Blackfoot and Seminole Indian ancestory, how a

Question:

My mom says that we have Cherokee/Blackfoot and Seminole Indian ancestory, how am I?

How am I to go about tracing my family line? I'm not about the money I really just want to know a great deal more about my heritage and to become a active member in the Native American society. It's sad that I needto have documentation to prove that I'm someone that I believe to be all my life. So how am I to handle my situation? Thank you

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I agree. It is sad that Natives need documentation. It is just one form of continued oppression.
Please know that Native ancestry is very difficult for most people to trace. Because of the history of oppresion many Native records were burned or not recorded at all.
If you end up not being able to trace your ancestry I reccomend you just become involved in the culture. There are many ways to become active in the Native community. The more active you are the more: you will feel Native, the more you learn about being Native, the more you will learn about tracing your roots, the more others will see you as Native etc... It is very rewarding.

The first thing you need to do is get all the information you can, especially last names. Call up the tribes you are from and ask if those last names are on the rolls. If they are not then you want to submit an article to the tribal newspaper hoping someone will recognize your lineage.

More Information on how to become enrolled/prove descendency is listed below:

To become enrolled in one's tribe is often a difficult process. Once one is enrolled one will have certain rights as a Native person. It is true that no one needs to prove their ethnic identity but to have full access to rights for Native people one must be enrolled.

To become enrolled one must first should call one's tribe and find out the enrollment requirements. They are different per tribe.
For most tribes you have to prove descendency and have a certain blood quantum. To prove descendency one needs to have some record of her belonging to a member of the tribe that was recognized by the tribe at some point, hopefully an individual that was enrolled at some point. The average blood quantum standard is 1/4. Unless you are Cherokee, their blood quantum standards are much less.

If you don't have contact with your tribal member then you can ask the tribe to look for his last name. They can look this up and see if his family line is registered. If so then your in luck. If they don't immediately find it then you can use the tribal newspaper and submit an article asking if anyone has lineage to your tribal member .

Many Native people can never become enrolled because standards of enrollment are high and were set up by the White government to oppress Native people and Native people have yet to change them.

To become more involved in one'sculture one might want to look up local Native organizations or local tribes. Try going to Pow-wow's (because they are easy to find) and talk to community members there. Many colleges/universities have a Native student union where one can get involved or get more information.

Please remember ancestry is very difficult for many Native people.

By the way, I am Native, so I have some knowledge pertaining to this.