I Get Around

I was not very happy to learn that my ancestors were sluts among Native Americans. Apparently, Cherokee Indians slept with everyone (Berry). How else would I have obtained pale skin and protruding blue eyes? I always thought of Cherokees as being the real friendly Indians, the roll-over-and-pet-my-belly kind of people; pushovers. I was alright with that, it meant they were nice. I wanted to be related to nice people; well little did I know that such kindness would lead to promiscuity. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they weren't promiscuous, maybe they were just tragic romantics-going against the grain of Native American tradition all for the sake of love! I choose to believe that. Shakespeare would be so inspired.

Sherman Alexie makes me a little upset. I liked being able to say I am part Cherokee, but I’m not a “pure breed”. I always had a thing for mutts though, so maybe that love extended to interracial people as well. He is right though, unless you have lived on a reservation you won’t know what it’s like to be Native American, at least not a Native American who lives on a reservation. You might know what it feels like to be a Native American who lives in the city, or maybe you know what it’s like to be German, Irish, or Black with a little bit of Native American in you, but you won’t know what it’s like to be on a reservation. That doesn’t mean you are not. No one can take that out of your blood! You may not know the culture but that doesn’t change your DNA.  All though, it is kind of silly that someone who is 25% Native American will go around saying, “I’m not white, I’m and Indian!” face it bucko, you are white. That’s when the stereotypes start coming into play. 

Stereotypes like the ones mentioned in Mr. Alexie’s How to Write the Great American Indian Novel. My “favorite” stereotype from his poem is “everybody is a half-breed struggling to learn more about his or her horse culture” (Alexie). When people feel entitled to be Native American, well, that is just greedy… and stupid. So then they go and search for the “Native American” that lives in them and create these stereotypes. I, however can be part Cherokee and that mean something… well not really something but it means that somewhere down the line someone slept with someone who was Cherokee, and I couldn’t be more, uh, proud.

That’s what gets me thinking, if the Cherokee just slept around with anyone, should I really be proud? It’s not like I’m different or special, I am just like the majority of Americans.  So what am I even writing about? I guess I agree with Sherman Alexie, just a little bit, I think you can still call yourself a Native American if you are 75% or more. I am not; I think I am 35% or 25% or something like that, so I have no “rights”. I can say I have some Native American blood in me, but to claim a part of the full race is a little much, or at least I am starting to think that. Maybe I’ll just say I am a Texan from now on… 

Work Cited

Alexie, Sherman. How to Write the Great Native American Novel. Hanging Loose Press, 1996. Print.

Berry , C.. "Blood Quantum - Why It Matters, and Why It Shouldn't ." All thing cherokee. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://www.allthingscherokee.com/articles_gene_040101.html>.

Frost, John. Frost's Pictorial History of Indian Wars and Captivities. New York: Wells Publishing Company, 1873. Print.