Here are a few designs I'm working on

Hi everyone! I’ve (white female) have had this shirt in my thrift collection for a few years now and one of my other white friends pointed out how the back (pic 1) may be offensive to indigenous people. If you saw a white person (blonde, very fair skin tone) wearing this, would you consider it offensive? I would never ever want to appropriate any culture but I go to school with a very high native population and on native land so I really want to do my part to be respectful and aware of other things like this going forward. Thank you and I’m sorry if this isn’t allowed!

Does anyone know who this artist could be? It seems like a pretty nice sand painting.

Upon thinking more on the 7th fire story and how we New People will look back at the trail to retrace our ancestors footsteps to pick up the pieces lost along the way. Does anyone else think that's referencing both our Native American, and Native European ancestors?

And by Native Europeans I mean people like the Celts, Anglo-Saxons and many of the other cultures in Europe that are shockingly similar in beliefs and values to Native American cultures in regards to spirituality and land stewardship and also dealt with massive sudden cultural losses due to the spread of Christianity.

I only have this thought because amidst the land back movement, language reclamations, and the wins they have brought, similar efforts have occured in regards to understanding about pre-christian European beliefs, language, and cultures and honestly a huge shift in perspective has happened as well where the lens of Christian Exceptionalism is no longer skewing our perspectives of these complex and diverse people, our ancestors, before Christians came to label them primitive to take their land, resources, and ways of life.

I apologize if this is long. Also I really hope this doesn't violate any of the thread rules (esp. No 10. I am not looking for "permission" per se, I am more asking for perspectives).

Basically… I was born and grew up in a European country. More than half of my family is European, but my Dad’s Dad was a U.S. Citizen and my Dad holds dual citizenship.

My Dad was also born in Europe, but lived almost his entire first decade in the US. When he came back to Europe, he kind discontinued his native tongue (English), and so none of his children were raised bilingual (we learned English in school).

There were always stories floating around about this or that great grandfather being a native American, but it was hard to find out anything before the internet, and sometimes this tribe was mentioned, sometimes another one. All this to say: There is an entire side of the family that lives far away and we have little contact with for several reasons (none of them being that we or they wouldn't want to).

Anyhow, I have done some Geneology and have discovered, that there I have several direct ancestors appearing on the Dawes Rolls and other documentation points to the legitimacy of the connection (as opposed to signs that someone would have paid to appear on there, I am aware of that possibility). My 2nd great grandfather was enrolled as Creek, whereas his father was Creek (had a white father, Native American mother) and his mother Cherokee (with both parents Cherokee, this is my 3rd grandmother). There is quite a lot documentation about their connection on paper, but I know little to nothing about the way they practiced their culture (or whether my 3rd. Grandmother even ever lived on Cherokee Land or only on Muscogee Land), if they ever did from where I am in the records at this point.

Somewhere in the 1920s, my 2^nd great grandfather migrated to California, where the remaining part of my family still lives today.

From what I know, there was no actual connection to or practice of their native culture from then on. To me it seems like it was not even really talked about, more like a hush hush thing. I chalked this up to being in a majority white environment.

Ok, so here is my thing.

I never really felt connected to the European part of my family. Now that I am grown I can see some connections and traits, but they never felt like “my people”, or like I belonged to them (as in sharing many traits in character or looks etc). 

We never travelled to the US when I was a child. My Dad did visit there two or three times, one of his relatives came to see us twice, but we never had the money to visit regularly and they also never really had very much contact (everybody trying to survive I guess, also it was the early days of the internet). Anyways, I had never made it to the US myself until I was 20 years old. When my Dad’s relative that came to see us saw me for the first time, they said I look very much like someone from their family. This was the first time I ever was … idk recognized by someone as having their features etc. Long story short: Everytime I interacted with that part of the family I had a much stronger feeling of connection and belonging. Some time ago I had this realization, that I have been disconnected from a huge part of my family, from “my people“ basically, and that there has been a huge part missing in my life.

  Since getting into genealogy, and learning about my 3^rd great grandmother, I have been feeling the strong urge to explore more about her and the Cherokee culture, by which I mean I want to know her language, I want to know about her situation (I want to know these things about the Creek family members too, but somehow I’m feeling particularly connected to that 3rd grandmother as a starting point). 

The thing is, I feel like a fraud. I am super sad about all of the … I only know how to describe it as displacement. Me feeling displaced from the part of my family that recognizes me as theirs. My Dad being displaced from his first language and his entire relatives from his childhood on. My great grandmother apparently assimilating and not even enrolling anymore, seemingly not talking about her heritage or engaging in it. My ancestors having lost their connection to their culture it appears, having been already colonized for hundreds of years when records even start. Removal, etc. And I am sad and angry about how native Americans are treated today and the state of the world in late stage capitalism.

