Remarks:
Dark Water Rising is a Native American band. They belong to the Lumbee and Coharie tribes of North Carolina. The lead singer is Charly Lowry. She was on “American Idol” in 2004. I do not know if they won the NPR Tiny Desk Concert competition with this song, but it sounds like their speed – underproduced, bluesy, indie rock sort of stuff.
See also:
- Welcome to Native American Heritage Month 2015
- Martha Redbone Roots Project: The Garden of Love
- A Tribe Called Red ft Northern Voice: Sisters – last week’s song
- Bruce Springsteen: 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) – a related song, according to WordPress
The Lumbee would be an excellent choice for a post.
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I’m surprised nobody brought up white people posing as native americans….
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Okay, I apologize. That’s as Native American as some East Coast tribes can be these days. It’s amazing to see the contrast when the fuller blooded ones in New Mexico and Arizona have to endure much more drastic poverty.
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@TBD,
There is a world of difference between white people posing as Native Americans and Native Americans who are part white and sometimes may pass as white.
East Coast Indians tend to be more triracial, with many obviously part white or part black, but that in no way has made their plight any less onerous than the ones with actual reservations in the West. Blood quantum and racial integrity laws were a 20th century white invention, and in large part erected to obliterate the Native American populations.
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[…] Dark Water Rising: Backbone https://abagond.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/dark-water-rising-backbone/ […]
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From what I understand, most Native Americans are mixed race. Their identity seems to be more cultural or political than racial, like “American” itself.
I know I am bad at this, but Charly Lowry, the (Lumbee) lead singer, seems triracial to me, based not just on this video but two others:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSmlIuig3fY)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxyRVe9Kbng)
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The Lumbees are descendant from multiple American Indian tribes together with both white and black. The majority of individual Lumbee are probably triracial to varying degrees. Most of those who identify as Native American from MD/DE south to MS and FL are largely triracial. Curiously, almost none have received federal recognition (probably because many are part black and there is lingering one-drop rule attitude from the Jim Crow era that they should be identifying as black, or should stop pretending that they are not black).
But I do feel a bit uncomfortable with an aspect of Abagond’s assertion:
One can certainly make the parallel argument that most blacks are mixed race. But then does it automatically follow that black identity is more cultural or political than racial?
Personally, I would argue that black identity is indeed more cultural or political than racial, but an aspect is also racial due to the one drop rule under Jim Crow.
Native American tribes have always brought in outsiders into their tribes, whether by adoption or by raiding other villages. Post-1600s, this also happened to include Europeans and Africans. Their children were kept in the tribe, and the original criterion of inclusion was a social one (which includes of course political and cultural aspects).
To argue that black identity is race based, and Native American identity is cultural and political based, then we have to make the additional assumptions that we must continue to enforce the one drop rule to determine black identity (but not to determine native American identity) as both are largely mixed race.
One thing is for sure — Native American identity is very kinship based. You cannot assume a Native American social, cultural and political identity and become Native American without the kinship relationship.
Kinship is not important for black identity per se, but race is. Therefore, You cannot assume a black social, cultural and political identity and become black without the racial relationship. (Unless your name is Rachel Dolezal.)
A triracial newborn raised in a white family with no black or Native American kinship ties would likely still be black (albeit a whitewashed one), unless they could try to pass as white.
A triracial newborn raised in an American Indian family with no direct black kinship ties would be Native American.
A triracial newborn raised in a black family with no white or Indian kinship ties would be black.
Once a Native American left their home communities (whether or not reservation based) and made their living in non-Indian communities, you often see their children marrying into white, black or other non-Indian communities. The social and kinship relationship is much more important for maintaining American Indian identity than it is either for blacks or whites.
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@ Jefe
I agree: kinship-based is a better way to put it, with the understanding that you can be adopted, that it is not strictly biological.
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@jefe
Go google tribes of NM and Arizona, the plight of these people are far worse. If you look and pass for white, especially in the Southern US, you’ll be treated much better. There are many places in America I know I can’t set foot on and am not welcome.
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@TBD,
It really depends on how you define “plight”, “treated” (ie, in the context of the Southern US), and “welcome”. All of this implies a reference benchmark as to what that means. Accordingly, it ignores many other issues.
Many American Indian identified people could also easily pass as “black”, esp. in the southern and eastern USA. What does that say about their “plight”, “treatment” and degree of welcomeness? What issues does that frame of reference ignore?
There are “blacks” who have attempted or succeeded to pass as “white” today as there has been for hundreds of years. If you take the viewpoint that there is something “better” about that and something that is preferable to strive for, then we all might as well take Jerry Hough’s advice, marry whites, adopt white culture, and raise our kids and grandkids as white. In 2-3 generations, we could simply forget that there was ever a race-based social system in the USA (or any other kinship based system while we are at it).
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You can see her parents in the audience here when she was on American Idol.
(https://youtu.be/FqQ6s1r3dQs)
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I can vouch for the tri-racial aspects of southeastern native mixes… very popular in my Mississippi background – which I have commented on in various posts here.
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Some of y’all are funny people. What is the inherent purpose of your blog? You get 500 words to say whatever you want, and you choose to dissect my race? Weird, especially when you’ve probably never stepped foot in our territory.
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I was searching for press and came across this mess.
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