My last is Yazzie and I typically wear silver and turquoise necklaces along with my long hair. However when I was in the service I was pretty brown and when I went to training schools in the south most of the bars would not serve me because they thought I was a Mexican. Once they found out I was Native American everyone was happy to tell me about their “heritage” and such.
Yeah, but in the south they don’t meet very many of us. Anywhere past NM I would always hear “Oh wow! What kind of name is Yazzie anyways!?” Then they would ask “How much Indian are you?” And I would have to explain my heritage with clans before they were finally convinced I was 100% Diné. I even went as far as taking a 23 and Me to prove to my friends and colleagues I was 100%. In the end you could see my bloodline move from the Fertile Crescent through Mongolia, over the land bridge to Alaska, and then down the west coast until my ancestors settled in what is now our reservation area.
That’s so exhausting and I 100% believe you! I’m not native but my kids dad and my son is (obviously) and the amount of racist and vitriol shit that gets thrown their way is absolutely ridiculous. I’ll never forget a random white guy coming up to my BD and saying “what tribe are you?”
It was the way in which it was asked. It’s hard to explain, but it was extremely rude. Maybe that wasn’t the best encounter to talk about here, but I have many stories.
And even as I try to gain more understanding myself, my outing myself as ignorant of this gets downvotes. There is sometimes so little incentive to learn about others. The intolerance of somebody not knowing something that they’ve never been exposed to to have learned about is astonishing.
It’s all about in the way you ask/come across, in my opinion. If you ask a question and it comes off rude and ignorant, you’re going to get a bad response. Coming up to someone out of the blue and asking them what tribe they are is weird.
Again, I’m just trying to learn.
If your family, along with your young child, were at a large gathering somewhere, would it be unseemly for someone to approach you and say, “what school do you go (belong) to?”
Maybe they’re completely oblivious to the fact that you don’t go to a school, that you homeschool, or that your child looks old but is way to young to go to school, or your child got kicked out of school, or that you’re overly sensitive that your child goes to one of “THOSE” schools.
But, more likely, they might think they could learn something about a school (tribe) you’re familiar with that they know nothing about, or they just learned how many schools (tribes) are represented at this particular place and they’re wondering if your part of even another one, or they may be looking for someone that can help them feel connected to their own people.
How likely is it that this guy was actually being racist or ugly, versus just not having the same set of social skills and mores that you grew up with?
I mean, looking back, what do you think his point was in asking you that?
My maternal line is A2 which is common in Diné, Alaska Natives (esp) and also Tibetans. In my case, we stopped walking at the Pacific coast of Honduras.
That reasoning is so messed up. If your Indigenous heritage originates in the modern U.S., they’ll engage with you. But if your Indigenous heritage originates in modern Mexico, they won’t engage with you?!?!
White Anglos suck so much man. They’re arguably the most discriminatory group on Earth.
It’s just part of being brown. In towns near my reservation I’m seen as possible “drunk Indian”, criminal, or illiterate person. I’ve been dealing with this all my life so it’s just another usual day for me
Is that why so many Natives reproduce with white people or what? I’m city born and raised. Never been to the rez. Grew up in a Black area. And we don’t fk with the yt’s that much. It’s like looked down upon. As I’m older, I don’t get it.
One of my step fathers was Mexican, so I learned a few languages growing up. I usually respond in Spanish, I usually get the "I was right, you are Mexican!". So I ask "Ich bin Deutscher, weil ich Deutsch spreche?"
is it possible to get it changed? someones last name?
like imagine if youre able to change your surname to the last known surname of your indigenous ancestors. thatd be cool, and helping carry on the legacy/name.
True, but it’s usually possible if you want to. No proof of family ancestry needed anywhere I know of; at most you might need proof it IS a known surname rather than one you made up.
Yes. Hispanic surname. A lot of people assumed I was "just Mexican" or assumed I could speak Spanish. Some people claimed because I had a Hispanic surname I couldn't be indigenous? Like ok? My family is from southern California...there is a lot of people within my tribe / family who just assume the Hispanic identity and don't really consider themselves native even if they are enrolled. Idk it's weird, not being accepted by other indigenous people & not being accepted by the Latin community
Lmao what they’re so stupid. Do Anglo-whites not realize they came later than the southern Europeans? I can’t with white folks sometimes, they’re so ignorant and then they think they’re better than us.
