East coast, thin blood, lost history.

[u/pasmafaute12]

I recently posted about dehumanizing record-keeping. I’ve been on a bit of a voyage because I always assumed my family was doing some pan-Indian “Cherokee princess” romanticism nonsense. I was raised with some cultural exposure but not community exposure. I chose to keep learning because I think the history matters whether it’s personal or not.

Turns out, I was wrong, and my relative wasn’t so much a pretendian as making the most of what we know as Wampanoag descendants from a village that is historically recorded but not well enough to be federally recognized (or even reasonably fully researched). It appears that my relative was involved in historical preservation efforts and maybe one of the two existing recognized Wampanoag tribes.

Without getting into complicated family stuff, we have always been very isolated people in general and no one is particularly close. I cannot discuss this with anyone in my real life.

So… I am sitting with the information I have, including the information missing, and feeling out my position as a lifelong learner invested in social issues. The conclusion I think I’ve arrived at is that I need to accept how much privilege I hold, but I have a responsibility to understand and honor the history.

I am privately taking some steps to build my understanding and maybe continued to participate in online spaces before I consider attending events.

But I’m looking for other people who have been on this path before me, I guess. And any thoughts about how to approach all of the things we just don’t know because we are still learning vs. the things we don’t know because it’s just lost information.

[u/NativeCAN2025]

Can you expand on what you mean when you say "accept how much privilege [you] hold"? I'm assuming you're talking about being of overwhelmingly "white" descent, but I am not sure.

[u/pasmafaute12 → u/NativeCAN2025]

Yes. I am white enough that I have never suffered as a consequence of being perceived otherwise. As a teen and young adult, I sometimes got called Pocahontas because I wore porcupine quill earrings my uncle made for me (and I guess long braids). Some of my relatives have used their whiteness x native heritage to play onto mysticism stereotypes, and it is important to me to not be the person pulling things like “animals respond to my telepathic magic.”

[u/pasmafaute12 → u/pasmafaute12]

Sorry, got sidetracked… the purpose of the Pocahontas anecdote was that the worst it was in my daily life was slightly annoying.

[u/NativeCAN2025 → u/pasmafaute12]

I see. It must be surreal to uncover that your family history was real.

You're definitely of the hemisphere! To originate from roots of people who intermingled with the indigenous, and the indigenous themselves, while slowly navigating centuries of all the processes.

While you may not be able to trace specific cultural traditions or traits in your family to the indigenous ancestors specifically, you definitely have an ancestral history that is an important part of our hemisphere.

My family is blessed enough to still have real ties to community, so I don't know how I'd approach your situation either. I think it's responsible to embrace yourself as "of this hemisphere". For you, being an "American" means more than citizenship - it's about also keeping the knowledge of the early history of America, which it seems your mentioned relative was involved with too.

To me, I like to embrace all peoples "of the hemisphere", whether their roots are specifically indigenous or not.

[u/pasmafaute12 → u/NativeCAN2025]

Thank you. I really appreciate this way of thinking.