Tracing your ancestral history.

All my married life, I have heard about my wife’s Native American roots, that she has a Ojibwe native in her family tree. My wife is a California hippie, blue eyes, blond hair, furthest from a Native American that you could imagine. Every once in a while, she would find more information, then later on she would dig, and find more. What she found out first was as a child, her grand mother told her the “shameful” story of her ancestor, Barbara, an Indian woman who was kidnapped by her German immigrant ancestor up in Michigan sometime in the early 1800s, and taken as his wife. The shame mentioned by her grandmother was not the kidnapping of Barbara, but that Indian blood was now running through her veins. That was the attitude of Americans up til the 1980s. That is the only native blood in her line, so it is pretty small. But she identifies with it, and is proud of it. It grounds her more to this country than just being a 17th generation born in America, starting from the first ancestor who came on the Mayflower.

Researching stories about frontiersmen taking a native woman as a wife, I found many instances of kidnapping, forced marriages, sex slavery, forced slavery as in farming, housework, cooking, child rearing, and the woman being sold by the tribe for guns and alcohol. That is just the raw thruth. My wife doesn’t want to believe it. She has a romantic dream that the German ancestor found her and took her as his wife to help him on the wild frontier. Maybe. Probably not.

anyway, she (Barbara), was from Upper Peninsula Michigan, a member of the Ojibwe nation. Also known by Americans as Chippewa.

‘Now, more recently, we attend native American pow wows, and she has met several Ojibwe members, and picked their brains for tribal information, and culture. I think we will visiting Michigan in the future. Road trip!

Because our grandson helps us at the booth at pow wows, he has come in contact with many different tribes, some California nations like Maidu and Miwok, but also Navajo, Apache, Comanche, Ute, Blackfoot, Sioux, Cherokee, and this past weekend, Aztecs from Mexico. His grandmother from his biological fathers side is an Aztec. So he has Aztec blood, and is so excited to find and be a member of this nation. He also wants to find out more and be included in other tribes that he has in his ancestral lineage. And he knows of 2 tribes that come to him from his mothers side. Her father was a full Ute. He wants to learn their languages, ceremonies, cultures. He wants to become a dancer at pow wows. He wants to be a Native American, and also be able to cross over and be an American. Comfortable in both worlds.

My wife does not want to go all the way back to becoming a Native American tribal member, but she wants to be able to know her cultural background. And participate in it. Native Americans are so gracious and accepting. If you show respect, and an interest in them and their culture, they will let you in and invite you to learn their ways. They were the first Americans. And they are willing to let us become ones too. Even if you have no native blood, you will be judged by your attitude and acceptance of them to become a Native American of their tribe. They are an amazing people.

And we almost made them extinct. And yet, they survived and are making a comeback. And allowing us to come with them.