Part Native American and feeling lost

I feel kind of lost because I know I am part Native American but I don't know which nation.

My family were very mixed, ie Egyptian, Asian Indian and Native American, and I grew up being influenced by all these cultures. But I was never told much about the family background and it was never brought up which nation the Native American side of the family was. There is nobody still alive that I could ask.

I have done some research about the family history but didn't get very far because records were really only being kept in Western countries, so I could only trace part of the family and only back to the late 19th century, but that's for the non-Native part of the family.

So I don't know much about my heritage and have no way of finding anything out.

I am proud of what I am but it would help if I knew what nation I am and I find it sad that I don't know.

Anyone in the same situation?

[Native spirit]

I have Native blood in me my family went to patigonia in the 18hundreds.then they went into Arizona.
my grandmother told me some things.but mainly it was teaching me the Native ways. my grandmothers sister always used to say I looked like the family still in the states. from what they told me I was from the eastern band Cherokee.you would be best going on to a site that looks at geanology some go by blood count.

Namaste

[sentient]

Ankhesenamun,
You can always do a DNA-test if you dare and discover who your Native American cousins are and where they come from.
Family Tree DNA - Autosomal Test = “Family Finder”


DNA evangelism:
I always knew (within) I am part Siberian (and since I also have a past-life memories from there), but had no proof of it.

I always knew (within) I am part Saami, but had no proof of it.
During Reiki 1 initiation I went into a lucid dream – state. I was flying over a landscape and then zoomed in a place within that landscape to examine it more thoroughly.
When I got home I painted the landscape of my ‘vision’ and drew the place.
Sometime after I got visitors who had lived in Lapland and when they saw my painting, they immediately recognized it as *such and such* landscape/place.
I didn’t believe them so I never looked it up on the net to verify.

Years later when I did my DNA-test and discovered where my Saami cousins come from, I looked the place up on the net and hello – there was my painting staring right back at me. There was also a photo of the place (within the landscape) I had drawn.

My grandparents surely knew this, but chose to go silent about it.


I always knew (within) there was a Native American connection there somehow, but had no proof of it.
Now I know it is our Malta connection, which I share in 20%:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/s...n-siberia.html
Asian Indians also share a great deal of this ancient dna.

And ‘our neck of the woods’ Mesolithic ancestors:
https://genetiker.wordpress.com/2015...-from-karelia/

So the DNA-test validated what I already knew intuitively and put all these questions I had had to rest.

[Colorado]

I’m part Native American as well. I’ve noticed, that Imnot quite sure, even though I’ve been told it’s Blackfoot....it seems everybody who claims to be part Native American is BF CHEROKEE. I know this, I have very spiritual ideas and feelings that come out of nowhere...and instincts that coincide with native Indians that I was not shown, or taught about. I had religious teaching growing up, but not spiritual teaching. That came with life lessons and spiritual help. I know without a doubt I am part Indian...I don’t know exactly which, but it’s all around me now, as an adult. It’s helpwd me through a lot of harsh lessons and experiences...and again, it was instinctive. I’ve made up my own helpful spiritual side, and yet...when I read about what I do....like facing the rising sun in the east during prayer and meditation in the morning, it coincides with Native Indian practice. I also have dreams and gifts that I have no idea where they came from....which Indians are the rulers of the dream world, it’s also where I get a lot of psychic information, as well as visits from deceased people who have passed over. I can feel the Indian side of me instinctively, but I’m not 200% sure which or if there is more than one tribe I partially descended from....all that side of my family is light blonde haired and baby blue eyes. I’m reddish blonde, with very dark brown eyes, dark skin and high cheekbones....even the shape of my eyes look very Indian....but nobody looks like me for going 3-4 generations back. Nobody has dark brown eyes either, we don’t know where they came from...nobody has the extent of psychic info I get either....although there seems to be a few on the Indian side of my family who have some abilities, just not to the extent I do....and again they are blue eyed and faired skin with freckles. They don’t look Indian to me, so it makes me wonder how many tribes we have descended from since blonde hair and blue eyes are dominate traits in my family. My hair is so light compared to my other features it defies biology, as the arm and leg hair on me are light blonde, but my eye brows are dark black like myeyes....and my hair is a light reddish blonde. I do not look like either of my parents...or grandparents, though we share some features, like our smile. The native Americans did give my blue eyed, freckle faced, blonde hair and sallow skinned grandpa a burial when he died....the CHEROKEE organization.

