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The Appalachian American Indians of West Virginia will be having a Pow Wow at Fairlea West Virginia on the 21st and 22nd of may. If you would like to know more about this group check out their web site at:
Hi Waitman, do you do a lot of Pow Wows with thim? If so, you have proubly met my husband, Three Bears. He used to set up with them a lot, but does not make it much any more, he is a flint knapper and silver smith.
Cheekis
I’m a member of AAIWVA, but have never been able to travel that far, hope to one day soon. Thanks for posting the information, you are certainly welcome to keep us informed on what’s going on thereabouts.
Hello Joyce, No I haven’t done any Pow Wows with them yet. I do plan to be there in May. I was going to go last year but someone gave me the wrong time and caused me to miss it. This person wasn’t a member so I should have checked into it better. This time I will not miss it.
Hello Linda, I am not a member yet. I do know a few of the members and talk to them on occation. I have been invited to join and am interested but I was waiting to find something on paper for proof other than my word. I believe I have enough proof now to show my Native American background. Thank you for allowing me to post information here about the AAIWV. Whenever I hear of any event coming up I’ll post it here for the members to read. This is a wonderful group of people and I’m glad to have become a part of it.
They’ve been sorely used, on occasion, by the “wannabe” witch hunters, and I’ve burned a few bridges coming to their defense, though it was the right thing to do. There are way too many Blackfoot identified people in WV for me to hold my tongue in such a situation.
Linda, Besides the AAIWV how many other Indian orginations are there in Virginia and West Virginia that you know of? Are there any Christian Indian orginations around? I’m a Bible teacher who is proud of his Native ancestors.
I recently went to a local used bookstore and saw a book there titled”The Tutelo spirit adoption ceremony: Reclothing the living in the name of the dead.” Has anyone read this book? It looked interesting and I may go back and purchase it.
Waitman, there are a number of different groups in Virginia. To my knowledge all the state recognized tribes are very conservatively Christian, though they wouldn’t technically be open to newcomers as tribal members. That’s not to say there aren’t individuals among them who, if they took a liking to you, wouldn’t take you in like a member of the family. In my experience, they are some wonderfully loving people with great values.
Then there are lots of “at large” groups, circles of friends, etc. of people who identify as Indians and they run the gamut from born again Christians to those who are interested in old pre-Contact traditional religions. The issues of religion, and race, are said to be the two issues that can divide any proposed Indian communities, though the circle of people I hold close hasn’t borne this out.
Roca, the term “wannabe” has been used initially among mainly recognized Indians putting down “non-natives,” (in their view) who, they say, since “Dances with Wolves” have come out of the woodwork claiming native ancestry. I’ve seen plenty of people, who recognized Indians would scoff at, point that wannabe finger at others in order to take attention off themselves. In my experience, there’s been a lot of hypocrisy and cowardice in the whole business. In my view, there’s a wonderful revival of Indian identity and culture going on, and a reversal of the centuries old trend of ‘paper genocide’ — eliminating natives by categorizing their descendants as either white or black.
If all it takes is one drop of black blood to make a person black, then there’s no inherent reason why one drop of Indian blood wouldn’t make a person Indian. The only reason we don’t think this way is because, at one point, a certain class of people got enormously wealthy by qualifying as many people as possible for hereditary slavery. At the same time, they gained enormous quantities of real estate by denying that other people were Indian. It seems pretty goofy to be loyal and obedient to such a scheme.
Good point Linda made about folks pointing fingers at others they figured were “wannabes”.
Reminds me of when the Masuntuckett Band of Pequots were reorganizing.(Early 90’s, perhaps?) Both Ebony magazine and CBS News profiled them.
Donald Trump was taped by CBS as
saying (paraphrase) that they didn’t look
like “Indians” to him or like Indians to other Indians.I think,looking back,he may
have been lusting after the clients that the Pequots may have been diverting from Atlantic City.
Ebony,a leading Afro-American magazine,had a number of photographs
of the casino,3-4 tribal council members,
and the casino manager.I couldn’t help but notice that the manager and the council members shown (not the full council) appeared to have some black ancestry.I guess some people may have had trouble with that or with the degree of Native ancestry possessed by the Pequots.
Regarding the “one drop” statement,the root of that is our nation’s
history of segregation.If certain rights,
priviledges,or accommodations were going
to be given to whites/blacks/natives,then
it would be necessary to try to define said
groups.
On the black side,the different states
couldn’t agree on what a “Negro” or “colored” person was.
“The Negro in 20th Century America”,edited by John Hope Franklin and Isidore Starr (Vintage Books,@1967,
Random House) has an essay by Pauli Murray on p4-7 quoting state statutes on
who was Negro and who was not.I’m not
going to quote all of them but this is a sample of what was:
Mississippi: 1/8 or more African
Florida: same as Mississippi
Oklahoma: any African ancestry
Alabama: same as Oklahoma
In Texas,one could be black in general society,but be white in prison.(?)Virginia
made a distinction whether one lived on
a reservation or not.
I’m glad them days is gone!
But,there are black nationalists who still want to hang unnecessarily to a one drop rule.
If any of you can find a copy,I scanned
a book in college (1973-75) called “Miscegenation in America”.It had individual and family photographs,hair samples,etc.from people with various mixes of black with white and/or native
ancestry.
This book showed me that it doesn’t make anthropological sense to say that
if one had only one African ancestor 200
years ago,one is black.I noticed from the
photographs that people of mixed black and white ancestry who were 1/8 black
did not look at all “Negro”,neither in hair
texture,color,features,or facial profile (no
prognathism,or “jut jaw”).
Some criticized Tiger Woods for making up a word on the “Oprah” show to describe his quadracial ancestry.Although he’s half Asian(mother
is Chinese and Thai),many focus only on
the black,even though he’s more Asian than anything else.One newsman did say
that Woods was simultaneously the 1st black and 1st Asian to play a certain tournament;congratulations to that newsman for telling the truth!
Sorry this is such a long post.
:o0 Hope I’ve been helpful!
roca
I am a member to but having to move back to missouri i have been unable to go to any powwows with them.
Glad to see you got your way back onto the forum, Hathcock. Sorry for your trouble.
Roca, no need to apologize for being long winded here, we’re a bunch of long winded people.
Who goes to the pow wows? I am not familiar with this at all. Are most of the participants current members of tribes? Am I understanding correctly, that there are people who just think it’s cool to be an Indian?
I am just getting into the Indian part of my genealogical research and cannot even pretend to BE “Indian”, but, I have to admit that even having 1/32 or less Indian blood makes me feel like I want to have some sort of feeling of belonging. I am simply searching (not that the search is actually simple) for the knowledge that I certain ancestors belonged to certain tribes of Indians just as I searched for various European ancestors, early colonists, patriots, slave emancipators, etc. It’s all very interesting. I want to discover what the family legends are really about.
Slightly related –
The other day as I was advising a student (about what to take next Fall) I noticed she was wearing a Waccamaw Souin Tribe t-shirt. She is, in fact, a member of that tribe and said most of the population of Columbus Co, and part of Bladen Co, NC are her tribe. I had no idea. Most of NC seems to be well populated with people who are members of current active tribes. I also talked with another advisee who will be doing some genealogical research this summer. She is black and knows she will be doing some Indian research. Now that I’m looking into this Im finding that I live in an area that is thriving with people who are Indian. Oh, my acupuncturist is 1/2 Cherokee.
Enjoying the journey,
Cheryl
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