African American Golden Legacy
Millions of “Black Americans” are of mixed race. Many famous Americans, such as: ROSA PARKS, L.L. Cool J, and James Earl Jones (and many others) are of Indian heritage and part Black African (Negro)…due to the co-mingling and inter-marrying from times when the slaves escaped the cruel plantations and White slave masters — and the Indians took them in and inter-married with them.
AFRICA is the same place from which they captured and killed millions of the same NEGRO slaves that built the U.S.A. It was the original home of human civilization. Thousands of years ago, outsiders raided Africa and robbed her of gold, diamonds, ivory, herbs & spices (and much more)…and also initiated cruel slave-trade enterprises.
In addition, we must remember that thousands of years before the White Europeans came to the Americas, there were DARK-SKINNED Indians already there. Long before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492…the Asians and Africans had met and inter-married. Many of the so-called Indians who migrated to the Americas were of dark-skin because of this reason.
MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO…the continents were more closely situated…and it was called PANAGEA. The First Americans were the Washutaw Muurs– who were Black Africans akin to the Moors. They were in America before anyone arrived…including the “Asian Indians” who migrated to the Americas before Columbus.
Watch this video to learn about the REAL FIRST AMERICANS:
PLUS -– Many so-called “Negroes” or BLACK AMERICANS are bi-racial or of mixed race because back in the days of slavery– WHITE MEN would RAPE the Black women – force them to have sex. There are many documented cases of this…and some would have children with these Black WOMEN and then put their own bi-racial children (mulattoes) out on the plantation as slaves.
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS …????
JIM CROW LAWS…segregation, lynchings, cross burnings, and all the other racist treatment applied to the MULATTOES too…
WHEN THERE WAS A LYNCHING PARTY …they did not ask the victim– “…what is your tribe” or “are you bi-racial” — NOT. They hung people who only “appeared to be a negro….”
However, white people considered these “bi-racial” people as BLACK — as escaped SLAVES…as “Negroes” — no matter what the mix.
Based upon the Rules and Laws made in the Nation by White folks…
“The One Drop Rule” made it so:
There was never any question about it… UNLESS the person’s appearance would permit him/her to PASS FOR WHITE.
And many did pass for White…including some of our past Governors, and other high level officials who hid their true BLACK ANCESTRY. Why? Take a guess.
Don’t be afflicted with ‘historical amnesia.’
“There is a debt owed to the Negro people which America can never repay. At least then, they must make amends.”
~Quote by Sojourner Truth
Africans were often treated like cattle during the crossing. On the slave ships, people were stuffed between decks in spaces too low for standing. The heat was often unbearable, and the air nearly unbreathable. Women were often used sexually. Men were often chained in pairs, shackled wrist to wrist or ankle to ankle. People were crowded together, usually forced to lie on their backs with their heads between the legs of others. This meant they often had to lie in each other’s feces, urine, and, in the case of dysentery, even blood. In such cramped quarters, diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever spread like wildfire. The diseased were sometimes thrown overboard to prevent wholesale epidemics. Because a small crew had to control so many, cruel measures such as iron muzzles and whippings were used to control slaves.
The actual number of Black men, women, and children who were snatched (kidnapped) from Africa and taken in slave ships to the Americas is not accurately known. Many writers, scholars, and historians vary in their estimates, but there is no doubt that the numbers kidnapped from African soil run in the millions.
History of Africans among the Native American Indians
Runaway African slaves often found new homes in American Indian villages. Even though classified as “slaves” in White society, many African Americans became part of an INDIAN family group, and many intermarried with Native Americans – thus many later became classified as Black Indians. This is a unique history between African (black) slaves and Native American Indians which developed in many U. S. communities.
“Despite every European effort to keep one dark people from assisting the other, the two races began to blend on a vast scale. Black Indians were apparent everywhere if one bothered to look. Thomas Jefferson, for example, found among the Mattaponies of his Virginia, “more negro than Indian blood in them.” Another eyewitness reported Virginia’s Gingaskin reservation had become “largely African.” Peter Kalm, whose famous diary described a visit to the British colonies in 1750, took note of many Africans living with Indians, with marriage and children the normal result.”
~ QUOTE FROM: William Loren Katz’s BLACK INDIANS: A HIDDEN HERITAGE ( New York: Atheneum, 1986 )
When more than 60,000 Native Americans were removed from their homes during the 1830s by U.S. Federal troops from the southeastern states of the United States – they were forced Westward to Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. This was called the “Trail of Tears.”
In some cases, Blacks and Indians joined together in acts of rebellion to massacre White plantation owners and White soldiers. Many of these Native American tribes had previously embraced and either helped or kept numerous African Americans as slaves. African Americans and Native Americans created a mixed cultural blend depending upon the specific tribal group.