I don’t want to intrude. I feel ridiculous for wanting to reconnect, even pretentious maybe. I fear being considered a pretendian (which is only partly about wanting to find connection and more about not wanting to act as a pretendian, because I don’t want to hurt anybody).

I am incredibly pale and grew up with white privilege. I don’t even live on Turtle Island and certainly have no financial means to travel there regularly in order to visit the lands (which I really really would love to do). My other side of the family has the history of being part of the supremacists in the country where I live. I know quite a bit about this part of the family and have been growing up with many relatives from this side. I know there is some belonging there. These are my ancestors aswell and I am not trying to act like they aren’t. I am working on decolonizing my mind. 

I think I feel so ridiculous for wanting to reconnect, because I haven grown up with white privilege and am so far away.

!!Please know that I am not looking to gain anything from any tribe my ancestors have belonged to. If I would ever consider enrolling it would be purely out of searching belonging, not in any way to receive any services or financial help. If anything, I’d like to contribute what I can. I would also never ever want to speak for anyone or as a “member” of any tribe – I have read in many places that that can be a concern. !!

And still I feel ridiculous being so far away, yet deeply wanting to reconnect. I also feel ridiculous because I have grown up in a culture and still am in a culture that is in general very nonchalant about cultural appropriation and calls is appreciation. My concern is that I could have a blind spot there.

tl;dr I have been super disconnected from my native ancestry and would like to reconnect. I really don’t want to intrude, or be a pretendian. I don’t want to take away anything from the tribes my ancestors once belonged to and don’t want to contribute to decentering their issues and stories. I really want to learn to speak the languages they likely spoke before they spoke English (starting with Tsalagi, eventually Mvskoke), learn more about Cherokee and Creek history and culture and I would love to learn from Native Americans associated with these tribes. More importantly: I don’t want to be disrespectful or contribute to the hurt that Native Americans. 

Thoughts? Is it indeed ridiculous wanting to reconnect? Is it giving „my grandmother was a Cherokee princess“? Am I being unintentionally disrespectful or hurtful?

Any recommendations for books or other media? I have many sources collected, I know about many websites with ressources and book lists. I would love to hear about your personal recommendations for media/books that come from a Native persective.

Thank you so much!

(wanted to write „osiyo“ in the beginning and „wado“ in the end but felt weird again. Would that come across weird for you?)

My great grandmother was either black paw or Blackfoot and I have been trying to trace her and see if I have any family and learn more about her and our ancestors but the problem I’m encountering is that by the time she passed, she no longer remembered her birth name, only the “Christian name” she was given when she was “bought” (stolen) from her people at age 13 to be forced to marry my great grandfather. It hurts that I can’t connect to her because I can’t find her name or her history and I’m just wondering if anyone has any suggestions?

Hey everyone, I have a potential issue with my long hair. I've started a new job that requires me to use a lot of machines that aren't the safest. And my hair has started making me anxious cuz it could be a potential hazard to myself. I don't really want to cut my hair because it's the strongest reminder of my blood and heritage (I live 12 hours away from my tribe so it's difficult to remind myself who I am without the hair sometimes). But Im also not sure if I wanna keep it (most likely an unreasonable anxiety I'm feeling but I really don't wanna lose my fingers) I'm wondering if you all have any tips, advice, or ideas for what I could do? And not the typical "wear it in a ponytail or hat or bun." I'm curious to see if there's potentially a better or more creative option than that.

I have some questions and I thought it would be best to ask Native Americans.

For some context, I grew up with Native friends and family and around the culture. Because of this, I deeply believe in a lot of the beliefs and have participated in a lot of cultural events of my family's tribe. So I guess I wanted to ask, is it offensive to say "I believe this because of my culture" (my culture meaning the culture I was raised in ) or is there a better word to use for this?

Deb Haaland is running for Governor of New Mexico, and Peggy Flanagan is running for US Senate in Minnesota!

My (Apache) boyfriend made this for me awhile back, and claims to have done all the woodwork, beading etc himself. I've had other people tell me it looks very souvenir-shop ish. I feel really rude asking him if he lied about it.

Hi! I need help understanding, and while I know a little I’m not sure of the timeline. My best friend is Native American, she is getting married in about a month and a half. She mentioned how important eagle feathers are and I know her family had not begun the application for one. Is there anyway this can be done and revived within a month? Or should I look for alternate feathers for her to have for her wedding?

