The complicated story of Black Indians

The story of the Osage murders is finally getting to screen thanks to a recent book and a recent film:

and many of us know about the trail of tears, when Andrew Johnson decided to force the civilized tribes in the southern USA to what is now Oklahoma.

there is still a small settlement of Cherokees in the Mountains of North Carolina, of those who hid successfully. But most settled in Oklahoma and are there today. 

Ironically the Osage were not part of that group: they were fleeing from their homes in Nebraska and bought a plot of land from the Cherokees to settle in.

ThomasOklahoma has a video channel with a lot of history of Native American tribes, from their point of view.

Much of the history was left out of the history books and now the nuances are usually left out of the history books because too often the histories are written to please the latest intellectual fad in the white community (white superior culture in the past, racism and victimization of poor Indians in today's history books.) 

And yes, there is a lot of racism against Native Americans: I ran into this especially in Minnesota and South Dakota when we would be stopped by cops for nothing, or would not be served in restaurants who would lose our order. And we had to be careful of who we referred our patients to, because of the cultural nuances were not understood by our referral doctors. (not just Indians, of course: I turned down one job offer because the German immigrant doctor made a remark about the Jews. And don't get me started on the racism of doctors against blacks).

well, anyway, the latest scam right now is some black Americans are saying that they are Indians, or the ancestors of Indians.

Probably harmless, although one does wish they would learn the history of the  many African empires, or the trade routes that connected sub Saharan African cities to the Middle East, something the Islamic countries wrote about but were left out of the history books when Europeans decided to divide African between them... 

But anyway, some activists are saying they want to get the privileges of the tribes under treaties signed by the US government with the Native American tribes, and some Native Americans are a bit annoyed at this, just like they tend to be annoyed when white folk claim Tribal heritage to get jobs etc.

To complicate matters, just like a lot of white folk in Appalachia have Cherokee ancestors, many Blacks do have Native American ancestry: and others who are descended from slaves owned by tribal members were granted tribal citizenship. So they have CDIB cards and are eligible for free medical care at IHS hospitals where I worked.

well, anyway, ThomasOklahoma has a short video today about the complicated story of the Black Cherokees, and yes this includes the background for the notorious Tulsa Race riots.