Racism in claiming Indian heritage.

Modern day twists and turns. True story.

I was in a class with a woman who was terribly proud of her Osage ancestry. To me, she appeared to be Scandinavian, with blond hair down to her waist. She talked about her Indian roots repeatedly.

Just to be conversational, I talked about my wife's Indian heritage, which while visually obvious, had no documentation specifically. The problem was, my wife was also black. The Indian population of the Tidewater area of Virginia and Maryland was absorbed into the black population. Her grandfather looked like a slightly black Indian. Probably Nanticoke, the regional tribe.

My Scandinavian Indian classmate took great offense at being compared to a black Indian woman, and avoided me for the remainder of the semester.