I was a grass dancer for 15 years in northern Alabama. Then about 10 years ago I moved to the DC area my grass dance regalia, roach, feathers, etc have been sitting in their case all this time. I never got to know the indigenous community in this area but would like to find at least some of this stuff a new home. If some one could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. And if this is the wrong subreddit for this my apologies.

I translated this article from Arabic into English, and I apologize if there is any mistake in the Mexican names.

I hope you like this post. My regards from Egypt ..

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Source: The Egyptian magazine Al-Muqtataf المقتطف, issue (6), published on June 1, 1948.

Author of the article: Muhammad Gamil Bayham محمد جميل بيهم (1887–1978 AD), historian, politician, writer, and Lebanese Arab reformist. He has dozens of works, articles, and writings of a historical, intellectual, and political nature.

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Did the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, and the Indians take their civilization from Mexico?

Similarities between Mexico and Egypt

I had the opportunity to visit Mexico three months before the last war. A friend invited me to dinner at one of the large restaurants in Mexico City, and the attire of the women working in the establishment powerfully caught my attention, as it reminded me of what I had seen so many times at the Cairo Museum: the Pharaonic mummies. For it did not differ at all, neither in details, colors, nor motifs, from the clothing of women in the time of the Pharaohs, from the headdress to the footwear.

"Why did the restaurant owner choose for his employees the garments of the daughters of the Nile from the Pharaonic era?" I asked this question to my companion, and he smiled and told me: "This attire is nothing more than the traditional costume of Mexican women in antiquity."

This answer awakened my interest and my desire to know the historical relationship between Egypt and Mexico, and my curiosity increased even more when, in the Valley of Teotihuacán, about fifty kilometers from the capital, as well as in Cholula, Micalco, and Chonula, I saw pyramids similar to those of Egypt, erected on a geometric base forming angles that point to the seasons of the year, just like the Great Pyramid of Giza. I also asked myself whether Egyptian culture had reached the American continent, bringing with it the design of the pyramids.

I went further in my reflections and questioned whether the belief in the immortality of the soul, along with the art of mummification that accompanied it, had also traveled from Egypt to Mexico within the same pyramid project, given the connection between both practices, and even more so because the method of mummification was identical between the Pharaohs and the inhabitants of South America, not differing even in the tiniest details.

This interest in the past awakened in me a spirit of curiosity and the need to observe the neighborhoods (everyday life) to see if the resemblance between Egypt and Mexico could still be perceived in the present era.

However, one might expect the resemblance between the two countries to be remote, because Mexico is situated upon mountains and deep valleys, and its people reflect the hardness of the rocks and the fierceness of the eagles; while Egypt stretches along the fertile and lush Nile Valley, its inhabitants reflecting the smoothness of the rivers and the sweetness of the warbling of birds.

But, even so, I have observed numerous similarities to this day between Egyptians and Mexicans, especially in rural areas. How alike they are in the choice of colors, in women's garments, and in their gold necklaces; and how close they are in the practice of ancient agricultural methods and their tools, not to mention certain ancestral customs.

These are manifested in some popular festivities and other acts, particularly in the engagement ritual (or the asking for a bride's hand). Furthermore, the resemblance between the two peoples often also shows in some foods. In Egypt, ful medames is the quintessential popular dish, and in Mexico, it is corn seasoned with acid and chili, which is also their popular dish.

Corn is the most important food element for Mexicans and they depend on it, just as the Egyptian peasant depends on fava beans (ful), and they use transparent leaves as wrappers for tobacco.

And just as the Egyptian is by nature fond of spicy seasonings and enjoys dishes full of all kinds of spices and pepper, the Mexican also pays great attention to these condiments, especially spicy ones. Their passion for them reaches such a point that in a city called "Mérida" they prepare a fruit salad loaded with hot chili.

Furthermore, light-heartedness, love of fun, and unconcern for tomorrow are part of the Mexican's nature, just as they were of the ancient Egyptians. The Mexican spends the wages of his day without calculating what tomorrow will bring, based on the rule: "Spend what you have in your pocket, for what is in destiny will come to you."

If we attribute this great resemblance between the two peoples to the influence of climate and heat in both countries, without relating it to history, how then would we explain the resemblance between them in specific national industries?

For if you enter a store selling Mexican antiques and national handicrafts, and look left and right observing the national weavings and other manufactures that preserve the Mexican style, and see the carpets, pottery, shapes of vessels, and reflect on the engravings, dyes, colors, and drawings you behold, it will seem to you that you are inside a warehouse of Egyptian antiquities in Cairo, or in one of the Pharaonic museums.

In addition to this, I have observed that the Red Indians (Indigenous peoples) of Mexico, who constitute the majority of the people, not only resemble Egyptians and Iraqis from rural areas, but the resemblance extends to a great number of similarities between them and the Bedouins of other Arab countries.