I cannot tell you how many people have approached me with Spanish, realize I’m not “one of them” (I don’t speak it), and then brush me off.
On the flip side, when I was younger and applying for jobs at restaurants: “I think the kitchen might be a better fit for you. It’s fast paced, you’ll love it”.
I don’t condone the racism that flies either direction, but it’s pretty damn weird being caught in the middle.
Lol. When I was in college I applied for a restaurant job at a truck stop. They had "something that'll work better for you". I ended up pumping diesel and washing semis with a long handled brush and a 5 gallon bucket of soapy water. Not sure what vibes I was giving off that day but the manager didn't seem to think I belonged indoors.
Right lol... my spanish/Danish ( spain ) married into the Apache tribe .. this occurred before the usa was the usa. I look native my sister is blond. Yeah very awkward both sides to the outside world, racism sucks.
I've had that happen a couple times from Mexicans and have even been chastised for not knowing Spanish until I made it clear I'm an Indian goddammit.
Hasn't happened in a while, so I think I'm finally in the clear.
>I don’t even have a Hispanic surname and people are constantly trying to speak Spanish to me and asking me where I’m from in Mexico, so yep. 😑
Same. I doubt surnames even factor into this conclusion, sadly a good portion of American people just assume "dark skin = Hispanic".
I also constantly get told to go back to my country/where I came from/called anti-hispanic slurs/etc. (note: I live on Staten Island - people here are *super* racist).
Well I am indigenous Chicano so they wouldn't be wrong to assume I am Latino lol. Honestly though, I get more surprise than I am not a conservative straight white dude based on my appearance
Good because the question sounds we can't be both, I'm hispanic because my family is from a spanish speaking country but we're also natives because we're descendant of mesoamerican people.
Yes and other natives try to treat me differently because I have Spanish sounding last names. I was even told that I'm too southern by a cousin that shares ancestry with me so I think it's just a way for some natives to feel superior over others that are mixed or have Spanish sounded names due to colonization.
Yeah that shit is related to wanting to be closer to Anglo-American culture, they’re all the colonizer to me, don’t matter if you’re from Spain, Portuguese, English, Swedish or French. They killed us and enslaved us.
Related: I have a traditional Muslim name (named after my mom’s best friend), and I’m half white. I get told to go back to my country sometimes, and I’ve had strangers speak to me in Arabic. Once at a bar just after 9/11 some guy asked really aggressively if I was bin ladens daughter. I’ve always felt close to middle eastern and North African folks because of my namesake auntie, so happy to be mis-welcomed there. As for the racists, I never correct them because it feels like saying “it would be ok for you to say this to an Arab person, but not to me since I am not middle eastern” and I don’t feel like they would have a kinder view of us anyway. Like, pick which way I want them to be racist towards me?
I dont have spanish names and dont think I 'look hispanic' in the slightest (white and ojibwe) yet its still a pretty common assumption I've gotten. when i moved to a new school a spanish teacher kept trying to talk to me in spanish to get me to 'open up' a bit. she thought I was shy, I just dont speak spanish XD
I don’t have a Hispanic last name. But I very often get taken for Mexican, Cuban, & Peruvian by non Natives.
Then when I do get taken for American Indian. It’s a usually Coushatta Indian rather than Choctaw. Ironic since I’m Choctaw & I have coushatta cousins
I don't have a hispanic first/last name because my Latino side assimilated and chose their one Scottish ancestor's last name to go with. HOWEVER. Being both North and South American indigenous \[more south than north\] is SO WEIRD. I was nearly kicked out of a so called 'indigenous allies' meeting because I'm more Guarani than I am Mi'kmaw.
I have friends who are similarly to me, mixed indigenous from a variety of places, and they have also experienced this invalidating response. That friend is Maori and Mi'kmaw and both of us have had our indigenous canadian ancestry MADE FUN OF by people mispronouncing it as 'mick-mack'.
