Oh, I totally agree with you about the blood quantum issue. It is the craziest thing considering the majority of the people on the base roll were of "mixed blood". Most on the base roll, when it was first established, were closer to 1/4-1/8 (if that much) than full blood. Amanda > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 11:26:48 EDT > From: [email protected] > Subject: [CREEK-SOUTHEAST] The Irony of Current Creek Membership > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > Obviously, the Poarch Creeks can not let every Tom, Dick or Harry join the > tribe, because it could soon become anything BUT an authentic Native American > organization. However ... > > I do think it is ironic that most Southeastern Creek families spent 180 > years trying to hide their Native American heritage and culture, and now many > people are desperately trying to proof Creek descent. > > Until very late in their lives, any time we asked my grandparents about > their Indian heritage, my grandmother would snap back, "I don't want to talk > about it. They treated us worse than the Coloreds." Survival for Eastern > Creeks often mandated invisibility and/or intermarriage with their European or > African neighbors. > > The fact is that when the Creeks were living as Creeks in Creek communities, > membership in the community had nothing to do with race or blood quantum. > For starters, the Creek Confederacy, or People of One Fire was a political > alliance formed by the remnants of many provinces, that had been decimated by > Spanish diseases & weapons, and then by English-sponsored slave raids. People > speaking several languages and dialects came together and chose Mvskoke as > their diplomatic and trade language.These different ethnic groups looked > different and had varying cultural traditions. One of the most powerful Creek > towns, Tuckabachee, had originally been a Shawnee town. > > Even prior to the formation of the Creek Confederacy, there had been > substantial gene infusions. There is a lot of evidence that Mesoamerican > refugees > arrived from time to time in the Southeast and blended their genes and > culture with the Muskogeans. There is some evidence of small bands of Northern > Europeans being absorbed into the Muskogean gene pool 1000-2000 years ago. > Thousands of Muskogean women were ravaged by conquistadors in the 1500s and > 1600s. > There are historical records of Moors, Sephardic Jews and Portuguese men > escaping Spanish expeditions and colonies to join the Muskogeans. By 1700 AD, > many, if not most, Creeks carried some European and/or African genes. The > reason was that mixed-blood Creeks were far more likely to survive a European > plague than a full blood. There are many examples of pure European men and > women being invited to become members of a tribal town in the 1700s. Several > rose to positions of leadership. Their fellow Creeks considered them Creeks. > > So when one talks about a "full-blooded" Creek or Cherokee in the 1800s, we > are not talking about them being the same people, genetically, as the > indigenous people first met by the de Soto Expedition. They were merely > mixed-gene > members of a Creek tribal town, when the federal government first began > conducting censuses of Native Americans. > > Richard T.