“What are you writing now, Kerry? “asked Chief Running Bear,
as I sat down near him in my back yard to write this blog.
Many years ago, my wife Leila spotted Chief Running Bear in a
going-out-of-business tobacco store. She
rescued him and presented him to me as a no-occasion gift. The Chief had spent the first 40 or 50 years
of his life standing majestically at the doors of a various tobacco stores,
relegated, like many of his artfully hewn brothers, to that humble position by
clever entrepreneurs aware of the relationship of tobacco and American Indians.
Colonists borrowed the use of tobacco from the Indians and then stole the land
upon which it grew. What remained for the Indians was the dubious honor of
being sculpted in wood and placed at the entrances of tobacco stores throughout
the nation.
Having acquired the Chief, there arose an immediate
problem. Where was he to dwell? “Not in our living room,” said Leila, and suggested,
“take him to your office.” Thus, he took up residence in my law office, where
he remained, standing next my desk for nearly 20 years. The Chief and I spent many late nights
together as I prepared for trial or key depositions. Often, fatigued by a long
day’s work, I would sit back and recite my legal arguments and read my briefs
to the Chief, who listened and never orally responded but I could always tell
whether he approved or not.
When I
retired, I sold all my law office assets, but the Chief and I had so bonded
that I could not leave him behind. I
brought him home and he now resides in my back yard next to the fence,
partially hidden by a row of closely spaced Carolina trees. He feels right at home there. The other day,
having noticed that his face has taken a beating by the weather and has grown a
whitish beard of mold, I promised him a shave and facial when I return from
vacation.
I am sure that fate and genes
brought the Chief and me together. Leila
knows that Cherokee blood runs in my veins and thus the purchase of the Chief.
I often share my ancestry with friends, casual acquaintances and, frankly, with
anyone who will listen. My great-great-great
grandmother was Cherokee. As related to me by a relative with whom I share the
art of exaggeration, she was a Cherokee princess. Like the Chief, I am usually
disbelieved by my smirking listeners—and perhaps by you. I learned later that great-great-great grandma
was just an ordinary Indian maiden. But as
far as I was concerned, being Native American elevated her to nobility. To this
day I do not hesitate to inform anyone who will listen that my great-great-great
grandmother was an Indian princess.
That makes me 1/32nd
Cherokee. Too little to qualify me for
any tribal privileges, benefits or nobility but enough to make me proud of my
heritage.
Now you are asking, if indeed you
have borne with me this far, “what does this have to do with Elizabeth Warren?”
It’s all about heritage. As early as 1986 Ms. Warren identified
herself as an American Indian of Cherokee ancestry. Her political opponents accused her of lying,
leading her to have her DNA examined. The examination determined the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor in
[her] pedigree, likely in the range of 6–10 generations ago. 1 If it
were 6 generations, that would make her 1/64th Indian. I’m 1/32th. We
could be distant relatives, perhaps second cousins, five or six generations
removed. Blood brother and sister.
The brouhaha
over her claim of Indian ancestry—ancestry which was proven, mind you—led her
to acknowledge that her Native American ancestry was not at all tribal
citizenship and she apologized to the Cherokee Nation "…for furthering
confusion over issues of tribal sovereignty and citizenship and for any harm
her announcement caused."2
There
is more that should have been said. From colonial times to the present even a
minuscule amount of ancestral blood has been sufficient for racial
identification. For decades one tiny drop of Negro blood flowing in the veins
of a white appearing person made him or her officially and legally a Negro. The whitest looking person, even with pale pink
skin, freckles and red hair, for example, was disqualified from the rights and
privileges of white society once it became known that at some time, even in the
distant past, he or she had a Negro ancestor. Such a person might easily pass
as white but would always be fearful of being stripped of the privileges of
whiteness if her ancestry were discovered.
When
Ms. Warren claimed a few drops of Cherokee ancestry she was lambasted. Her political opponents claimed that her
motivation was suspect, a shameful attempt to obtain favor from a tiny minority
of voters by claiming racial identity. They
pilloried her for asserting her Cherokee heritage. Of course, bigots will play the race card in
any way possible if it serves their purposes.
If Ms. Warren gets the nomination, the same hypocritical persons who
cried out “She’s not Indian!” will do an about-face and shout, “We don’t want a
Native American President,” just as they railed against Roman Catholic Kennedy
and African American Obama. My
reply, “What could be more American than a person with Native American blood
coursing proudly through her veins?”
Yes, Ms.
Warren was accused of having used her Native American ancestry for political
gain, but in the final analysis, she told the truth. She is of Cherokee
ancestry. She is entitled to be proud and to assert her Native American
heritage. Unfortunately, we live in a
society where race is used or abused for personal and political gain. Race should not play a part in our elections
nor in our societal institutions. But it
has for hundreds of years and as illustrated by Ms. Warren’s case, it still
does and will continue to do so until and so long as racism and bigotry are
embraced and promoted by bigots, xenophobes and others of that ilk.
I am
proud of my bit of Cherokee ancestry. I’m part of the melting pot. As is Ms.
Warren. We are a diverse nation, individually
and collectively and our diversity has served us excellently. Let’s keep that in mind as we approach the
2020 elections.
©Kerry
Gough 2019
______________________________________
2 Ibid.
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