Choctaw Archives - The Race Card Project

No one else chooses my identity.

March 17, 2023March 17, 2023 African American, Chickasaw, Choctaw, German, grandmother, identity, irish, Luxembourgish, mixed, Natalie, Native, pass, Seattle, self-identity, suburbia, WA, welsh

Natalie,
Seattle, WA.

My grandmother never got to pass for white. She was sent to indian boarding school. 50 years later, I grew up in white suburbia, where no one assumed I was Native or even mixed-race. I self-identify as Native, I speak Chahta, I participate as a tribal citizen, I carry on the family stories, and today I’m a physician and activist fighting against poverty, homelessness, addictions, and diabetes. Ancestry: African-American, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Irish, German, Luxembourgish, Welsh.

American Indians still exist. We’re strong.

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 American Indian, Choctaw, CO, Code talker, Denver, exist, Native American, pride, Randell Baze, strong, World War I

Randell Baze,
Denver, CO.

I’m tired of Black Lives Matter (BLM)!

June 28, 2020September 9, 2020 ALM, BLM, burned out, Cajun French, Choctaw, Chris Rochambeau, mixed, New Orleans, pandemic, protests, race card, Seattle, Spanish Creole, victim card, WA

Chris Rochambeau,
Seattle, WA

I am ethnically “mixed”, (born in New Orleans – Spanish Creole, Cajun French and Choctaw ), but appear Anglo. I am, also, an ER RN. And, I am tired, sooooo very tired of all the BLM “protests”, (uncouth, unhygienic, rioters tearing up a county that is already struggling ), smack in the middle of this horrible pandemic! *MOST OF YOU ARE NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND MANY OF YOU ARE NOT WEARING MASKS! ( When you do this, you make “work” for me and my kind! And WE ARE ALL BURNED THE HELL OUT!!! ) Do you, ( “protesters”), think you are special? Do you think the virus won’t get you? I can assure you – it can and it will!

We have ALL, ( regardless of gender, skin color, sexual orientation, cultural affiliation… ), have had hard lives, and been mistreated by others. GROW THE HELL UP and stop all this pathetic, whiny, victim-worship! You all better be concerned about this virus, that is about to eat us all alive! Be concerned about the environment, the economy, the sorry state of schools, the eviction crisis, the millions of Americans struggling on unemployment – just trying to make ends meet. Do you want to ‘get behind” something? Get behind that! Those issues affect us all.

Racism IS an important issue, but it is nothing compared to what is going on in the world right now. ( Worrying about racism in the middle of a global pandemic is analogous to a hunchback being upset about a pimple on the end of his nose! ) Get your priorities straight. If you self-serving idiots don’t wise-up, and stop wasting resources there won’t be enough to go around when it really matters! YOUR “RACE CARD” HAS BEEN CANCELED; TRY BACK LATER WITH YOUR “VICTIM CARD”. You want to beat this virus, and support front line workers? Then, do the right thing – mask-up, clean-up, keep your distance and stop all these asinine “protests”.

THE reason I have a scholarship.

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 Affirmative Action, American Indian, Choctaw, Marilou Ingles, MI, Michigan, poverty, Romulus, scholarship

Marilou Ingles,
Romulus, MI.

I am American Indian, I grew up in poverty, and I am from the South. I often joke that I received a scholarship to U of M because of my heritage. I do not believe that I would have been admitted based on academia, talent, experience, or personality; I am here because it looks good on paper to give a poor little Choctaw kid access to higher education. Talk about insult to injury.

“Hush, Child, they’ll take Grandma away!”

January 21, 2017January 23, 2017 1950's, Ancestors, child, Choctaw, Grandma, grandmother, MO, Pueblo, reservation, Robin Greeley, St. Louis

Robin Greeley
St. Louis, MO

This is what my relatives said to me at a family reunion in the 1950s.They were afraid that if it was known that Grandma was Choctaw, she could be sent to a reservation – something that was done in those days. In Pueblo, Colorado, the hatred and direct discrimination of the American Indians was very strong and noone would divulge that they were Indian, if they could “pass”. But Grandma was proud of our Indian heritage and told me fabulous stories of our Choctaw ancestors.