excerpt from CHEROKEE DIARY (see Aug 31, 2010)
In 1966 I dated a Lumbee Indian and when he saw a picture of my daddy he said he looked just like his uncle. He believed Daddy was part Indian.
At a powwow in 1993 as my daughters and I were walking around the different small craft booths, I saw two objects that startled me because I had seen something similar in my Daddy's tools and at my grandmother's house. The first was a set of handmade knives exactly like some that he used all the time. The second was a handmade chair like the chairs I saw at my grandmother's house on the front porch. I remarked to the girls about being surprised and intrigued by this.
I tried to attend as many powwows as I could and began reading as much as I could about Indians. I was drawn to the culture in a very internal way. Everything I read resonated with my memories of my daddy. Though he was a very tall man (6'5") and had black hair and black eyes his strength seemed to come from a centeredness within. He was quiet yet portrayed a commanding sureness of who he was. I felt very nurtured and protected by him in an unassuming way. He also had a goofy sense of humor. He had a strong sense of responsibility toward his family. He had a profound love of nature and animals.
One Sunday morning I was watching CBC Good Morning, a magazine type television program. On this program they had a segment on DNA testing, one of the types was for racial makeup. I sent for the test packet, sent if off and the results came back that I did indeed have Indian ancestry. I was so moved I cried.
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