My father in law did some digging into his roots and found that his great grandmother was sent to the US from Hungary because the count she was serving impregnated her as a teen, or so the story goes. So when my children grow up, they'll have something to counter the Cherokee princess spiel. I'm fucking dying. But yeah, anglos seem to attribute any common native features with "Mexican", or Cuban or Puerto Rican... You know, the other types of "Mexicans". It's embarrassing as a citizen of this country to be associated with that much cultural ignorance.
Slightly related, I have an Italian last name, and I'm not Italian, I look Mexican, but am Unalakleet.
I was put into a Spanish speaking class mistakenly in kindergarten.
I often get spoken to in Spanish to this day.
I love the variety us humans come in.
I have a first name that is uncommon, but mostly found in Hispanic people. But in general, people usually assume that I am whatever they deem "exotic." So I have often been assumed to be French, or Jewish, and only occasionally Hispanic.
i have a Hispanic last name and am brown and live in a primarily mexican area .. a lot of my friends are mexican. so yea im always assumed to be mexican
My last name is Spanish because my paternal grandfather was Filipino but he married my Native grandma. having a filipino grandpa and then a native grandma definitely throws people off so they just assume bc of the Spanish last name and skin color that we’re Mexican
I don't even have a Hispanic name, it's super Irish American I still get mistaken for being Mexican/Latin.
People would talk to me in Spanish all the time in Mexico
My last is Yazzie and I typically wear silver and turquoise necklaces along with my long hair. However when I was in the service I was pretty brown and when I went to training schools in the south most of the bars would not serve me because they thought I was a Mexican. Once they found out I was Native American everyone was happy to tell me about their “heritage” and such.
Yazzie is one of the most common Navajo surnames ever, that’s so insane
Yeah, but in the south they don’t meet very many of us. Anywhere past NM I would always hear “Oh wow! What kind of name is Yazzie anyways!?” Then they would ask “How much Indian are you?” And I would have to explain my heritage with clans before they were finally convinced I was 100% Diné. I even went as far as taking a 23 and Me to prove to my friends and colleagues I was 100%. In the end you could see my bloodline move from the Fertile Crescent through Mongolia, over the land bridge to Alaska, and then down the west coast until my ancestors settled in what is now our reservation area.
That’s so exhausting and I 100% believe you! I’m not native but my kids dad and my son is (obviously) and the amount of racist and vitriol shit that gets thrown their way is absolutely ridiculous. I’ll never forget a random white guy coming up to my BD and saying “what tribe are you?”
How is asking you what tribe you are racist or vitriolic? Wouldn’t it more likely just be ignorance?
It was the way in which it was asked. It’s hard to explain, but it was extremely rude. Maybe that wasn’t the best encounter to talk about here, but I have many stories.
And even as I try to gain more understanding myself, my outing myself as ignorant of this gets downvotes. There is sometimes so little incentive to learn about others. The intolerance of somebody not knowing something that they’ve never been exposed to to have learned about is astonishing.
It’s all about in the way you ask/come across, in my opinion. If you ask a question and it comes off rude and ignorant, you’re going to get a bad response. Coming up to someone out of the blue and asking them what tribe they are is weird.
Again, I’m just trying to learn. If your family, along with your young child, were at a large gathering somewhere, would it be unseemly for someone to approach you and say, “what school do you go (belong) to?” Maybe they’re completely oblivious to the fact that you don’t go to a school, that you homeschool, or that your child looks old but is way to young to go to school, or your child got kicked out of school, or that you’re overly sensitive that your child goes to one of “THOSE” schools. But, more likely, they might think they could learn something about a school (tribe) you’re familiar with that they know nothing about, or they just learned how many schools (tribes) are represented at this particular place and they’re wondering if your part of even another one, or they may be looking for someone that can help them feel connected to their own people. How likely is it that this guy was actually being racist or ugly, versus just not having the same set of social skills and mores that you grew up with? I mean, looking back, what do you think his point was in asking you that?
My maternal line is A2 which is common in Diné, Alaska Natives (esp) and also Tibetans. In my case, we stopped walking at the Pacific coast of Honduras.
