Cherokee descent, "being of Cherokee descent", or "being a Cherokee descendant" are all terms for individuals who have some degree of documented Cherokee ancestry but do not meet the criteria for tribal citizenship. The terms are also used by individuals who self-identify as Cherokee but without either documentation or community recognition.
As Gregory D. Smithers has discussed, a large number of Americans believe they belong in this category: "In 2000, the federal census reported that 729,533 Americans self-identified as Cherokee. By 2010, that number increased, with the Census Bureau reporting that 819,105 Americans claimed at least one Cherokee ancestor."
By contrast, as of 2012 there were only 330,716 enrolled Cherokee citizens (Cherokee Nation: 288,749; United Keetoowah Band: 14,300;
["Pocket Pictorial"]
''Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission''. 2010: 6 and 37. (retrieved June 11, 2010). Eastern Band: 14,667
).
Citizenship
There are three
federally recognized
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
Cherokee tribes: the
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a Federally recognized tribe, federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the U ...
(ECBI) in North Carolina, the
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma ( or , abbreviated United Keetoowah Band or UKB) is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. According to the UKB website, its member ...
(UKB) in Oklahoma, and the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...
(CN) in Oklahoma. Enrollment criteria are different for each nation.
* Eastern Band citizenship requirements are as follows:
::"1. A direct lineal ancestor must appear on the 1924 Baker Roll of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
::"2. You must possess at least 1/16 degree of Eastern Cherokee blood. Please note: Blood quantum is calculated from your ancestor listed on the 1924 Baker Roll."
[
* United Keetoowah Band requirements are as follows:
::"The UKB has a minimum blood quantum requirement of one quarter (1/4) degree Keetoowah Cherokee blood."]
* Cherokee Nation requirements are as follows:
::The applicant must "provide documents that connect you to an enrolled lineal ancestor, who is listed on the 'DAWES ROLL' FINAL ROLLS OF CITIZENS AND FREEDMEN OF THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES, Cherokee Nation with a blood degree."
Social recognition
Kim TallBear
Kim TallBear (born 1968) is a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in racial politics in science. Holding the first ever Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment, TallBear ...
(Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, ...
), author of ''Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science'',[ has written extensively that Indigenous identity is not about one distant (and possibly nonexistent) ancestor, but rather political citizenship, culture, kinship, and daily, lived experience as part of an Indigenous community.]
Reasons for self-identification without citizenship or social recognition
"Self-identification" is when a person claims
Claim may refer to:
* Claim (legal)
* Claim of Right Act 1689
* Claims-based identity
* Claim (philosophy)
* Land claim
* A ''main contention'', see conclusion of law
* Patent claim
* The assertion of a proposition; see Douglas N. Walton
* A righ ...
Indigenous identity or descent with no confirmation or acceptance from the tribe they claim.[ There are a number of reasons people have given for self-identifying as Cherokee or as descendants, despite not meeting enrollment criteria, and without being part of the Cherokee community:
* Many Cherokee heritage groups, organizations that explore Cherokee history and culture, exist across the US, as well as unrecognized organizations claiming to be tribes,][ with one estimate putting the combined number as high as 200. Membership in these groups, in some cases, requires genealogical proof of Cherokee ancestry, but many others have no requirements at all.]
* Many non-Indigenous American families, especially white and Black families with roots in the South, have a family oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
of Cherokee ancestry. This has sometimes been called "Cherokee Princess Syndrome", or having a family "Blood Myth."[
* Laura Browder notes that some light-skinned African American families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote "themselves into Native American identity and out of whiteness or blackness."
* Anthropologist ]Kim TallBear
Kim TallBear (born 1968) is a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in racial politics in science. Holding the first ever Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment, TallBear ...
describes some individuals discovering what they believe to be Native American ancestry through DNA testing, who begin searching for "Cherokee ancestral lines" after this. She notes, however, "There is no DNA test to prove you're Native American." and that this group mostly continues to identify as white.
Issues with descent-based identity claims
Individuals who claim Cherokee descent do not meet the criteria necessary to claim Native American identity under the provisions of the American Indian Arts and Crafts Act
The academic Joel W. Martin noted that "an astonishing number of southerners assert they have a grandmother or great-grandmother who was some kind of Cherokee, often a princess", and that such myths serve settler purposes in aligning American frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...
romance with southern regionalism and pride.
See also
* Índia pega no laço
*Native American ancestry
In human population genetics, Native American ancestry refers to the theory that genetic ancestry can trace a relationship back to one or more individuals that were Indigenous to the Americas. However, there is no DNA test that can prove someon ...
*Pretendian
A pretendian (portmanteau of ''pretend'' and ''Indian'') is a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by claiming to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation, or to be descended from Native ancestors. Th ...
Notes
{{Cherokee
American genealogy
American people who self-identify as being of Native American descent
Cherokee heritage groups
Cherokee in popular culture
descent
Descent may refer to:
As a noun Genealogy and inheritance
* Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
* Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
**Pedigree chart or family tree
** Ancestry
** Lineal descendant
**Heritag ...
Demographic history of the United States
Fakelore
Multiracial affairs in the United States
Native American families
Native American history
Native American-related controversies