Are you Chinese or something?
Brigitte Dees, Stillwater, OK. Growing up half Japanese, Native American, and white in Oklahoma was a challenge. I don’t look like anyone else and people...
Brother played Cowboy, never the Indian.
Bonni Hamilton, Eliot, ME. I grew up with two Native American siblings who my parents adopted when we were very small. When he was young,...
It was just not talked about.
Debra Miller, Rochester, MN Our mother hid our Native American ancestry until I was a late teen. I was raised in an area that continually...
How much are you paid?
Alexis Rae Hernandez, Pasadena, CA Some people are under the assumption that all Native American’s are rich by being paid monthly allotments from the government.
Human Spirit – Our One Equal Tie
Kimberly Davenport, Elizabethtown, KY. Irregardless of our containment, the color of our skin, our heritage, our social structures…one element binds us all and that one...
I don’t know my Native language.
Jessica Elaine Matz, LaVergne, TN. I look white and I was raised white, but when we were kids, we went to the occasional pow wow...
This country belongs to Native Americans.
Lewis Hernandez, Milwaukee, WI. White people, raped, murdered and stole this country from the American Indian. Now it’s one America. One white. One Black. One...
Why I Choose To Use Other
Malcolm X. Mosely, Lorain, OH. I started using “Other long ago when they first started putting it on an option and I could start filling...
Braiding red bones and white blood.
Bari Goodblood Lehn Wetzel County, WV Born to a Santee Sioux mother and a German father in the Midwest. They met and married when she...
When Skin Color Fades Away
Leonard Rios, Imperial Beach, CA. I am an American Indian on tribal roles and racism has followed my people childhood to present. I am a...
I look white & I’m not racist.
Lynn, Great Falls, SC. I tend to look white; especially when not in the sun. I’m actually a mix of: European (German, Irish, & British),...
“I’m Native American too!” — says everyone
Alyssa Cartee New York City, NY Queens Every time race and culture comes up, when I mention that I am a registered Cherokee I get...
I’m not white in my family
Lisa Craig Washington, DC It’s a bit complicated. My father’s family consists of Scottish, Swedish, French, German, English, Mexican, and two different Native American tribes....
Not what I thought I was
Nancy Jane Grimes Smith Pittsfield, IL After being asked most of my life if I was any Indian (Native American) and saying no, mostly Irish,...
You’re Indian? With Dot or Feather?
Sam, Morris, MN. I have a grandfather that is fully Native American, from the White Earth Tribe. So my mother is ¼ Native American, and...
I’m part white, Can’t prove it
Justice Littlejohn Cherokee, NC Being Cherokee and living on a reservation you don’t grow up white, even if you are only half cherokee and half...
