BLACK INDIAN RELATIONS

Man comments from the audience:


First, (regarding how people) view Africans mixed with Natives -- one of the reasons that Africans sort of deny that, is that "black" is a cultural mind set, not necessarily a group from the standpoint of genetics. Oft-times as Dr. Minges pointed out, if someone steps outside of the parameters (of that mind set) they often are denying that they were black, or of that culture.

There was a book published in the 1920s by H. R. Blackmun, called Blacks on the _____(?) which basically dealt with African American service in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. As the book pointed out, there is a diversity of Native American viewpoints on African soldiers that were allowed into the tribes, to serve on the Tribal War Council. Some were punished, and had their ears and nose cut off.

In fact, Ivan Van Sertima, in his book called "They Came Before Columbus" said that Africans...that Christopher Columbus himself had seen Africans either trading with Native peoples or at war with these peoples. There was one particular word [Guanin – gold from West Africa]...there were lots of [African?] things that were used throughout the Americas in trade.

Race has also played a powerful role in the Salem Witch Trials. The woman who was accused, and said to be an African (Tituba), actually turned out to be a Native American, and it wasn't until the 1900s that that fact changed her status.

The last point to talk about-- I feel that there is much that...there is still far to go. (we) have to set a standard. I was in a (project?) and working with schools, and right now, the view of blacks is based on "one drop" in the context of North America, but not in Central and South America. It never occurred to them to call them all "black" And there are tons of people (there) with this mark on them.

And, in Africa, they think that all African Americans are mixed. If you get a tattoo and the black shows on the skin, you get called "colored. "

And, in terms of warfare, the Caribs, for many years came and persecuted the Arawaks and Seminoles. Had it not been for their (black?) support they would have been (eliminated?)

Chief Mankiller:

Does anyone want to respond to that comment, in general?. .

Dr. Johnson:

I will just make a brief comment. There is no question but what the issue of claiming Indian connections among Blacks has been controversial in several ways. But one way, certainly, has been whether this was in an effort to get away from Africa. I'm an Africanist so I thought I could take on this quest, and the jury is still out, you know! There are those who think that in the U. S. , now, finally, there may be something positive from the "one drop" (of African blood) basis of our definition. They are thinking in of terms of political identity; if all those who have one drop were to act as if they have one cause, they could be very powerful. So they don't want to lose that possibility. And, as we are approaching the beginning of a serious grappling with the issue of reparations, that will become even more important. It can, obviously, once that happens, and I think it is happening, cut the other way as well. That is to say, IF it looks like there is finally going to be some kind of just recompense for the hundreds of years of alienation and degradation, who is going to benefit? and how? Well, part of that is perhaps what is driving the Seminole vote, as they look at mineral rights and Judgment Trust Fund allocations, so it could very well be that as you get closer to these definitions really being meaningful, there will be more debate and controversy, and animosity. But, I think it has been a healthy process of assessment, anyway, for people to think about what really is the basis of this challenged identity that we have confronted. The recent book that you may have seen, called "One Drop" what a reviewer called "America's worst idea" is a very good book; it deals with Black, Indian and White identity issues, and I think, basically, the "one drop" idea it is a bad idea. But, I have found so far that there are lots of Blacks who feel more free to embrace Africa as a choice, which is what I would like to see people do, when they HAVE a choice, and come to really understand what are the facts, you know, of who we are, really. I find this generation, from our work in the Kansas Institute. the KIAANAFH, for the most part-- people now really want to know who they are and that's why you find genealogy driving it, that's why you find so many people doing family histories. The National Council of Negro Women started a program for family reunions, and within the first decade they had more than 6 million people got involved in that program. It is the growth industry.

There are advantages I think, to both Blacks and to Indians in this. Blacks spend now 36 billion dollars a year in tourism. Ethno-tourism is the growth industry within that (sector) as they begin to discover who they are, how they relate. Blacks have been everywhere, and connect with everybody and every part of this country's experience, and that is increasingly appreciated to be true for the connection with Indians. And so, we will see that element of our quest also have tangible economic and political meaning. So, I think it is as complex as you imply.

Chief Mankiller:

Does anyone else have a question to ask?

A woman in the audience:

Good afternoon. First, I want to thank you for this panel. It is very interesting, and I am really learning from this. My name is Ginny Harris [?] and I am a member of the Oneida [?] Nation. My question to you is, as with Dr. Wilkins, have some of you started in colleges to try to get "Indian Studies" and if so, or if not, can you begin to collaborate, and involve the scholars with the communities in that work?

Dr. Minges:

There is a book that is going to be published by Nebraska University Press called "Confronting the Color Line"-- it has a sophisticated sub-title that I don't remember, but it is talking about looking at African and Native American relations in a multi-disciplinary perspective. It should be out within the next year. I think that is the new addition to the foundation established by persons such as Daniel Littlefield. The point that you are making, I think, is the most important thing. I think we have had a tendency to rely on scholars perhaps too much and they have too prominent an influence in our community. But the real dialogue is still to go on in the community, people need to talk to each other.