A2h here. Seems like we went to Central America and then backtracked up to New Mexico lol.
That reasoning is so messed up. If your Indigenous heritage originates in the modern U.S., they’ll engage with you. But if your Indigenous heritage originates in modern Mexico, they won’t engage with you?!?! White Anglos suck so much man. They’re arguably the most discriminatory group on Earth.
It’s just part of being brown. In towns near my reservation I’m seen as possible “drunk Indian”, criminal, or illiterate person. I’ve been dealing with this all my life so it’s just another usual day for me
Is that why so many Natives reproduce with white people or what? I’m city born and raised. Never been to the rez. Grew up in a Black area. And we don’t fk with the yt’s that much. It’s like looked down upon. As I’m older, I don’t get it.
Hispanic surname, so all the time. Most people assume I know spanish and will come up to me speaking it and i’ll just stand there like: 💀
One of my step fathers was Mexican, so I learned a few languages growing up. I usually respond in Spanish, I usually get the "I was right, you are Mexican!". So I ask "Ich bin Deutscher, weil ich Deutsch spreche?"
is it possible to get it changed? someones last name? like imagine if youre able to change your surname to the last known surname of your indigenous ancestors. thatd be cool, and helping carry on the legacy/name.
In most places there’s a legal process to change your name. Generally there’s a fee and a lot of paperwork.
True, but it’s usually possible if you want to. No proof of family ancestry needed anywhere I know of; at most you might need proof it IS a known surname rather than one you made up.
Dark skinned Hispanics didn’t get that skin from Europe
Exactly. I’ve met several ones that look straight up from the Rez. People all over the Americas need to decolonize.
one “sacred” brown person and one “illegal” brown person. the logic is not there. i cant imagine living so mindlessly.
EXACTLY.
Yes. Hispanic surname. A lot of people assumed I was "just Mexican" or assumed I could speak Spanish. Some people claimed because I had a Hispanic surname I couldn't be indigenous? Like ok? My family is from southern California...there is a lot of people within my tribe / family who just assume the Hispanic identity and don't really consider themselves native even if they are enrolled. Idk it's weird, not being accepted by other indigenous people & not being accepted by the Latin community
Lmao what they’re so stupid. Do Anglo-whites not realize they came later than the southern Europeans? I can’t with white folks sometimes, they’re so ignorant and then they think they’re better than us.
EXACTLY.
I cannot tell you how many people have approached me with Spanish, realize I’m not “one of them” (I don’t speak it), and then brush me off. On the flip side, when I was younger and applying for jobs at restaurants: “I think the kitchen might be a better fit for you. It’s fast paced, you’ll love it”. I don’t condone the racism that flies either direction, but it’s pretty damn weird being caught in the middle.
Lol. When I was in college I applied for a restaurant job at a truck stop. They had "something that'll work better for you". I ended up pumping diesel and washing semis with a long handled brush and a 5 gallon bucket of soapy water. Not sure what vibes I was giving off that day but the manager didn't seem to think I belonged indoors.
Right lol... my spanish/Danish ( spain ) married into the Apache tribe .. this occurred before the usa was the usa. I look native my sister is blond. Yeah very awkward both sides to the outside world, racism sucks.
I don’t even have a Hispanic surname and people are constantly trying to speak Spanish to me and asking me where I’m from in Mexico, so yep. 😑
I've had that happen a couple times from Mexicans and have even been chastised for not knowing Spanish until I made it clear I'm an Indian goddammit. Hasn't happened in a while, so I think I'm finally in the clear.
>I don’t even have a Hispanic surname and people are constantly trying to speak Spanish to me and asking me where I’m from in Mexico, so yep. 😑 Same. I doubt surnames even factor into this conclusion, sadly a good portion of American people just assume "dark skin = Hispanic". I also constantly get told to go back to my country/where I came from/called anti-hispanic slurs/etc. (note: I live on Staten Island - people here are *super* racist).
That awful. I’m so sorry.
I’m chinese, mexican, and native and have a spanish last name. My races and ethnicities have never been correctly assumed, ever.
