Yeah, I do agree, "passing" complicates things. In my mom's era, there was still a really heavy emphasis on "passing", the "your great-grandpa was an escapee from the Trail of Tears" was pretty much just seen as a family legend (till the family tree DID trace things back to the last roll before the Removal, heh).
Even funnier--I do have relatives that DO pass pretty well for "white" (my aunt, who is forever pissed because people think she's part of the Wannabe Tribe, LOL). I myself have a hard time seeing how it's so obvious with me (even if I'm *not* wearing stuff like mocs--I do wear mocs, not just because of OMFG NDN PRIDE but because they're damn comfy, and the type I tend to wear aren't even my tribal style because softsole mocs suck walking on concrete :D). So this gets to show up quite a bit. :3
Myself...as far as we know, it's mostly Cherokee and Irish and maybe some English (though we do have some questions re my dad's side of the family, what with his family having some names like "Tennessee" and "Alabama" as first names, if you dig far enough back :D). I joke that this means I like my alcohol, I just can't put it down. :3 (Which gets funnier if you realise that the Cherokee were one of the few Native American groups that actually *did* invent a form of beer. Passion-fruit mead, actually. :3)
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 10:40 pm (UTC)Even funnier--I do have relatives that DO pass pretty well for "white" (my aunt, who is forever pissed because people think she's part of the Wannabe Tribe, LOL). I myself have a hard time seeing how it's so obvious with me (even if I'm *not* wearing stuff like mocs--I do wear mocs, not just because of OMFG NDN PRIDE but because they're damn comfy, and the type I tend to wear aren't even my tribal style because softsole mocs suck walking on concrete :D). So this gets to show up quite a bit. :3
Myself...as far as we know, it's mostly Cherokee and Irish and maybe some English (though we do have some questions re my dad's side of the family, what with his family having some names like "Tennessee" and "Alabama" as first names, if you dig far enough back :D). I joke that this means I like my alcohol, I just can't put it down. :3 (Which gets funnier if you realise that the Cherokee were one of the few Native American groups that actually *did* invent a form of beer. Passion-fruit mead, actually. :3)