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There are people who move from place to place displacing the Indigenous people and each time they arrive they start the clock as if nothing existed before they came..., Be wary of those whose history can be so easily started and stopped! 

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania there were some things we were not supposed to talk about and having Native Ancestors was one of those taboo topics. Pennsylvania ran off or killed the Natives and those that remained were redesignated as Mulatto Colored Negro Black and in some cases white. The Census Takers and Settler Colonizers determined where we would fall in the racial hierarchy they set up.

They called our ancestors Indian while our ancestors described themselves by their villages or tribal affiliations. The forced assimilation meant that Natives who remained had to become Christians and have Christian names. I feel blessed to have found my Native Ancestors tribal affiliations and in some instances their Native Names. An entire branch of my Iroquois ancestors were split between those who fought for the British and those who fought for the Americans during the Revolutionary War. One ancestor whose father fought for the Americans during the Revolutionary War was taken to an Indian School in Philadelphia with other Indian Children. They were being held as hostages so that their fathers did not desert or changes sides.

This journey has taken place for over 30 years and I am finally able to put some of the pieces together. We were shattered and scattered but the pieces are now coming together. Check out my video on YouTube as I speak on the journey and how I proved my Native lines!