Hello. I'm Nicole. I'm here because I have a question, which I shall ask in another thread.
Now I will tell you some embarrassing facts about myself!
So, when I was 8 or 9 I found out that my family's oral tradition had us as part Cherokee. It made sense, what with us being from the Smokey Mountains and all (And of course, *cough* we all know that family anecdotes are 100% reliable at all times). For the next few years, up until my early teens, I became obsessed! I read everything about Cherokees I could find. I visited my Granduncle in Tennessee and bought postcards with the Cherokee alphabet on them, and used them to write letters to my friends using the alphabet to phonetically spell English words. I wrote papers about Nancy Ward for my school's diversity assignment, about John Ross and the Trail of Tears for my English class's time travel fiction assignment (as the time traveling heroine of this tale, I managed to change history and prevent the tragedy), and Tsali for history class.
I was very upset that the Native American Playmobil toy set depicted what seemed to be Sioux, so I swapped their warbonnets with the turbans from the East Indian set to make them more Cherokee-like. Other kids played cowboys and Indians, I played cowboys and Native Americans. I based this game on such *cough* accurate anthropological sources *cough* as Louis L'amour's "Jubal Sackett".
I spent hours gazing into the mirror looking for Cherokee attributes. My olive skin and dark brown hair were proof... concrete proof, I tell you! ... of my Cherokee heritage. Never mind that I get my coloring from my mother who is an immigrant... from Europe!
I even bought a Native American Tarot deck. (Please don't puke!)
Well, funny how life goes, I grew up, got married, and life has taken me to my mother's native land. The only tribal ways I'm learning are those of the Helvetians. (Mostly involving dipping bread into melted cheese).
My question, which I guess will go under "et cetera" involves etiquette and the role of white people in the cultural appropriation discussion. I will post it tomorrow, as it is getting late. Goodnight!
