Native American Heritage - Anyone have it in their bloodlines?

Question

If you do, I would like to know how it influences your life today. It might just be my environment and where I was raised, but I happen to love the earth in which we live. I love the outdoors, I love the fresh air and I love being spiritual. This defines who I am. I see the earth as connected and all living things part of the same thing. Part of the same energy. I am my happiest when I am on the top of some mountain or by some forest stream. I love it under the stars and I relish in all of the creatures on earth..;.which saddens me at the same time with the way that our earth is getting destroyed by man's footprint. Man will lose his dominion though in time.
Anyway, what are your beliefs and please keep rude and unrelated answers to yourself.... Reply if you have something to say that relates to what I have said.

NoOne... while I agree with you. Your post is provocative, out of line and you are missing the point. I am asking who can relate. I identify with a particular belief system and respect for the earth. It is that in which I am asking others if they can relate with. You get a thumbs down for missing several points in my post and responding negatively.

Answer 1

My great grandmother on my dad's side was a Cherokee Indian. I have always loved the outdoors, and never felt comfortable in a Christian based church. I recently found out that I am a Buddhist. I turn to nature for a lot of my prayers and rituals and such...like my Cherokee background suggests.

Answer 2

I'm half Cherokee my kids are Cherokee and black foot and tell you the truth i would rather have a space ship flying though the cosmos . We are all brothers and sisters on mother earth we all came from the same God we all use things the white man introduced to use . But we have had white, black, brown, yellow, and red inventors creating the things we use so we are all guilty for using the earth as a toilet. Nationality has nothing to do with the outdoors its just your preference . Don't get me wrong i love the outdoors the rivers and all but i hate the mosquitoes that come along with it and the can of chemicals the white man calls "OFF " sure is a miracle in my eyes .

God put us hear to subdue the earth and make a paradise out of it but i think we lost the instructions but that's OK we will get a new set when he gets back No biggie

Answer 3

I am Shoshone, Paiute, Chippewa & Cree. I am enrolled with a federally recognized tribe. As much as I can relate to your statements, I must say that NDN-ness (if it is a word) is a CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. While many people have Native American ancestry, there are very few of us who view the world through NDN eyes all the time, i.e. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. Most of the time it has nothing to do with nature.

REAL NDN people live just like everybody else. While, yes, we may take a moment to revel in the beauty of the world, we also wonder why we are never represented in statistics, how we are going to pay our next bill, how we can make it back to our/another rez in order to attend the next funeral, basketball tournament, pow-wow, ceremony, etc.

Being an NDN is not just having the heritage, it is how you live and how you view the world.

Answer 4

I do, and not much. The first thing you need to realize is that there is no single definitive Native American culture. Native American people are divided into a number of different tribal, language and cultural groupings with societies that vary from large mass cultures to simple hunter-gatherer systems. They also demonstrate considerable religious/spiritual diversity; some are pagans, others have complex pantheons of deities. To assume that these diverse peoples can be lumped into a single culture or way of life is at best ignorance and at worst blatant racism.

RE your comments: You asked for my beliefs and I gave them to you. My comments were frank, but not rude. If you were interested in why people love the earth then that is what you should have asked. Not all Native American Cultures are earth freindly, the pagan ones are, but some of the mass cultures created considerable environmental damage.

Answer 5

Being raised in a asphalt environment with concrete rivers, I
still long for forest and clear streams. I imagine it is something that is inbred in me thru time. I had to learn a lot of the old ways on my own since my people never taught me.
I do appreciate them giving me some knowledge in what i believe is the most important and that is my language.

Answer 6

It is my understanding when a persons American Indian blood quantum drops below 1/4 a person loses internal identity as an American Indian, in other words a person no longer thinks as an American Indian, despite the many people in the US and world today "playing Indian".

Answer 7

My Great Grandmother was a Native American Indian.

She did not want to have anything to do with the Native American lifestyle and adopted the American European lifestyle.

Answer 8

in basic terms one question...are we twins?! i could no longer have suggested it greater valuable! It has continually effected my existence...on the grounds that my earliest suggestions...I honestly have enjoyed the exterior, esp. the mountains and forests...and that i like to take a seat beside a delicately flowing brook like the only that the writer has allowed us to apply whilst we are residing in this place....besides the shown fact that I "very own" the land...it remains the valuables of the writer. i'm religious and carry my drugs bag continually, smuge, and commune with the writer and mom Earth. I, too, experience the middle-discomfort from mankind's uncaring techniques...we ought to continually shelter mom Earth and all of advent. i attempt to do what i will and show my relatives to do the same. I Dance women folk classic Buckskin on the various powwows we attend everywhere in the southeast. i'm a nurse and that i shelter many animals...the two tame and organic worldwide. i attempt to maintain on the traditions of my human beings - Tsi Tsalagi - and my daughter and granddaughters do as nicely - and that i show them to others who prefer to income. could the writer watch over you! WindDancing - Deer prolonged relatives - Cherokee

Answer 9

I have pilgrims as ancestors.From what I can remember,Myles Standish married a native and she is supposed to be one of my direct descendants, I think!

Answer 10

Yes, as someone who was born a native to this country, I find I care about it very much.