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Archiver > Melungeon > 2001-02 > 0981034560


From: "Elizabeth G. Brett" <>
Subject: RE: [Melungeon] Re:One Last Stick on the Fire
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 08:36:00 -0500


Ingrid,

What you say is very true in many cases...but...

The nefarious BUT... :)

There are people who do not have a drop of Indigenous blood who have
committed in a big way to certain principles and life ways that need to be
respected.

I am thinking of several people I have seen sacrifice and contribute to
both help Indigenous people in a positive way and support, promote and
commit to traditional spiritual ways.

That would include an 85-year-old gentleman who is blue-eyed and completely
White who Sundances every year... all four days...in the traditional way.
He is an inspiration to everyone...and to a lot of young people from that
tribe who realize by seeing him that coming back to tradition is possible.

So there can be some really good people out there who are from white-bread
suburbia.

Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From:Tari Adams - Manager - Northern Medical Systems
[SMTP:]
Sent:Wednesday, January 31, 2001 5:04 PM
To:
Subject:Re: [Melungeon] Re:One Last Stick on the Fire

Well said Ingrid. And do you also know that Celtic people prayed to
the four directions also...

Tari
"Yigaguu osaniyu adanvto nigohilvi nasquv utloyasdi nihi"
"May the Great Spirit's blessings always be with you"
----- Original Message -----
From: Ingrid Albers <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 12:50 PM
Subject: [Melungeon] Re:One Last Stick on the Fire


> WOW! That was two hours of intense reading. Won't let those posts
pile up
> again for so long! Glad the fire has died down and everybody has
made up.
>
> However, I just have to say one more thing. Many of those with
mixed
> white/NA ancestry are very uncomfortable with the white aspect. I
had some
> trouble with this myself a few years ago, and this is how I thought
it
> through. I think I have been on this soapbox before, but I'm gonna
do it one
> more time. I don't expect everybody to agree with me, but mixed
bloods need
> to make peace within themselves, if only to prevent ulcers.
>
> 1. "White" is a racial term, not a blanket ethnic/cultural
designation. The
> various European groups coming to this country can not be described
in any
> overall terms. A blueblood English Virginia planter and the
indentured
> clansmen transported after Culloden had about as much fondness for
each
> other as the Pawnee and the Lakota did two hundred years ago. And
the
> Swedes and Italians have about as much ethnic similarity as Inuits
and
> Mayans.
>
> 2. Some people are just mean. In addition, most governments suck
when they
> have a choice between decency and the dollar. As citizens of this
country,
> we have a responsibility to use our hands and voices to right the
wrongs our
> government has committed. But if you perceive individual whites as
the
> oppressors without knowing those individuals personally, you are
making a
> mistake. Pick up a book about the Scottish land clearances, or the
politics
> behind the Irish potato famine. A lot of people came to this country
out of
> desperation, and wanted no more than a place to survive quietly.
Most of the
> horrors committed in this world are a result of class and the desire
for
> power; race and religion are just the excuses.
>
> 3. My biggest problem with this whole issue was the accusation that
someone
> made that my ggggrandfather (Scots) was no more than a rapist when
he
> married my ggggrandmother (Cherokee). It is a horrible and lonely
feeling
> to believe that you are a result of a crime, even four generations
removed.
> But the more I study Celtic culture, the more I believe it was a
matter of
> like calling to like and creating love. Roman accounts of the Celts
are
> almost identical to early settler's accounts of Native Americans.
They
> painted their faces, spiked up their hair with cattle dung and lime,
went
> into battle nearly naked and screaming the ancestor of the rebel
yell, and
> scared the britches off the Romans.
>
> They also lived in clans, built wattle and daub houses, had a big
ole time
> wandering the mountains on long hunts, singing, telling stories, and
swiping
> each others' cattle. And both Celts and Cherokees had some damned
strong
> women around to kick butt when those wandering fellows came in with
a deer
> and thought their work was done.
>
> So then these men got stripped of their plaids, robbed of their
weapons, and
> thrown on a boat, and ended up in a strange land, indentured for
years to
> some rich Englishman on some flat, coastal plantation. Can you
imagine
> their relief when they got their freedom, headed west, and saw that
string
> of mountains that runs all the way from Georgia, under the Atlantic
and
> right up thru the Highlands? They were home and didn't know it. But
they
> felt it, and when they found a group of people who understood long
hunts and
> singing and strong women and being screwed by the government, I
believe it
> was the feeling of comfort, not conquest, that led them to take a
wife.
>
> Off my soapbox now.
>
> Ingrid
>
>
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