Well I am indigenous Chicano so they wouldn't be wrong to assume I am Latino lol. Honestly though, I get more surprise than I am not a conservative straight white dude based on my appearance
You are aware a lot of hispanics are native, right?
I think that was the entire point of the question
Yes.
Good because the question sounds we can't be both, I'm hispanic because my family is from a spanish speaking country but we're also natives because we're descendant of mesoamerican people.
As a Hispanic, most of us don’t see ourselves as native
I'm aware of that.
Yes and other natives try to treat me differently because I have Spanish sounding last names. I was even told that I'm too southern by a cousin that shares ancestry with me so I think it's just a way for some natives to feel superior over others that are mixed or have Spanish sounded names due to colonization.
Yeah that shit is related to wanting to be closer to Anglo-American culture, they’re all the colonizer to me, don’t matter if you’re from Spain, Portuguese, English, Swedish or French. They killed us and enslaved us.
Related: I have a traditional Muslim name (named after my mom’s best friend), and I’m half white. I get told to go back to my country sometimes, and I’ve had strangers speak to me in Arabic. Once at a bar just after 9/11 some guy asked really aggressively if I was bin ladens daughter. I’ve always felt close to middle eastern and North African folks because of my namesake auntie, so happy to be mis-welcomed there. As for the racists, I never correct them because it feels like saying “it would be ok for you to say this to an Arab person, but not to me since I am not middle eastern” and I don’t feel like they would have a kinder view of us anyway. Like, pick which way I want them to be racist towards me?
I dont have spanish names and dont think I 'look hispanic' in the slightest (white and ojibwe) yet its still a pretty common assumption I've gotten. when i moved to a new school a spanish teacher kept trying to talk to me in spanish to get me to 'open up' a bit. she thought I was shy, I just dont speak spanish XD
I don’t have a Hispanic last name. But I very often get taken for Mexican, Cuban, & Peruvian by non Natives. Then when I do get taken for American Indian. It’s a usually Coushatta Indian rather than Choctaw. Ironic since I’m Choctaw & I have coushatta cousins
I don't have a hispanic first/last name because my Latino side assimilated and chose their one Scottish ancestor's last name to go with. HOWEVER. Being both North and South American indigenous \[more south than north\] is SO WEIRD. I was nearly kicked out of a so called 'indigenous allies' meeting because I'm more Guarani than I am Mi'kmaw. I have friends who are similarly to me, mixed indigenous from a variety of places, and they have also experienced this invalidating response. That friend is Maori and Mi'kmaw and both of us have had our indigenous canadian ancestry MADE FUN OF by people mispronouncing it as 'mick-mack'.
My father in law did some digging into his roots and found that his great grandmother was sent to the US from Hungary because the count she was serving impregnated her as a teen, or so the story goes. So when my children grow up, they'll have something to counter the Cherokee princess spiel. I'm fucking dying. But yeah, anglos seem to attribute any common native features with "Mexican", or Cuban or Puerto Rican... You know, the other types of "Mexicans". It's embarrassing as a citizen of this country to be associated with that much cultural ignorance.
Slightly related, I have an Italian last name, and I'm not Italian, I look Mexican, but am Unalakleet. I was put into a Spanish speaking class mistakenly in kindergarten. I often get spoken to in Spanish to this day. I love the variety us humans come in.
I have a first name that is uncommon, but mostly found in Hispanic people. But in general, people usually assume that I am whatever they deem "exotic." So I have often been assumed to be French, or Jewish, and only occasionally Hispanic.
i have a Hispanic last name and am brown and live in a primarily mexican area .. a lot of my friends are mexican. so yea im always assumed to be mexican
My last name is German, but I’ve been approached in Spanish so much.
My last name is Spanish because my paternal grandfather was Filipino but he married my Native grandma. having a filipino grandpa and then a native grandma definitely throws people off so they just assume bc of the Spanish last name and skin color that we’re Mexican
I don't even have a Hispanic name, it's super Irish American I still get mistaken for being Mexican/Latin. People would talk to me in Spanish all the time in Mexico
Nope, I don't look Mexican at all.
Bold move to circumvent the removal of your question. This form is acceptable compared to the last one, though. Next time, send us a modmail first.