I have to give a word of praise to Chief Mankiller. This is a very very difficult situation to discuss, a very controversial topic, a lot of people get upset about it. Now, a lot of African Americans don't want to talk about this too, and I speak from my background as a religious historian. The reality is that the Black Baptist Church and perhaps the black church as we know it, was formed in these multi-racial communities and it was formed in a community in which, at one point in South Carolina, a third of the slaves were Native Americans. People don't talk about this, people don't know about this. But, with respect to the Black Baptist Church-- two of the founders were Aframerindians-- David George spent many years in the Natchez and the Creek Nations, and another founder, Henry Francis, had no known African ancestry altogether, but his parents were slaves!. So it is a controversial topic, and for Chief Mankiller to have us up here to talk about this -- and I think that this dialogue -- this is the second conference I have attended this year -- it is important that we have these things. The real discussion, needs to go on in this community, for the real work to go on, for the real bridge building , and where the real kind of movement, can begin.

Chief Mankiller:

This is an important question about research, now that we opened the dialogue, where do we begin to get the information. Does somebody else want to address that?

Dr. Littlefield:

I'd like to say something about that. I'd like to respond directly to you. I would say probably that every third or forth email question I get, at my office at the Native American Press Archives, has to be with the very subject we have been talking about. And it is from students all over the country and elsewhere in the world. One of the difficulties doing what you are suggesting is that we have a habit in this country of leaving the history writing to academic scholars like me. I am in total agreement that the discussion of these issues has to begin in the local tribal communities. It is a difficult process because the mainstream American history has in many ways limited the level of dialogue that people can have. It has created all kinds of difficulties for that, but what we have to remember is that for this long cultural association, that acculturation went both ways. It was not just Indian to African, (but also) African to Indian.

I would like to follow up on what Patrick Minges says. If you look at the history of Christianity in these Five Civilized Tribes that I talked about earlier, most of the time the missionaries went after the slave population first because if they were acquired from the states, they were English speaking and then they became bilingual very quickly and therefore became instruments of carrying Christianity into the local native communities. As for the history of Christianity in Northeastern Oklahoma, I know, I grew up in Northeast Oklahoma and I know how important that Church is to tribal people of that state-- the very churches that they go to, in many ways, were shaped by African instruments, that is, by people who were facile with the language. You know the history of translation in those tribes. Many times, with the Seminole and Creek Nations, particularly, the interpreters were Africans because the folk history tells us that the Seminoles and Creeks didn't trust the white interpreter. They preferred the Africans. And so many of those relationships like that cut right to the very heart of defining these tribal groups as they are today, and come out of those historical connections. And I would much prefer that a Cherokee write the history of the Cherokee Freedmen, than having done it by myself. {Willard adds: Thank God you did it though. ]

Chief Mankiller:

David, did you want to comment?

Dr. Wilkins:

Yes, just a couple of points-- Wilma, in her opening comments spoke of "colonialism" and I think first of all, especially for young people and also for middle aged fogies, and some of the older ones that I saw in the audience out here -- the first thing we have to acknowledge is that racism is the ideology of colonialism. And until we acknowledge that and tackle that and throw off that yoke-- we had better take care of that first, you see.

Then we can free our mind, free our spirit, and then we can look at ourselves as individuals, especially the young people that are here.

Because we hear all this talk about ourselves as sovereign nations. Well, first of all, you are a sovereign individual, huh? Your sovereignty begins with you. And so, if you start with that notion "I am a sovereign person" -- I heard Phillip Deere mention this at a conference back in 1975 - it was the shortest speech I had heard, and one of the most powerful ones. He said: "I am a sovereign man!" And then he sat down. It just hit me like a ton of bricks, see, because I had been thinking about all these groups and all this collective stuff, but it starts with each individual. Because, if we acknowledge that we are sovereign individuals, then we are going to take responsibility and assume self determination, to find out who we are?

Do your family genealogy first because that begins to broaden the connections, because some of us are NOT getting the story handed down by our parents and grandparents! A lot of us come from homes that aren't as tight as they once were. So as individuals we have to take the first step ourselves and do that basic genealogy and see where those connections lead you. You want to rely on academics only when you have to, you see! Trust your own instincts and trust your own sense of identity and call upon people in your immediate family and on those in your extended family and begin to make these connections.

Ms. Tucker:

I just wanted to say-- and first of all, I am not a doctor, not yet!-- but this is how I got started, doing my family genealogy. I kind of knew of the Native American connection on my mother's side and found out by asking my grandmother one question -- "were did my Dad get his red hair from?

To this day, I really don't know what nation my family was. In a way, that is kind of good, because it is kind of all encompassing. But start with yourself and go from there. Actually, because of my research now I can't get back to my family genealogy, this has kind of taken over. But, I will come back to it.

Chief Mankiller:

Willard, do you want to come back on the research question?

Dr. Johnson:

Yes, drawing on my experience again in the Kansas Institute. What we have found is that often black families have a hard time doing this research because of "the slavery wall," the records sort of stop for us, names are not given, there are just numbers, on the records of the slave owner. So we found a lot of Black families can break through that wall when they find the Indian connection in their background, because often the records, in fact, are more complete there, such records as there may be--are more complete.

And one of the issues that we are trying to raise and we hope that the native nations will help us, is to insist that all of the records that exist, in Fort Worth (Texas)particularly, but scattered throughout the archives, get copied on microfilm and spread to each of the regional offices so that we can pursue this kind of research without having to go to Fort Worth, or to Washington. Some of the records are not in Washington, they are only at Fort Worth. Some of the military records are only in Kansas City. And, it takes political pressure on the Congress to allocate the funds needed to duplicate them and make them available. That is beginning to happen for certain kinds of issues and it is clear that there is a responsiveness when the pressure is put. But for a lot of Black families, their ability to get into the slavery period and beyond it, is going to be helped a lot by being able to trace through the Indian rolls.