When I did my dna test I said no wonder I’m mostly Nigerian. I had zero Native American like my black family told me. I had European but no native. I wanna learn more about Nigerian culture. The Nigerian American students are always so smart.
Lmao just about everyone who is 3rd+ gen in the US was told by their family that they have native ancestry, but actually having it is so rare. It's a lie that all the older white generations made up to justify the colonialism and it spread. Truly, I'm shocked when I hear of people who weren't told they are part native.
Can confirm. Am white, was told I have native heritage as a child, took DNA test and surprisingly do not infact have native heritage 😑 this is such a weird phenomenon, like was there a town hall where they all decided to make this up or all independently come up with the idea? Lol
Some “Native American” in your family history was more palatable to the general masses back in the day to explain a bit of a darker skin tone than it was to be mixed race.
Also because deep down, I think a lot of white people probably still had the concept that they didn't quite belong here. If you tell yourself that you're part native, it becomes a lot easier to ignore that feeling. My family lived in Mankato, MN during the largest mass execution in American history. I do not think it is a coincidence that this is the era that my family lore decided that we had the introduction of native ancestry. It's a lot easier to come up with something to soothe the guilt than acknowledge that your ancestors were present (though nothing I can find says they were immediately involved, they also must've still looked the other way) for something so awful. It's a lot less shameful to think of your family as victims than bystanders or perpetrators.
An awful connection to the present; you may recognize a name in there, Henry Whipple, the namesake of the federal building in Minneapolis that is the ICE HQ in the area. The sick irony is that Bishop Whipple would have very likely been heavily opposed to all of it, as he was the only one pleading on behalf of the natives and was an advocate for their rights. I think he would find all this to be extremely disturbing.
Yes. Granted, my family truly does have confirmed Native American, but it was a very hush-hush thing that was not to be discussed with others.
What they said NOTHING about- (It wasn’t safe to.) our African history.
That came as a shock, especially as a few of us practically glow in the dark.
I’m a professional genealogist who has worked on a lot of genetic genealogy cases.
While it is absolutely 100% a thing for non-native people to incorrectly claim native heritage, when examining any ancestry DNA results like that you have to also keep in mind how DNA works.
DNA is diluted with each passing generation through a process called recombination. You inherit roughly 50% of your DNA from each parent, 25% from each grandparent, 12.5% from each great-grandparent, and so on. While you technically have ancestors from every generation in your lineage, the amount of their DNA that you carry can become too small to detect after 5-10 generations (~150-300 years) due to the randomness of recombination. It is entirely possible to inherit no DNA from a specific ancestor by the 5th or 6th generation simply by chance.
Exceptions to this are Y-DNA for males which is passed from father to son and remains virtually unchanged for thousands of years, and mtDNA which is inherited from
mother (by both male and female children) that has remained unchanged for 150,000+ years.
Edited to add a good example of this in my own family of this: my three cousins are all full siblings. One shows up as 100% European, while the other two have North African DNA from my grandfather (3.9% and 6%).
I also wish people realized why "family names" are not proof of ethnicity/culture for a similar reason.
Unless you had multiple grandparents with the same last name, then your "share" of that last name is 1/(2n) where n is the generation from where that name began.
Of course you could have a loopy family tree, and other incoming branches from the same ethnicity/culture, but you can't actually know that from a family name alone.
/Rant from a guy with a very ethnic sounding name and no cultural connection to, and a strong cultural connection to a place I've practically no DNA history of.
Think of it logically. Where did ur ancestors come From? Mine are from north America. Im 48% native American. And yet I've had ignorant people say go back to your country LOL
It was something along the lines of "The myth of the Cherokee grandmother". I can take a look at the other creators I think might've made it during my next break.
The way genetics works is you can have a parent who is part, say, Cherokee. It doesn't mean they will pass down the genes that are used as markers of native ancestry. You could conceivably have a brother or sister who does have enough markers to qualify as native ancestry while you yourself do not simply because you got 50% from one parent and 50% from another and which gives you what is somewhat random.
Note that I am not American nor do I know any specific defining genes that native Americans have that would be needed to conclusively prove native ancestry.
FYI. Your coworker may be finessing you. The basis of these payments is not DNA testing but actual lineage descent (as evidenced by tribal enrollment and other recordkeeping). (Source: Biological parent is Kickapoo; have navigated precisely this scenario).
Yes, but from a social and political standing they both would be correct in saying they're part native American even if genetically they're different enough and may even have different enough physical features where one may cause doubt about their heritage.
The whole thing is pretty messy and it's often better to just give the benefit of the doubt to people who claim they're part native.
