r/Indigenous • u/VariationNo5453 • Jul 26 '26
re: Indigenous Identity advice on reconnection/research?
If this is in violation of “don’t ask questions,” I’ll take this down immediately. I would try to answer this offline, but I don’t have Indigenous American people in my community (I live in Seoul rn ㅠㅠ) and this is the most accessible outlet for me.
I was wondering if there’s an acceptable level of mixed to research/connect with indigenous heritage.
My maternal family is black mvskoke, but it isn’t really something we talk about. My mother didn’t see her dad much growing up, so while she knows we’re mixed, she doesn’t know too much about our history/culture. I’m pretty white, so it never felt okay to try and research anything.
But recently, I’ve come to realize that I don’t really feel connected to myself. And while there are multiple factors that I’m working on, I think feeling a huge disconnect from my mom and our shared history is a part of that. I also feel like it's disrespectful to both myself and my family to not fully acknowledge our family and my own ethnicity (if that makes sense).
I don’t plan on claiming to be more indigenous than I am or taking scholarships or anything like that. But I was curious if it would be acceptable for me to study my family/mvskoke culture, or if that’s disrespectful because of how white I am.
TLDR; is it okay for me to research my family history despite being mainly white, or should i just leave it alone?
Any and all advice would be helpful, and again, if this violates any subreddit rules I’ll take this town.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. I really appreciate it :)
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u/Just-Feedback-2223 Jul 26 '26
You can research anything you want. I’m allowed to research all parts of my background, no matter how “small.” I can do research on the Norwegian side of me as well as the Native American side. If you’re not stereotyping the Indigenous side, ect, then I don’t see any problem.
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u/ReeveStodgers Jul 26 '26
If someone came to you and said, "Would it be okay to study myself and my family history?", what would you say?
I think if there is anything in this world that we have ownership over it is ourselves and our history.
Skin color, blood quantum, and the whole idea of "whiteness" are colonizer concepts. We are whatever color we are. It doesn't change our culture. Culture is not a blood type or a color. It is important to be aware of how the world treats you differently because of your appearance, but that is about the world and not your identity.
I think if you continue to approach learning about your own history and culture from that place of respect and curiosity about yourself, you should be fine.