Native American road enthusiasts

[bugo]

How many of you have Native American ancestry?  I have an unknown but significant amount of Cherokee blood, enough that you can tell by looking at me.  My mom could easily pass for 1/2 or 3/4.  There aren't a lot of road enthusiasts in Indian Country so I assume the number is pretty small.  Stand up and be counted!

[roadman65]

Isn't this a forbidden question?  Someone years ago tried to ask if there were any African American road enthusiasts on here, and I believe it got the poster a warning after some flame wars began.

[Brandon]

I would assume that anyone born in either North or South America qualifies as "Native American" hence why I refuse to use the term for one group of people (use the actual tribe name, folks).

Next question.

[Takumi]

I have Cherokee ancestry about 4-5 generations back.

[Billy F 1988]

My Tsimshian ancestry dates back about 3-4 generations. Both my great grandparents and grandparents on my mother's side of the family are half to full blood Tsimshian. The mother is 1/2 and I am 1/4 Tsimshian if my memory serves me well.

[hbelkins]

I have Cherokee ancestry on my mother's side, but I don't really have anyone left in the family to ask about it. I remember hearing about a full-blooded Cherokee ancestor a few generations back when I was a youth, but my mom was not really into genealogy. My maternal grandfather certainly had the facial features and skin coloration that proved it.

[US 41]

I'm 1/16th Cherokee.

[Road Hog]

I have some Cherokee on both sides of my family, enough that I could probably qualify as a member of the tribe. I once inquired of my mother how one could go about securing authenticity and she, who is a genealogy nut, seemed strangely uninterested.

[bugo]

I don't see the problem with this.  It's a way of getting to know each other a little better.  At the Saint Louis roadmeet, a prominent Roads Scholar asked me if I had any Indian blood.  Was I offended?  Hell no.  I actually found it flattering that she noticed.

[Arkansastravelguy]

I am 1/16 Cherokee and 1/8 Mohawk


iPhone

[Alex]

My mom's father's grandmother or great grandmother (I cannot remember which) was. Mom is not sure of which tribe, but she thinks it was Seneca. The lineage definitely showed in my grandfather.

[vdeane]

Isn't this a forbidden question?  Someone years ago tried to ask if there were any African American road enthusiasts on here, and I believe it got the poster a warning after some flame wars began.

I think the key phrase is "after some flame wars began".

[bugo]

Isn't this a forbidden question?  Someone years ago tried to ask if there were any African American road enthusiasts on here, and I believe it got the poster a warning after some flame wars began.

I think the key phrase is "after some flame wars began".

+1

Hopefully the members of this forum will keep this civil.  The reason I started this thread is because I live in the old Indian Territory and just about everyone here has at least some Native American genes and I'm surrounded by Indian culture.

[kurumi]

I'm also 1/16 Cherokee.

If you're in northeast OK, check out the town of Tahlequah; the street signs are bilingual English/Cherokee.

[bugo]

I'm also 1/16 Cherokee.

If you're in northeast OK, check out the town of Tahlequah; the street signs are bilingual English/Cherokee.

I've actually never been to Tahlequah.  One of these days I'll go to Arkansas via OK 51 so I can see the town.

[Scott5114]

I'm not, but my girlfriend (who sometimes suffers through roadtrips on my account) is a card-carrying Chickasaw. You wouldn't be able to tell from looking at her, though.

I'm also 1/16 Cherokee.

If you're in northeast OK, check out the town of Tahlequah; the street signs are bilingual English/Cherokee.

I've actually never been to Tahlequah.  One of these days I'll go to Arkansas via OK 51 so I can see the town.

Sadly, Ada, which serves the same purpose to the Chickasaw as Tahlequah does for the Cherokee, is relentlessly bland and an all-around unpleasant place (unless you like mediocre freeways, in which case the Richardson Loop and nearby Chickasaw Turnpike should appeal to you). Chickasaw cultural stuff is scattered across several towns, such as Sulphur, where they've built a cultural visitor center, and Tishomingo, where the old tribal capital was before the tribe was abolished by the federal government back in the day.