WELL-KNOWN BLACK INDIANS:
* Tina Turner
* Rosa Parks
* Eartha Kitt
* L.L. Cool J.
* Debbie Allen
* Felicia Rashad
* James Earl Jones
* The Jacksons… ( Janet, Michael, etc.)
**Author Melvia Miller=
A fierce, proud tribe of Florida, let neither three wars with the
United States Army or the harsh Everglade swamps defeat them.
The Florida Seminole Nation is one of the Five Civilized Nations. They also accepted runaway slaves into their tribe. The Seminole Nation fought slavers, Indians and the U.S. government to keep their ancestral lands and farms, which delayed the annexation of Florida. The United States government invited their leaders Chief Coacoochee (Wild Cat) and Chief Osceola, the great medicine man, to take part in peace talks under a flag of truce. When the Seminole leaders arrived at the site of the negotiations they were promptly arrested. The Seminole Nation was marched to Indian Territory on what is now known as the “Trail of Tears”, where hundreds of men, women and children were marched to their deaths.
Because of attacks from slavers and Creek Indians, the majority of the Seminoles and Seminole Negroes moved into Mexico. At the death of Chief Wild Cat, the Seminoles left Mexico for United States. Under the leadership of their black Seminole Chief John Horse, the Seminole Negroes stayed in Mexico away from slavery. Other Seminole, Creek and Cherokee Negroes joined them.
The Seminoles occupied the Southeastern United States for 12,000 years.
They were finally granted U.S. citizenship in 1934.
Nomad Winterhawk – Ntsistsista (Butterfly Clan) – is a Black Indian of Cheyenne/Apache-Senegal African-Irish-Algonquin heritage. He has written a book honoring Black Indians and the 500 Year Heritage: ‘The Black Indian Cultural Heritage’ – designed to empower other Black Indians and inspire other individuals who have lost contact with their cultural roots.
The focus of the book is on the value of honoring life, and the issues that confront Black Indians in their daily, individual as well as collective lives. As interesting alternatives to the violence we have around us, it provides valuable images of life passages, in the context of community enhanced ritual mechanisms.
VIEW VIDEOS AT THIS SITE: http://mypages.blackvoices.com/museum/discussiongroups
“Black Indians: An American Story,” explores the issue of racial identity among Native and African Americans. This in-depth documentary examines the coalescence of these two groups in American history. Discounted, and often ignored by mainstream America, these minority peoples have often shared a common past. However, with their heritage ignored and their contributions denied they are all but invisible at the dawn of the new millennium.
It was a black and white world in the early days of the Republic and little or no thought was given to people of mixed race, especially if they looked “black.” “We were told… ‘if you could pass for white, that’s who you’d be; if not, it was usually better to be identified as black than Indian,”… recalls Executive Producer Steven Heape. “It was this kind of thinking that later led to ‘pencil genocide’–changing one’s race on a birth certificate to fit the skin color of the child.” VHS – Running Time 60 minutes. Narrated by James Earl Johns who himself is a Black/Cherokee
SLAVERY WAS THE SYSTEM USED HUNDREDS
OF YEARS AGO TO BUILD THIS COUNTRY
AND NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED.
We are all related!
It isn’t too late. We still have time to recreate and change the value system of the present. We must! Survival will depend on it. Our Earth is our original mother. She is in deep labor now. There will be a new birth soon! The old value system will suffer and die. It cannot survive as our mother earth strains under the pressure put on her. She will not let man kill her.
The First Nation’s Peoples had a value system. There were only four commandments from the Great Spirits:
1. Respect Mother Earth
2. Respect the Great Spirit
3. Respect our fellow man and woman
4. Respect for individual freedom
We must all stand together as a force of love. Be united NOW. There is only one way. Communication. Knowledge. Arm yourself with truth, love and perseverence. Extend your family. Join with others in giving. We are all related. People of the earth take back your heritage. I am not speaking of skin color or religion. Our heritage is this earth… Our heritage is also extended beyond this earth into the heavens where the spirit once lived before our birth into this world. You are bound to both.
THE TEN INDIAN COMMANDMENTS!
* Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect!
* Remain close to the Great Spirit.
* Show great respect for your fellow beings.
* Work together for the benefit of all mankind!
* Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
* Do what you know to be right.
* Look after the well-being of mind and body.
* Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
* Be truthful and honest at all times.
*Take full responsiblity for your actions…..
FULL MOON PRAYER
We thank the Moon and the stars, who give us their light when the Sun retires…. We thank the Great Spirit, incarnation of all kindness, who directs all things for the good of Its children.”
—from an Iroquois prayer