilege over brown and black Natives—we do, and it’s our job to use that privilege to protect and uplift brown and black indigenous people—but we aren’t Indian-Lite. 

 

I appreciate so much what you have written. Thank you again.

 

 

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maeve

 


I know this comment is old, but 

 

I'm still here....lol

 

 

 


I really do have a problem with you calling pale Native people “fake”. Yes, $5 Indians and pretendians do exist, but that doesn’t mean you can alienate actual Native people from their identities because they’re pale


I wouldn't do that ONLY because a person is "pale" in color, they could be an albino.
There are plenty of pale/albino Africans, Native Americans, Chinese, ect.. A pigment disorder doesn't change one's race.

However the problem comes in when your genetics is PREDOMINATELY WHITE with a smaller trace element of African/Native American/Mongol genes...and you're running around trying to claim the later instead of more appropriately identifying as the former...or atleast mixed race.

 

 

 


—we’re hurt by having our identities appropriated by white people too!

That's absolutely correct.

 

 


 Being indigenous isn’t about blood quantum or skin tone (and blood quantum is itself white supremacist bullshit designed to “breed out the Indian”), it’s about having a real, tangible connection to your family, culture, and community. If you have Native family, if you identify as Native, if you put effort into reconnecting with and reclaiming your culture, if you care about Native issues—every second of every day, that is, you don’t get to put on and take off being Native like a coat—you’re Native. 


Native American isn't a culture it's a RACE (please Troy......just let it go man) which means it's not based on cultural habits but GENES.
You can practice the various Native American cultures all you want, but if you have blonde hair and blue eyes you are NOT a Native American.

If merely practicing a culture and being in love with it and immersing yourself in it was enough to make you the same race of those who practice it...then White boys who love Rap music would TURN Black and be valid as such.

 

Unless they have some sort of pigment mutation, Native Americans have BROWN SKIN and BLACK HAIR...it's as simple as that.
If you don't have a pigment mutation and your skin is very light or damn near white or white...you are NOT a Native American.
You're a Caucasian.
You may have Native American "ancestry"...but those are some of your ancestors...not you.

 

I have some Caucasian ancestors....they aren't me nor am I them.

 

 


I’m mixed-race and quite pale;

 

OK...
Something tells me this is the REAL reason you're taking issue with what I'm saying.  It's personal, because you fit that description.

Don't take it personal or get offended, what I'm saying is true.

But I'm glad you acknowledge that you're mixed race.
Exactly which races are you mixed with?
 

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