Black American Indians: Virtually written out of history?

As a complete outsider to the US, I followed some of the debates about Native Americans and genocide with great interest.

Recently I saw a documentary titled: Black Indians: An American Story, and it told me things I've never heard before.

I'd heard for a long time (I suppose most people have globally) that Cher or Johnny Depp have native ancestry.
However, I never knew that Tina Turner, James Earl Jones or Jesse Jackson probably have just as much American Indian ancestry.

In fact, it seems that most of the tribes from the east coast of the US are part African American.

Perhaps, because they don't look like the stereotype of Hollywood "Indians", black Indians have almost been written out of history.
It seems they also faced discrimination from all other groups at various times.

I'm just wondering if anyone has some information on the topic?

I find it quite fascinating, especially as our local library has some huge books on the North American Indians (but virtually nothing on the South American Indians, except the Incas and a few Amazon tribes), but although there's a sentence or two on black slavery and Indians, there's never an exploration of black Indian identity.
Under "famous American Indians" there's no mention of black Indians in those books.

Yet it seems there are a lot black Indians.
Some avoided "Indian removal" by claiming their black ancestry, while others had families that were split apart by officials who classified one family member as "black", and the other as "Indian".
That reminds me very much of apartheid.

So why don't we hear more on the black Indians of the USA?
I've heard a little on the Garifuna and Black Caribs (especially in my thread on the Taino).
However I've never heard that Choctaw towns in the US were once mostly black.

The history seems to linger on the fringes of ancient photographs, and on YouTube one can sometimes see pow-wows with a lot of black people, but most don't have any at all.
I read on Wikipedia that some nations and tribes actually didn't want to recognize black Indians.
en.wikipedia.org...
But it's never really discussed or focused on.
Why is this?

From the thread in my sigy

After seeing this documentary it makes me review some previous ones, such as The Canary Effect, or even 500 Nations.

Perhaps it's not an issue for every geographical community across the US, and it seems constructions of race and culture are sometimes imposed on communities, but I'll definitely view US documentaries and movies differently in future because it also seems that there's a construction of race going on the whole time.

"Purity of race" is constructed by excluding certain people.

That is to say these are excellent and powerful documentaries in different ways, but they either treat African American people as somewhat beside the point (although they recognize slavery and oppression) or they focus on particular communities.
I don't think it's deliberate, but it might still reflect an imposed consciousness about race that's also not quite liberating?
They tend to speak for the general Native American experience historically, and in that sense something is missing - like the black Indians.

reply to post by halfoldman


Actually there are some tribes in Connecticut that are still going strong.
They appear to be doing exceptionally well with the Casinos.
S&F

I'm a little confused, what do you mean by black american indians? African Americans that have native blood? Or are you saying there are native tribes with african blood? Because AFAIK native blood is native blood, they are related to africans in the way all humans are related to africans, but there are no african native americans.

If you mean african americans with native blood, they seem to suffer the same problem of ANYONE with native blood face as far as lack of recognition.

reply to post by halfoldman


When I saw your title, I thought: Where is this guy from? And was going to reply the same as Wildmanimal did above.

It's not so cut and dry over here, by the way. Many in the US/The Americas in general, have some Native American "blood", and depending on the region of the country, you'll find a mix of whoever shared the area with the particular Native American group inhabiting that area at any point in time.

I really don't believe they've hidden anything or anyone, whatever the color. I think it's just a matter of which group you align yourself with, and which culture you've been raised to appreciate.

reply to post by James1982

Good question, because there's some YouTube material that claims there were black African tribes living in the Americas before Columbus.

I'd never say never, but the evidence so far is not convincing.
This tends to go the Ancient Alien route of seeing evidence for an existing belief - so if an Olmec statue has a fat lip and a flat nose they immediately see a black African, or ditto if an old photo shows somebody a bit dark or swarthy.
It's an interesting and beguiling theory, but so far I've seen nothing that couldn't reflect Native American variation or body paint.

No, this is not what I mean.
I do indeed mean mixed people or populations.
As my OP documentary says, it was a new person that came into existence with colonialism, and therefore the white hegemony quickly had to class it somehow.

