Jennie Rhinehart
Spartanburg, SC
I never knew until I did my father’s family tree that he had Cherokee ancestry. When I told him, he got angry. He had been born with blond hair, blue eyes & a German surname. His father was black-haired, his mother was black-haired. His father taught him to hate African-Americans & anyone with dark skin. Until I saw the Cherokee name on the census, I didn’t realize the reason I looked different from my classmates. My skin is white with freckles, my hair was born blond, but if I wear my hair long and especially if I put dark color on it, I look Native American. People say I have a “flat affect”, I don’t act as emotional as most white people. And I’m independent, like Cherokee women I do not like being ordered around by men. It fits. Suddenly, I know who I am. I’m Cherokee.