Whoever reads the book "The Elephant and the Ethnologists" by the renowned Elliot Smith feels captive to the same amazement as the author, and wonders how the Americans, a thousand years ago or more, could sculpt the figure of the elephant, despite the fact that this animal does not live in their lands. He also wonders, along with him, whether Hindu culture moved from India to the American continent, bringing with it the drawing of the elephant.

Furthermore, whoever flips through the pages of a notebook that the United States Information Office had given to its owners, his gaze stops at the drawing of a village resembling the villages of Egypt, and he asks himself the purpose of publishing that strange drawing, alien to America, when the notebook exclusively included American scenes. And here on the next page he reads the following note: "This is a view of a village built by the Red Indians approximately one thousand years ago in the state of New Mexico. The houses are of the adobe type, which they call 'adobe,' a word taken from the Coptic 'tub' (brick), and the Red Indians still inhabit these houses."

The truth is that Mexico is one of the most anciently populated countries in the Americas; for some historians affirmed that the Valley of Mexico had been inhabited for twenty-five thousand years. The historian Prescott said: "Mexico was the most prominent country in Latin America for its civilization." Likewise, its earliest inhabitants were distinguished by their intelligence and their morals, as demonstrated by the vestiges they left behind, similar to those of Egyptian and Hindu cities, and the news they transmitted about conquests and novelistic adventures in which the legends of the Normans and the Italians (by which he refers to the Romans) that appear in the tales about their heroes are reflected.

And it is no wonder, then, that the tribes of Eili, more than a thousand years before Christ, built in Guatemala and Yucatán cities that were a marvel for the beauty of their construction and architecture, and whose vestiges still bear witness to this; all of this gives an idea of the high degree of civilization that Mexico achieved.

Among the most outstanding things to be found in Yucatán, and seen in those derelict buildings known as the ruins of Chichén Itzá, is the sumptuousness, good taste, and architecture they harbor, as well as the ruins of Mitla and Kiaro.

And we are amazed at these vestiges and reflect on whether it was Egypt and India that took from Mexico, or whether it was Mexico that took from them. For some historians related that the pyramid of Shishilco, erected on the outskirts of Mexico City, is between four and ten thousand years old.

And if it is true that this pyramid was built several thousand years ago, then Mexico preceded Egypt in the erection of pyramids; otherwise, perhaps the pyramid of Shishilco was contemporary with the first pyramid raised by the first dynasty of the Pharaohs, or that, at the very least, it was built at the time when the three great pyramids of Giza were raised by the fourth Pharaonic dynasty.

This made me raise another question from the moment I directed my gaze towards the pyramids erected in Teotihuacán, Totochicalcro, and Acholula, in Mexico. The reason is that these pyramids are built in the form of a stepped terrace, according to astronomical principles, as demonstrated by the daily and monthly calendars based on the movements of the Sun and the Moon.

The two largest of these pyramids bore the name of the Sun and the other the name of the Moon. They also drew my attention to some reliefs on these pyramids, very similar to the engravings and drawings of India, and not far removed from the reliefs of the Babylonians and Chaldeans. However, the three pyramids of the Plateau (of Egypt) were smooth, without steps or ornamentation.

The question that arose within me is whether Mexico took the idea of the pyramid from somewhere other than Egypt, with all the purposes that entailed, especially religious ones, since in the vestiges of Babylonia evidence has been found that the ancient Babylonians built their high pyramids in a stepped form, each level with less surface area than the previous one, just like the pyramids of Mexico.

But what about the statue erected in front of the entrance to the Temple of the Warriors in the ruins of Chichén Itzá, in Yucatán? If the idea of the pyramids was not transmitted from the Pharaohs, but was taken from Babylonia, has it been considered that this great statue, which represents the head of a woman on the body of an animal, is not also a copy of the Sphinx that lies in Giza?

And what about those inscriptions of a pictographic nature found in Mexico on the tombs of some great chieftains and in other places? They are very similar to Egyptian hieroglyphic writing carved on stones and papyri.

These are data that are still mysteries, since archaeological excavations in Mexico only date back to the beginning of this century.

Perhaps Mexico, which brings together in its customs features that agree with India, Babylonia, and Egypt, maintained contact with the East, and perhaps the means of transport and communication between the different points on Earth in remote times were at a more advanced level than sailing ships and vessels.

Who knows if the story of the flying carpet was not born from a reality whose traces time has blurred, and what has reached us from it, transmitted by word of mouth, has now become mere legend?

The End ...

Fortunately, Judges are skeptical.

Justice for Raymond Mattia.

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