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I don’t know whether this will help sooth hurt feelings or not, but I thought I’d tell my story.
I think we all come to this to satisfy different personal needs. As well, we bring our own values. Additionally, we all have different backgrounds, histories, etc. Consequently, what I seek, may not necessarily be what someone else is seeking. And that’s OK.
I may be more fortunate than some, and less fortunate than others. My father enrolled me in the Lumbee tribe, but I spent most of my childhood with my mother’s people (Coharie) and feel most comfortable with them. Although I could just as easily be enrolled in the Coharie, for purely crass, selfish reasons (of the two, the Lumbee are far more likely, if ever, to receive federal recognition), I remain enrolled with the Lumbee. [ NOTE: You can’t be enrolled in both tribes simultaneously. ]
Now here’s the thing I wanted to say. Even though I’m an enrolled member of a North Carolina recognized tribe, that’s not good enough for me. I need more. I’m 53 years old and from the moment of my first memory, I was told I was Indian. So, I don’t question that. Not in the least. That’s what you call our “oral tradition.” Now, when I was in high school, I constructed my first genealogy. I remember going to my grandparents and aunts and uncles with questions. Virtually everyone of them told me that, “our people came from Roanoke.” That’s more oral tradition. And I don’t question that either.
So, while I firmly believe I’m Indian, and that my ancestors came from Roanoke, I nevertheless need more. Since I was a child, I’ve always questioned why it was if I’m Indian, that I can’t speak Indian? What tribe of Indian? Why don’t I look Indian? So many questions and no answers. To this day, there are still no answers. Ironically enough, while I’ve been doing my own digging for about two years now, and while I still consider myself a total novice in genealogical research, I’m starting to get phone calls and e-mails from people I don’t know, asking my advice and opinion about our origins. As if I’M an expert. Now THAT’S scary. Because I’M certainly not the expert. Heck, I’m LOOKING for the expert. I’ve got a ton of questions I want to ask him/her.
Anyway, I’ve learned a lot more these past two years than I ever thought possible. For instance, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to discover that there was a Fort Christanna in the historical record. And an Indian Woods reservation. And a Fort Neoheroka. Most of this information is completely unknown to most of my people.
But having discovered so much, I’m daunted by how incrediably much more there is to sift through. If I quit my job right now and devoted the rest of my life to uncovering our history, I’d grow old and die before I completed half of it.
I think I’ve gotten off point. All I really wanted to say, is that I NEED the details. Others may not. And that’s fine. But I need the documentation. For a whole host of complex emotional reasons, I NEED to link myself, and my father, and his father, and so on, and so forth, to a documented Indian in the historical record. Now, I’ve done that with my Revell line. But that’s the only line I can link to an historically documented Indian. And while I have “smoking guns” all over the place for virtually all of my other lines, I just can’t seem to make that last generaltional linkage.
I want to apologise if I inadvertantly offended anyone in my earlier post. Perhaps I could have chosen a better word than “discount.” I hope Forest Hazel and everyone else will continue to post. I look forward to seeing you all here soon.
Thank you all for not letting this boil over. I hope no one will leave over this. There are two approaches it seems, both of which seem necessary. There’s the seat of your pants, I’m going to throw it on the wall and see if it sticks kind of genealogy, and there’s the by-the-book, ready for Library of Congress type. I understand how frustrated the latter type can get, when they start to believe that people are taking the former types as Gospel.
I had a good friend bring me to task recently. There was some confusion about something I’d said, that really my husband had said (yeah, blame Barry, he won’t care, hehe) and then I’d spoken to someone here who was new and made a statement like “Collins is a known Saponi name,” forgetting that to newcomers this can be very confusing. It seemed to my friend like I’d gone off the deep end and was starting to see Saponi everywhere I looked and preach that gospel to all comers.
I know when I first started out with this, somebody told me “Harris is a Tuscarora name, you want an enrollment form?” I was like, ‘Whoa, what do you mean, it’s a Tuscarora name? It’s also a Welsh name, an English name. It’s an African-American name. It’s a common-as dirt-name. Whatever you’re selling, I ain’t buying.’
After some years of this I’ve gotten used to the shorthand that stands for the sentence, “This can be a Saponi name, there are many with this surname who either know or suspect they are Saponi, too many for idle coincidence. So if you have stories of Natives in your family and you have this name, that’s a good place to start digging.” Obviously I’ve started using the shorthand myself, not even realizing it. Us seat-of-the-pants-ers do need to watch ourselves that we don’t go overboard.
For his part, Rick is the King of the seat of the pants-ers. He’s blaized so many trails there are probably a dozen dissertations suggested in his books we’ll probably have to bequeath to the next generation. I look at his work and see the start of an “Encyclopedia of the Saponi.” It does take awhile, though, to get the hang of his “shorthand” so I do understand why people can be taken aback.
Roy, I would love to hear about this Revell you have linked to a documented Indian.
I NEED to link myself, and my father, and his father, and so on, and so forth, to a documented Indian in the historical record. Now, I’ve done that with my Revell line. But that’s the only line I can link to an historically documented Indian.
[This message has been edited by Linda (edited 02-09-2002).]
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