{"id":43341,"date":"2015-10-19T20:14:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T20:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43341"},"modified":"2016-12-16T00:30:44","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T00:30:44","slug":"do-you-have-a-cherokee-in-your-family-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43341","title":{"rendered":"Do You Have a Cherokee in Your Family Tree?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do You Have a Cherokee in Your Family Tree?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

History News Network<\/a>
\nGeorge Mason University
\n2015-10-18<\/p>\n

Gregory D. Smithers<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor of History
\nVirginia Commonwealth University<\/em><\/p>\n

Gregory D. Smithers is an Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of <\/em>The Cherokee Diaspora: An Indigenous History of Migration, Resettlement, and Identity<\/a> (Yale University Press, 2015).<\/em><\/p>\n

Each fall I teach an undergraduate course titled \u201cNative Americans in the South.\u201d The class is designed for juniors and combines historical narrative with analysis of specific events and\/or Native American people in the Southeast<\/a>. On the first day of class I begin by asking students why they\u2019re taking the course and inquire if any have Native American ancestors. This year proved typical: five of forty students claimed they are descended from a great-great Cherokee<\/a> grandmother.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve become so use to these declarations that I\u2019ve long ceased questioning students about the specifics of their claims. Their imagined genealogies may simply be a product of family lore, or, as is occasionally the case, a genuine connection to a Cherokee family and community. All of these students \u2013 whether their claims are flights of fancy or grounded in written and oral evidence \u2013 are part of a growing number of Americans who insist they are descended from one or more Cherokee ancestor(s)…<\/p>\n

According to the United States Census Bureau<\/a>, the number of Americans who self-identify as Cherokee or mixed-race Cherokee has grown substantially over the past two decades. In 2000, the federal Census reported that 729,533 Americans self-identified as Cherokee. By 2010, that number increased, with the Census Bureau reporting that 819,105 Americans claiming at least one Cherokee ancestor. The Census Bureau\u2019s decision to allow Americans to self-identify as belonging to one or more racial\/ethnic group(s) has meant that \u201cCherokee\u201d has become by far the most popular self-ascribed Native American identity. \u201cNavajo<\/a>\u201d is a distant second…<\/p>\n