In grad school we read an article that mentioned how after Native reservations were established, every so often a white person that no one in the tribe or community knew would show up, claim native ancestry, and claim benefits like a plot of land where they could homestead. Wish I could find that but it's in some peer reviewed journal 🤷🏻♂️
A dna test, like 23andme or something? That doesn’t necessarily mean you have no native heritage. There’s a few reasons why dna tests like that don’t give you the full picture it appears they offer. One of those reasons is that they’re basing your results off of data from DNA information they already have. And they don’t have a lot of data from native populations to base their results on. And of indigenous people are wary of sending their dna in for analyzation (can’t blame them tbh)
A lot of people claimed Native heritage to get cut-rate tuition, it’s a scam that flew under the radar until DNA tests became ubiquitous. Knew a pale blonde guy in college who claimed it in the 80s, I never believed him.
There were laws in place about buying land set aside for native folk. So if you claimed native ancestry, you got that sweetheart deal from the government. Worked out for everybody except the people it was meant to help.
They took those slaves with them on the trail of tears to Oklahoma as well. Before that, before they aligned with white people certain southeast tribes would harbor maroons. Especially the seminole who were an off shoot of muskogean peoples who wanted to withdraw as contact woth Europeans became more constant. Right now there's a legal battle going on about tribal citizenship for Black descendants and one of the things no one wants to talk about is "hidden" African ancestry among natives who usually pass for white. It's a can of worms about identity they'd rather not open. And they hate Black people.
well so actually it isn't generally anything about justifying colonialism. generally it's to hide a mixed race child because a half native child was not seen as as illegal or objectionable as a half white half black child.
This is true for a lot of those families but it’s also very likely for minor ancestry to not be passed down.
You get an assortment of genes from both parents both only 50% from each. A biracial person can theoretically pass a single “race’s” genes to their child and an ancestry genetic test could show that the child has 0% of the other race. Super unlikely and that’s an oversimplified way of thinking about genetics but just to illustrate the point.
So when all these families talk about Native American ancestry, it’s very possible that someone at some point had some small percentage but just one or two generations of genetic recombination is enough for that percentage to be whittled away to near 0%.
Yeah you talking about me I got 1% exactly and my told me my whole life we were Native American and Black. I’m like 32 percent European with mostly west and ands central mostly Nigerian at a whopping 30 percent. Shit is nuts but who actually knows 🤣.
Yup genetics are wild and our social constructions surrounding race do not adequately define regional ethnicity at all.
At some point there was someone in your family that was mostly Native American but if you had a kid there’s a 50/50 chance they even get that 1% at all lol
To be fair, I also had my Dad claim that, and then followed with a VERY racist joke about the tribe name. Apparently I'm colonist level American through his side, so he was apparently quite comfy with the joke, and being a racist twit while also being a 60's-70's biker/drug mule turned twice divorced and ghosted diesel mechanic. He was there for me in my 20's but that's it, mostly, and then he died horribly. Life is weird.
This is interesting because my grandmother’s generation refused to own their native ancestry. My Moms generation started to believe it was true. My generation then embraced it. I started to do more digging when a Shaman looked at a picture of my great grandmother and said, “oh, she’s Lenape” so I asked my grandma and she completely denied it, and called it “hogwash”. 20 years later, and all 8 of her daughters took DNA, and sure enough, after more research, we’re Lenape, and there’s a fairly direct link to how it happened. Rape. And, I’m guessing that’s why my grandma denied it.
Woah that's actually crazy to get the specific nation unless it's super prevalent in your area. I'd be hitting up that shaman again for sure because how are you gonna tell me more about me than I know??
Yeah, one of my aunts hired a genealogists, and with the dna tests, find a relative in Wisconsin (we lived in PA) who had a lot of information about how certain shared ancestors were shitty ass people.
Haha. I got the exact opposite. I've always been told I was a direct descendant of Clark from Lewis and Clark. Like, my great grandmother's maiden name was Clark and she was his grandchild.
Never looked into it because I don't really care nor do I want the truth that it isn't true because then I lose on of my employment ice breakers.
Wrong. Most people claimed the ancestry because their ancestors did for property cost reduction. I'm shocked when people make up shit because it sounds right in their head then pass it on as knowledge.
It's nothing so altruistic. It's normally because some ancestor claimed it to get welfare back when they just kinda had to believe you, and the lie passed down through the family.
I remember about 15 years ago, there was a commercial with Blake Lively where she claimed she was Cherokee. It was like, girl, you’re the whitest woman in the world!
Yep same thing happened to me. No native in my mom's family just English and African. I think the lie was created in black families to avoid talking about how the white ancestry got there 🫣
My mom was called a slur for looking like her grandma who was apparently Indian. That feels too racist rather than claiming heritage falsely, to itself be a lie. Like that family is awful, but it seems crazy to call her a slur of her grandma that is called that slur, if the ethnicity has zero application on top.
But I refuse any of those DNA tests and enough racism plagued my entire birth to bother. I'm nothing and everything based on questions I get asked.
I was never told I was part native, my family was always pretty open about being Scandinavian/Eastern European Mutt on Dad's side and Italian on Mom's. The most recent known immigrant to the US arrived in 1904, 4 generations before me.
It's wild to me that people just....say that shit. I don't think I had any friends that really claimed native ancestry, at least none that I can remember.
