Lesson 19 of 26 The Black Indians

"Black Indians: An American Story" is a distinguished documentary which presents the rarely-told story of the racial fusion of Native and African-Americans. It is a story which literally begins with the birth of America, in the presence of the mixed-race Boston Massacre martyr Crispus Attucks, and which follows the deadlier aspects of the 19th century through the Seminole War (where runaway slaves joined Seminole warriors in Florida in armed conflict against the invading U.S. Army) and the expulsion of the Cherokee nation on the infamous Trail of Tears (where black Indians within the Cherokee orbit faced the no-win choice of either leaving with their brethren into forced exile or staying behind to live in slavery).



While Native Americans did not carry the racial hang-ups of white society and did not see mixed-raced Indians as being second-class, white society and 19th century government bureaucrats had no concept of multiculturalism and demanded that everyone be pigeonholed into one racial group, with any questions of identity decided by appearance. Thus, it was not uncommon for black Indian families to find themselves separated by government classifications into completely different racial groups based solely on their color and appearance. This practice was also helpful in erasing official traces of native nations in the late 19th century--mixed race Indians were not considered pure blooded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and several tribes were declared extinct even though they still lived in the persons of black Indians whose native heritage was not recognized by the government. By the time that civil rights and Native rights movements in the 1960s roared into the national forefront, the story of the black Indians was virtually forgotten except as family histories by those who shared the blended racial heritages. Even today, black Indians meet incredulous skeptics who refuse to acknowledge their ancestral worth.