Sorry for the caps, it keeps autocorrecting itself

[SaturninePluto]

I have confirmed a small percentage of Native American descent but am not 100 percent positive of tribe.

My father says blackfoot.

Ank I feel about as lost as you do.

Very interesting replies on here, thank you to everyone!

I have never been told which nation that side of the family was, and I had a DNA test over ten years ago when it was only possible to confirm Native American ancestry without any further details. I wouldn't want to do another DNA test now as I don't think these DNA testing companies are still trustworthy.

I suspect though that my ancestry could possibly be Apache, Navajo or Hopi (these nations are all related). I was taught many stories from these nations during my childhood, my spiritual beliefs are identical to Hopi beliefs and I have certain medical conditions that are apparently typical of people from these nations.

I have noticed that too that everybody who claims to have Native American ancestry always seems to be Cherokee - maybe there is more truth to it than we know though since it was the Cherokee who were displaced from their ancestral land (during the Trail Of Tears).

Physically, I combine the typical looks of all the nations of my family's background - I got the high cheek bones which are typically Native American, hazel eyes which are rather common in Egypt and India, and slightly wavy black hair - which is more typically Native American than Egyptian or Indian as these people tend to have more curly hair. My eyes have a very Native American shape, which has caused a lot of people to assume I must be partially East Asian.

I'm quite psychic which is no doubt something that I have inherited from all sides of the family, but my beliefs are definitely more Hopi than anything else, combined with Ancient Egyptian beliefs.

Whenever spirit guides are coming through, they are always Native American.

I wish I knew more about the family background and which nation or nations I am.

But there is a Native American saying - as long as you have one drop of Indian blood, you are Indian. (Indian as in: Native American)

I can't remember from which nation this saying is - but it's certainly true.

It doesn't help with me feeling lost over not knowing which nation I am - but it does help me to remember that, no matter what else is going on - I am an Indian.

[Native spirit]

The saying if you have one drop of blood in your veins then you are Native comes from Black Elk. if I remember rightly he is Lakota {Sioux}.im sure there would be something on google about him.
as I have said I have got Native blood in me and as far as I have been told I'm from the Eastern band of Cherokee.


Namaste

[sentient]

Genetic expert Dr. Doug McDonald:
In FTDNA: “Native American is listed as just that. It is quite uncommon for it to be listed in error … except for genuine people from Siberia and Saami.”

My own ‘Native American DNA’ belongs to that ‘error’ category.
Even though Mr. McD. genetically identified me as a “Russian Saami” and nowadays I am fully aware of which particular group my cousins come from, I could not present myself as that group representative nor wear the clothes that identify them as such. Because - unless you were brought up or now fully belonged to that specific group - it is just not done.
I do have a Saami drum t-shirt though, that is a bit of traumatic family history we have carried and I do have a piece of clothing with fringes (which has nothing to do with Native Americans).

Though at one stage I was curious about the potential commonalities we and Native Americans might share. The Earth Diver myth for example, some artefacts and because some overseas anthropologists had paralleled our old culture with the North West Coast Indians.

So when I accidently met a person who identified herself as North West Coast Indian, I was full of curiosity and blurted out that we are supposed to have some old cultural similarities or parallels. To which comment she with no-holds-barred let me have the ton-of-bricks wannabe hate speech.
Since I had never ever heard of any ‘wannabees’ I simply could not comprehend her reaction at all.

The second absolute-hate-wave shock came, with: “You and your people are stealing our circle dances!” Over this mistake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lv4EodZ_SY
I didn’t know what circle dances even were or are!

I have since made efforts to try and understand this hate and recently meeting a group of Native Americans tried to *shift* into their reference point listening to their ‘stand’.

