Why do people have these family stories? For one thing, geographic proximity to a tribal homeland usually tracks, or in the case of the Cherokee, it could be post-removal / post-Trail of Tears when the Cherokee were removed from Georgia/ North Carolina to what is now northeast Oklahoma. What usually ends up happening is that the ancestors lived close by some tribal folk, but were clearly white settlers, not indigenous people. I think there are factors such as stories changing over time, from "we lived next to some ____ (fill in the blank, tribal group)" to ancestors seeking credentials as "native" to a place, and throw in a little romantic imagination, and it becomes this kind of story.
Also, sometimes in the past, people of Black ancestry claimed Native ancestry, as a way of being a more "acceptable" minority and a way to explain darker skin/hair etc. But of course the Cherokee and the other 4 associated tribes from the Southeast actually owned Black slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries, so there were Black "freedmen" (and women) from those tribes, the Cherokee, Creek, Chicasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole. These people are/ can be recognized as tribal members and if you are Black and have a family story of being from one of these tribes, it may actually be true!
When clients ask me to find out if they have a certain tribal identity, sometimes they want to file a claim for tribal citizenship for the benefits associated with that. However, tribal citizenship requirements, while varying from one group to another, usually demand a direct line and only two generations distant, and there has to be paper proof, so someone on a tribal roll, or on the Indian Census rolls that the federal US government took over the years of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, and then proving a direct descendence from that person listed on a roll. Also, there is an idea in mainstream American society that tribal members get cash payments, but this is almost never true. (Again it varies by tribe.) I usually ask the client if they are involved with the tribe in any way - even attending powwows or other events open to the public. And to be ethical, I would encourage the client to think of how they would contribute to their tribal community if they were to achieve citizenship. Benefits such as healthcare and education for Native Americans of federally recognized tribes are not all they might be imagined - the Indian Health Service's clinics are woefully underfunded by the US federal government, and same for educational facilities.
But learning about the culture (in a variety of ways including reading books - so many!), even possibly trying to learn some of the language, and engaging in public events put on by a tribe such as powwows would be a great place to start if you are thinking about the possibility of Native American ancestry in your family line. I've written other posts on Native American topics - feel free to peruse back through my posts to find others. I think I am safely putting to rest the family lore in my maternal side that we had a Mohawk ancestor ... I certainly did not inherit the lack of vertigo, for sure!
I didn't mention DNA evidence of Native American ancestry, mainly because so few tribal people do the DNA tests (they know who they are!) that there isn't enough of a data basis in most DNA testing sites. Of course this is a gross generalization; it's much more complicated, but suffice it to say that DNA isn't usually a helpful venue for looking for Native American ancestry. Happy November!
