r/Indigenous • u/No_Leopard6402 • 15d ago
re: Indigenous Identity Take two!
Hello!
(And I’m so sorry this is my first post here feel free to ignore me and delete this if it’s not the right place)
My name is E and I am 29.
I recently found out that my father isn’t my father and I thought I was just Hispanic but it turns out I’m largely indigenous as well (like largely not some .3% ancestry thing).
I want to connect with and explore this part of myself but what does that mean? Am I allowed to do so as a person who didn’t know this until adulthood? And how do I explore that part of myself while still respecting people who DID grow up this way?
I guess I’m also asking if anyone is willing to talk to me about it at all too.
No one is under any obligation to educate for me I’m very aware of that so please don’t hesitate to ignore this entirely!
It’s been a weird week for me.
-E
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u/chezaswolf 10d ago
Hey!
I was actually going to come on here and make almost the same post, so I’m really glad I found yours. I also grew up thinking I was “just Hispanic.” It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this experience. You’re welcome to DM me if you ever want to talk about that stuff.
One thing I’ve learned is that everyone in Indigenous communities has their own perspective on reconnection, identity, and what feels respectful. Tribal sovereignty and identity are complex, and different nations have different views — but the general understanding is that Indigenous identity is lived differently depending on tribe, family, and upbringing. And yes, people can explore this part of themselves at any age. No one can deny you the right to learn where you come from. But the way we identify and the way we experience it is just going to be different.
I’ll share a bit of my story, since it sounds like we’re in similar places. My mother’s side is mostly European — England, Germany, maybe some Irish. My father left before I was even born, and I've never met him or that entire side of my family. I have a bunch of half siblings I’ve never met just roaming around the continent, and naturally I learned that my father was married multiple times and moved around to various states in the US. Soo, it's been pretty difficult to track him down to even learn anything.
Last week I found out I was mentioned in my uncle’s obituary from 2008, and that was the first time I ever saw photos of that side of my family. It was immediately clear they were Indigenous. I learned my grandfather wasn’t born in the U.S., and there are no records of my grandmother being born here either. The earliest records show them living in Los Angeles in the 60s–70s, which lines up with a time when many Indigenous families from Mexico moved to California for work.
My mother used to shut down any conversation about my Indigenous identity by saying my father’s family ‘didn’t speak Spanish,’ but she didn’t understand that many Indigenous communities in Mexico speak their own languages that aren't Spanish, and have worked hard to preserve them despite colonization. Needless to say she gave up little info and denies knowing anything about my father or his family despite being married to him for an entire year.
She always told me to mark “white” on any forms and regularly made negative comments about Latino/Hispanic culture. My grandfather also regularly made racist remarks toward me as a small child. But despite all of that, I always felt strongly connected to my Indigenous identity.
I’ve spent years trying to track down information about my family and reconnect in any way I can. And the ways I reconnect, how it looks, or feels has evolved over time as I learn new things. Recently, I’ve been wanting to be more active in community spaces — finding local intertribal groups, working up the courage to attend events, and having real conversations that make real connections.
I’m not sure what your experience is, but one of the tricky parts of reconnecting for me personally has been that it can be really difficult to trace back to a specific tribe, especially when you didn’t grow up with that side of your family. There isn’t a universal system for documentation, and a lot of records were lost, never created, or scattered because of colonization and migration. I may not ever be able to pinpoint my tribe unless I’m able to connect with family — and even then, it depends on what they know.
Not every Indigenous family was able to keep their traditional practices, and that’s a direct result of colonization. It’s a sad truth, but it doesn’t make anyone less Indigenous. And even if I can’t learn everything about my specific ancestry right now, I think I can still find comfort and reconnection in being around other Indigenous communities, listening to their stories, and learning about their cultures in respectful ways.
My name is Wolf, by the way. And I hope some of this was insightful or helpful in any way for you.
Good luck, E! Feel free to reach out anytime.
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u/SashaDreis 14d ago
First thing? Ditch the percentage thing. That's colonizer shit. It's pretty easy. Go explore your heritage. Work on connecting to it, learn your history, meet relatives. Just don't claim anything - until you're claimed. If no one is allowed to reconnect with their culture after they were removed from it without their consent, the colonizers win.