Rise of the Pretendians

[LDAHL]

https://westseattleblog.com/2015/11/...e-list-before/

I see my old friend is still causing trouble for no apparent reason, this one being a Freedom of Information Act with the city of Seattle.

Most every state has some form of open records law. We used to get all kinds of requests, some as ridiculous as give us the list of every taxpayer in the property ownership records for parcels including or abutting a cemetery. We got requests every year for employee salaries from a newspaper that maintained a public database. The best defenses against the crazy ones were keeping up with our records retention policy to prune out old stuff and taking advantage of a provision in the law that allowed us to charge for processing and duplication.

[Tybee]

I can name a number of great- grandparents at the 7th and 8th generation back, all by name, with information on where they lived, who they married, etc. etc. that are Cherokee, Pahmunkey, Algonquin, Mohawk, and more. None of these tribes consider me eligible for membership in their tribe. Yet these are still my ancestors. So I have mixed feelings about Elizabeth Warren's claim--I'm not sure what to do about this part of my identity. I am not pretending to have this ancestry, I have it. I think she is in the same boat. Does she qualify for Cherokee tribal membership? I don't, because my last named Cherokee ancestors were from pre-Dawes rolls days, and with the Eastern Band, I think they have to be full Cherokee prior to 1800, and mine are more back around 1760, I think. So 40 years, and I am not a member of the tribe. Big deal. It's still who I am, and I think that is true of many people now that Ancestry has made everyone put their records together and we have the benefit of other people's research. I know that I was always told that my mother had Cherokee ancestry, and it turned out to be true. I suspect that is the case with many, many people in Georgia and North Carolina, and it is probably many more people than anyone ever knew.

Frankly, I think it's kind of offensive that people mock people for wanting to know who their ancestors were, as though were is a bad thing. Why would anyone care if someone wanted to embrace a part of who they are? How is this different than me joining the Scott clan and buying my granddaughter a kilt, or me telling her that she is descended from Pocahontas's father? Both of these things are who she is, just like her Italian heritage on her mother's side that I know nothing about, or the fact that on her mother's side, her grandparents came over on the Mayflower. Which we did not know until a month ago when I did some research on her maternal grandfather's ancestors. I think that's cool, and I wish I had known what I know now when I was growing up, as it would have made learning history even more fun than it already was.

[iris lilies]

We have a Native American buried in our family cemetery in PA. I vaguely remember a colorful story that he kidnapped a great great great etc. aunt, but must have made up with her family because he is in the cemetery.

[LDAHL]

I have no problem with people looking into their pedigree out of historical interest or even vanity. Just because I don’t see my ancestry as figuring very significantly into “who I am”, it doesn’t mean others can’t feel differently.

I do, as a general principle, object to people playing the race card. Especially when they mark the deck.