But then again being mixed is a relative term.
To put it bluntly, white-Indian mixtures seem to pass easier as Native American than black-Indian mixtures.

I'm also more interested in representation, and the fact that African Americans hardly appear in historical film about white/Indian conflict - at least not as living in Indian villages.
Especially with some Eastern nations there's evidence that they actually did.
In fact the two peoples found much comfort in each other.

I know there's some theory that argued that the white obsession with Western movies was actually subconsciously about white/black urban conflict using the Indian as a kind of mediator between racial fears that couldn't be openly expressed.
I'm not sure I really understood that either.

In any case, the story of the American Indian is still widely shown as a white vs. Indian story, and somehow (perhaps until very recently) black people were completely written out of that.

Inter-tribal pow-wow from New Jersey.

Actually when I first saw clips like this I was wondering what was up with all the white and black dancers.
I thought the Native Americans were just being friendly by allowing other groups to dance (a bit like Grey Owl from the movie - the honorary white Indian), but now I think many of those dancers are part of the community.
So locally this seems to be an old hat, but few people outside these communities know that there are black Native Americans.

The Narragansett nation's Autumn Meeting from 2008 - Grand Entry.

From my OP documentary it seems like a community that was frequently proclaimed "extinct", but this definitely seems like a demonstration of survival against all odds.
Black ancestry is very visible, but once again it is very much a part of the community, and perhaps part of the strength that helped the community to survive.

From Sharlotte Neely's article on the Black Cherokee.

There are more Native Americans in North Carolina than in the “Indian country” state of South Dakota. Most Americans do not realize this, in part because of the South’s unique notions of racial categories. Especially in the first decades of the twentieth century, southerners tended to view the world as black and white, literally, with nothing in-between. What happens to a third “race” in such a society? In 1920s North Carolina, there were several Native American groups who did not easily fit into the two recognized categories.

www.nku.edu...

A fascinating clip from a 1976 documentary on the Black Indians of New Orleans and Mardi Gras traditions:

Meet the tribe - Earl Colebut.

Profile of a Mashantucket Pequot tribal elder.

A fascinating clip on the "Black Indians", that includes a pastiche of photography; academic and historical books on the subject; quotes on slavery and blood quota laws; contemporary segregation and anti-black attitudes from some tribal members; the struggle for the recognition of Black Indian farmers and even some Bible verses that seem to call for a sense of identity and activism.

As an outsider I'm not sure I understand all the complexities and historical laws in the US .
Few popular books or documentaries on Native Americans actually include the topic.
Yet, from the array of academic books shown in the clip, it does seem to be a long-standing area of research.

In South Africa there are perhaps some parallels, especially as some of the Khoisan people (Bushmen and Hottentots) are claiming First Nations' status, and there may be eventual questions on who qualifies as "Khoisan".

I remember learning of the black Indians as a child at my very first Indian Pow Wow. I have since seen many from my State as well as surrounding States at other Pow Wows. I found this thread very informative and interesting!

a reply to: halfoldman

The Yamasee were mostly a black tribe. Look up the Yamasee War 1715-1718.

They were fierce warriors who lived mostly near Georgia and surrounding territory, and were at one point aligned with the Colonists for trading and war purposes. Their women and children were taken as slaves if they could not get the Colonists the trade items they had sworn to have. The only reason they could not produce the items (mostly fur) is because the Colonists poached their lands until there was nothing left.

They aligned themselves with other tribes (some whom they fought against in the Tuscarora War) and wiped out 7% of the colonists. Eventually they were defeated and driven to Florida, but they really did a number on the Colonists first, which was their only intent. So they lost but in a way they won too, there tribe was not knocked out or nearly knocked out of existence as many others had been.

Not much is known about their origins before 1570. But even before the Colonists started stealing their people for slavery they had a huge fear of being slaves. My thought on the matter are that some of them were slaves who were brought here earlier than the official records for slavery say. But honestly that is just what I think, because their fear of slavery started long before the Colonists started taking their children and wives to sell on Wall St Market in NY.

I just did a whole piece on them for my final in history class.