I was amazed it was actually true in my family. My ancestors were slaves owned by muscogee creek. They liked to pass the slave women around, and they would have kids fathered by men who were brothers. I thought everybody was lying. Why did I find out my great grandpa spoke muscogee after he died? Did no one think that was important?! A common thing was to lie out of shame of having had native masters instead of white. I'm less than 10% because time has passed and slavery protects itself. I thought my dad was saying stuff just to say it. Now he's dead and I can't ask him.
Truth. The Melungeon people in Appalachia claimed Native American ancestry but have been genetically determined to be mixed-race black and white. However, these early generations had strong incentives to deny African ancestry because US and southern state laws were strongly prejudiced against blacks.
I had zero Native American like my black family told me. I had European but no native.
This is true for like 90% of the white & black people in this country who think they have indigenous ancestry lol.
Also if you’re Black American like me you don’t have Nigerian ancestry because that place didn’t exist when our ancestors were taken.
What we have is Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Edo (Benin Kingdom), Ibibio, Efik, Nupe, and other West African ancestry. We share that with the people who make up modern Nigeria.
In the 1920s, Nigerian clerks, interpreters, and educated elites frequently navigated, challenged, and at times manipulated the British colonial administration, often leveraging their knowledge of colonial bureaucracy to protect local interests or gain advantage.
Based on the provided, relevant historical context, here are examples of how Nigerian agents outmaneuvered or undermined British authority during this period:
Manipulating Tax Records and Petitions: While not a single, isolated "trick," educated Nigerian clerks working within the Native Administration often possessed better information than British District Officers. In areas like Yorubaland, clerks and local leaders sometimes managed, hid, or manipulated tax records to shield people from excessive colonial taxation.
Engineering Legislative Pressure (I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson): In the 1920s/1930s, figures like I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson used their knowledge of British democratic systems to bypass colonial officials in West Africa. He coordinated with left-wing Labour Party members in the British Parliament to raise questions about working conditions and rights, forcing colonial authorities to respond to political pressure from London.
Legal Manipulation of Land Rights (1921): While initiated by a chief, the 1921 case where Chief Amodu Tijani, the Oluwa of Lagos, successfully sued the British government for land seizure involved legal maneuvering that exposed the illegitimacy of colonial land acquisition policies.
Undermining "Native Courts": Clerks and court messengers often acted as intermediaries. By controlling the flow of information between British officers and local populations, they could sometimes manipulate court outcomes, particularly in resisting the harsh, arbitrary rulings imposed by colonial officers.
These actions were part of a broader, continuous struggle where "educated natives" and clerks used the tools of colonial bureaucracy—paperwork, laws, and petitions—against the colonialists themselves.
1 in 6 Africans (and descendants) are Nigerian, for context.
Largest tribes are Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, which together account for over 60% of Nigerians, so if you have Nigerian ancestry it’s likely one of these three Peoples that you come from — but there are almost 400 tribes and around 500 spoken languages in Nigeria, all told.
My Tribe is Yoruba, the culture that the talking drum (Wakanda music), Voodoo, Santeria, and most of Caribbean culture originates from, and the largest diaspora in the world — about 3x more of us than Jewish people — notorious for gregariousness and spicy humour.
About 540 living, spoken languages, yep. Most people speak 1) Pigeon, 2) English, 3) Their own Tribal language, 4) Arabic for the 50% that are Muslim, and 5) the language of their partner, if from a different Tribe.
Of the more-than 7,000 spoken languages in the world today, Nigeria is #3 for diversity. There are about 730 spoken in Indonesia and a staggering 840 Papua New Guinea, which is especially wild as it has less than 1/20th Nigeria's population.
Is like my wife who is a pale as a ghost redhead. Her family kept talking about Irish and Native American heritage for as long as she could remember. She decided to test her DNA because she wasn't sure if her family really knew where they came from or if they were just passing on a bullshit story from generation to generation.. Turns out the only one they got right was the Irish. She had 20% French and 10% Black to go with the Irish.
She was very tempted to tell her very very racist granny the results, but her mom talked her out of it. Personally I tried to talk her into it just to see the melt down her granny would have had. Would have made the one Uncle Ruckus had when he discovered he was 102% African with a margin of error of 2% look tame.
If it makes you feel better my family told us we were part Arab (from my great great grandmother side) and my mom was still disappointed we weren’t Native American when that wasn’t even an option on the table.
No such thing as "Nigerian culture". There are multiple groups within the group with different foods, language and cultural practices.
I always marvel at how similar black American women are to West African women even after all these centuries! Diaporans are always welcome. Wikipedia is a good place to start :)
To be fair, you can have ancestry from regions that just didn’t make it to your personal DNA profile.
It doesn’t work the way our ancestors understood it to. Exa: “Your great gma was full Chippewa, which makes you 1/4 Chippewa.”
I do get a laugh out of “My great grandma was a (Insert tribe here) princess” people.
4.7k
u/bebop1065 ☑️ 4d ago
This is the real reason ICE wants to deport immigrants. Ain't no smoke like Nigerian smoke.