[Scott5114]

Also, general statement to anyone posting in this thread–if you suspect that you may have tribal ancestry, contact the tribe that you may belong to. Many tribes have a genealogy department that can research your ancestry. This is because it's in the tribe's best interest to have as many members as possible (it has to do with funding and governmental influence). It's to your benefit, too–many tribes, especially the larger ones, offer useful services to tribal members. As a Chickasaw, my girlfriend is entitled to free healthcare from a network of tribal health clinics, which includes a full-on hospital in Ada, low-interest home loans through a tribally-owned bank, scholarships, and they even sent her a free laptop once (back when computers were not quite as common as they are today; this program has since been discontinued).

[US 41]

It would be hard for most to prove that they are Cherokee, if you live in the Midwest. Many hid their identities because of fear of being sent to Oklahoma.

[bugo]

It would be hard for most to prove that they are Cherokee, if you live in the Midwest. Many hid their identities because of fear of being sent to Oklahoma.

That's exactly what my ancestors did.  They claimed to be "Black Dutch" and stayed in Georgia.

[Dougtone]

I'm also 1/16 Cherokee.

If you're in northeast OK, check out the town of Tahlequah; the street signs are bilingual English/Cherokee.

Same as in Cherokee, NC.  The signs are bilingual English/Cherokee.

[bugo]

Sadly, Ada, which serves the same purpose to the Chickasaw as Tahlequah does for the Cherokee, is relentlessly bland and an all-around unpleasant place (unless you like mediocre freeways, in which case the Richardson Loop and nearby Chickasaw Turnpike should appeal to you). Chickasaw cultural stuff is scattered across several towns, such as Sulphur, where they've built a cultural visitor center, and Tishomingo, where the old tribal capital was before the tribe was abolished by the federal government back in the day.

I've been through Ada. The road system was kind of cool but we bypassed the actual town on OK 1/3/3W. Does anybody know why US 377 hops off the freeway and goes through Ada and hopping back of the expressway (which is numbered OK 3E at this point) north of town instead of staying on the bypass? I don't remember if OK 99 goes through town or on the bypass.

EDIT: It did follow US 377 according to ODOT maps.

[Scott5114]

SH-99 follows US-377 throughout the latter's entire stay in Oklahoma. My guess is that US-377 simply continues to follow the route that it did before the Richardson Loop was built and ODOT just never bothered to reroute it. Note that the expressway between Ada and the Canadian River is fairly recent construction (i.e. opened in the last 10 years or so). Before that US-377/SH-99/SH-3E followed Broadway north through Byng.

[Desert Man]

My maternal grandfather is from Osage county, OK (an Indian reservation) near Skiatook north of Tulsa, he was born there in 1922 and he with his family moved to Kern County CA north of LA in the mid 1930s and they were sharecroppers in a town called Lamont or Arvin near Bakersfield. His mother is "full-blooded" Cherokee/Osage (possible Shawnee or Delaware) and father is 1/4 with more white/European (Scottish) ancestry. And when my grandpa joined the US Marines in 1942 after he moved to L.A., he received an official federal birth certificate stating not only he's born in the US (American Indians weren't born citizens until the 1924 act granted all of them citizenship rights), he was passing "white" and wasn't really a tribal member of any Indian nation.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have some small percentage of Apache, but I don't know the percentage.  When I read the thread title I thought it was about BIA Roads which can in fact get pretty interesting.  The Navajo Nation actually has several that are just as good as state highways in Arizona, but the quality can swing wildly. 

[jwolfer]

My friends dad did some genealogy research a few years ago thinking they were mainly English, it turns out his dad was 3/4 Monacan. The tribe is not federally recognized but the state of Virginia recognizes them.
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A lot of people from the Appalachian mountains have partial Cherokee heritage