*

When it comes to health risks, all indigenous peoples carrying hunter-gatherer genes (mine 84-88%) have the same or similar health risk factors, be it America, Australia or Eurasia.

Even though I am proud of my Ancient Palaeolithic North Eurasian genes, it makes me really worry and I feel quite disturbed when I see any indigenous person other than Native American wearing an Amerind t-shirt as a ‘symbol of fighting for indigenous rights’.

Since in the light of this and many, many other very serious problems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO-1Su0C5KI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXX8iWB_3cU

Why is this the focus of attention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytrUCniYFnc
12:34 – 12:50

When I went to America, after I sang ….. people would come up and ask me:
“Why do you have a fringe like we Indians do. These are Indian fringes – Why do you have them?!”

[sentient]

The ‘symptoms’ you might have that tell you - you might be Native American (LOL)
I would add the ‘dry earwax’ to that:
https://hiddennativeancestry.weebly....al-traits.html

But how can one possibly be a Native American, if one has not been brought up within that culture, with that collective (subconscious) way of relating to reality?

[SpiritualLobster]

Originally Posted by sentient

My own ‘Native American DNA’ belongs to that ‘error’ category.
Even though Mr. McD. genetically identified me as a “Russian Saami” and nowadays I am fully aware of which particular group my cousins come from, I could not present myself as that group representative nor wear the clothes that identify them as such. Because - unless you were brought up or now fully belonged to that specific group - it is just not done.
I do have a Saami drum t-shirt though, that is a bit of traumatic family history we have carried and I do have a piece of clothing with fringes (which has nothing to do with Native Americans).

Though at one stage I was curious about the potential commonalities we and Native Americans might share. The Earth Diver myth for example, some artefacts and because some overseas anthropologists had paralleled our old culture with the North West Coast Indians.

So when I accidently met a person who identified herself as North West Coast Indian, I was full of curiosity and blurted out that we are supposed to have some old cultural similarities or parallels. To which comment she with no-holds-barred let me have the ton-of-bricks wannabe hate speech.
Since I had never ever heard of any ‘wannabees’ I simply could not comprehend her reaction at all.

Racism / hatred is a very extensive problem amongst native american and metis communities... but don't let that stop you from embracing your true ancestry.

It is a sad truth, that native american culture and metis culture are dying cultures (already dead depending on how you look at it) and the people are full of trauma and pain because of that.

I just try to separate myself from that racist mindset personally, it just doesn't resonate with me anymore.
Hardly anyone is full blooded native anymore, and there are hardly any real medicine people anymore, natives are not following the old ways anymore, that's just what happens with colonization, and as much as people want to pretend colonization never happened and try to preserve things, Native America was destroyed a long time ago. Issues on the reservations are very real and overwhelming. I worked amongst these issues for many years.
It's not going to work to try and separate people further, the only way to fix these issues is reconciliation of all races and nations and creating new customs that bring all people together.
And you'd think the Metis Communities would embrace reconciliation, but they are the most racist of all, which is understandable given the very deep pain and trauma they carry as a people who feel abandoned by native culture and white culture.

My point is, your heritage is not something someone can tell you that you don't belong to, your heritage has nothing to do with culture and you may still be deeply connected to certain customs of your ancestors.

For example, genetics are very strong! With the increase of adoptees finding their biological families with these DNA testing sites, they are starting to realize that a lot of personality traits people once thought were caused by upbringing are really just genetic!
I noticed it in myself too, as an adoptee! I have so much in common, such as shared interests, with my biological family! I wasn't raised around them, never met them at all, and yet somehow I still share common interests with them. Obviously a lot of things are genetic, even very tiny things.

I also always knew I was native, even before I could prove it. I was deeply spiritual and connected to that way of life. I joined native culture, learned medicine practices, got into fire tending for sweat lodges etc before I even had factual proof that I belonged there, I mean I already knew.
My elders could spiritually sense that I was from their tribe as well.
My main spirit guide is also Native American and taught me many native customs too.