I want to know who I am. What Indian Tribe I'm from. Can anybody HELP me Please...?

Question

My maiden name is Mergili and my Mother's maiden name is Arnel. All I know is that I'm 1/2 German, 1/4 Irish, and 1/4 Indian; but don't know what tribe I'm from. I feel I need to know so can you PLEASE HELP ME????

Answer 1

If you are actually a quarter Native American, then your full-blooded Indian ancestors would be fairly recent. Start with your living ancestors (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles) and get as much information as possible from them - who their parents were, what they know of their grandparents or history. Try as much as possible to get names, dates, and places, not just vague stories - many stories are in fact just stories.

Once you can get back 70-some-odd years, you can start getting vital records (more recent ones are considered private and are difficult for a third party to obtain). 1930 is the latest census available to the public and has been fully indexed - depending on your age, your parents or grandparents were probably alive then and you should be able to find them (thus the importance of the names, dates, and places from your relatives - so you can be sure who you're looking for). Once you find your ancestors in 1930, start tracing them back via the census - with some luck, you can often shoot back 3-5 generations to the 1850 census (the first with everyone's name) - it's not a perfect source by any means, but it's a good first step to get a general picture of the family before delving into other records.

Do be advised however that 'native american' is an ancestry that many people claim but just isn't so. You may find that your family's stories of native american ancestry are nothing more then tall-tales. I have found that a couple times in my own family - you get someone with dark hair it seems, and you get a story that they're all or part native american. Don't believe it until you can PROVE it.

I'm not, of course, saying you're not Indian, just be skeptical and do your research

Answer 2

Good source for you to try and it's free is the Mormon or LDS (Latter Day Saints) libraries. They're better at geneology than the US Government, trust me. There are 500 Native American Tribes of the Dawes List and your tribe, like mine may have never made that list. There is an excellent video (Tracing Your Native American Roots) you can get from www.southwestindians.com and it's a great guide for those not having access to relatives whom would know. My grandmother was of the Mohawk tribe from Canada, one of the Iroquois Five Great Nations which later became Six when the Seneca were admitted. Important link for you would be your grandmother's maiden name and start your research with her and further back. Good luck.

Answer 3

First please know that Native ancestry is very difficult.
You will want to start with your grandparents and great grandparents. Where did they live?
You can use this website to find out what tribes are in what states:
http://www.500nations.com
Then you can google that tribal name + official tribal website
For example: Cherokee + official tribal website
Once you find their official tribal website you will have that tribes contact information. You will want to call them and ask if your last names are on their rolls. Do this for all tribes in the area. If you have no luck you can submit an ad to the tribal newspapers asking if anyone has lineage to these last names.

Detailed Information is provided below:

Information on how to become enrolled is listed below:

To become enrolled in one's tribe is often a difficult process. Once one is enrolled one will have certain rights as a Native person. It is true that no one needs to prove their ethnic identity but to have full access to rights for Native people one must be enrolled.

To become enrolled one must first should call one's tribe and find out the enrollment requirements. They are different per tribe.
For most tribes you have to prove descendency and have a certain blood quantum. To prove descendency one needs to have some record of her belonging to a member of the tribe that was recognized by the tribe at some point, hopefully an individual that was enrolled at some point. The average blood quantum standard is 1/4. Unless you are Cherokee, their blood quantum standards are much less.

If you don't have contact with your tribal member then you can ask the tribe to look for his last name. They can look this up and see if his family line is registered. If so then your in luck. If they don't immediately find it then you can use the tribal newspaper and submit an article asking if anyone has lineage to your tribal member .

Many Native people can never become enrolled because standards of enrollment are high and were set up by the White government to oppress Native people and Native people have yet to change them.

To become more involved in one'sculture one might want to look up local Native organizations or local tribes. Try going to Pow-wow's (because they are easy to find) and talk to community members there. Many colleges/universities have a Native student union where one can get involved or get more information.

Please remember ancestry is very difficult for many Native people.

By the way, I am Native, so I have some knowledge pertaining to this.

Answer 4

you will need to do your genealogy there are no short cuts you can either do it yourself or hire someone . start at home and start with yourself and work back if you are American Indian you should not have to go back many generations to prove you are indian or you are not. try your local genealoy at the library some great sites are the mormon church , ancestry , rootsweb, and genealogy. com most have free forms that you can download to get you started good luck and happy hunting

Answer 5

If you are 1/4 Indian, you're grandparent must be one. Does no one else in your family know that grandparent's background? Where did he/she come from? That would help, too.

Answer 6

If you are part Indian, it would have been talked about in the family.

Ask your parents and grand parents.

Someone in your family must have maintained historical information on your family.

Answer 7

You need to ask the people in your family. There's absolutely now way to know going by the information you've posted.

Answer 8

Will it really change anything? Be proud of who you are and what you came from not about relations and trivial things such as that, but what region did you come from?

Answer 9

send me all the info you have on districts etc, names of families and i will help you!!