Mixed-blood

This article is about about termmixed-blood.For people of multiple races, seeMultiracial people.

"Mixed blood" redirects here. For other uses, seeMixed blood (disambiguation).

The termmixed-bloodin theUnited StatesandCanadahas historically been described as people ofmultiracialbackgrounds, in particular mixedEuropeanandNative Americanancestry. Today, the term is often seen aspejorative.

Northern Woodlands and Subarctic

Some of the most prominent in the 19th century were "mixed-blood" or mixed-race descendants offur tradersand Native American women along the northern frontier. The fur traders tended to be men of social standing and they often married or had relationships with daughters of Native American chiefs, consolidating social standing on both sides. They held high economic status of what was for years in the 18th and 19th centuries a two-tier society at settlements attrading posts,with other Europeans, American Indians, and mixed-blood workers below them.Mixed-blood is also used occasionally inCanadianaccounts to refer to the 19th centuryAnglo-Métispopulation rather than Métis, which referred to a specific cultural group of people ofFirst NationsandFrenchdescent, with their own language,Michif.

Southeastern Woodlands

Similarly in the Southeast Woodlands, tribes began having inter-generational marriage and sexual relationships with the Europeans in the early 1700s. Many Cherokee bands and families were quick to see the economic benefits of having trade, land and business dealings with Europeans, strengthened through marriages. Prominent Cherokee and Creek leaders of the 19th century were of mixed-descent but, born to Indian mothers inmatrilinealkinshipsocieties, they identified fully and were accepted as Indian and grew up in those cultures.

Notable examples

Renowned persons of mixed-blood ancestry in United States' history are many. One such example isJean Baptiste Charbonneau,who guided theMormon BattalionfromNew Mexicoto the city ofSan DiegoinCaliforniain 1846 and then accepted an appointment there asalcaldeof Mission San Luis Rey. Both his parents worked with theLewis and Clark Expedition,his motherSacagaweaas the invaluableShoshoneguide and his French-Canadian fatherToussaint Charbonneauas an interpreter of Shoshone andHidatsa,cook and laborer. J.B. Charbonneau is depicted on the United States dollar coin along with his motherSacagawea.

Another example isJane Johnston Schoolcraft,inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Famein 2008, in recognition of her literary contributions. She is recognized as the first Native American literary writer and poet, and the first Native American poet to write in an indigenous language. Jane Johnston was the daughter of a wealthyScots-Irishfur trader and hisOjibwewife, who was daughter of an Ojibwe chief. Johnston Schoolcraft was born in 1800 and lived most of her life inSault Ste. Marie, Michigan,where she grew up in both cultures and learnedFrench,EnglishandOjibwe.She wrote in English and Ojibwe. She marriedHenry Rowe Schoolcraft,who became a renowned ethnographer, in part due to her and her family's introduction to Native American culture. A major collection of her writings was published in 2007.

In United States historiography, Republican and Democratic partisan debates over the antebellum extension of citizenship to "persons of mixed Indian blood" in western state constitutional conventions may or may not recalibrateresearch aims.The consequences of ratified constitutional articles on commerce and labor for public policy and, to a lesser degree, burgeoning western state and/or federal litigation, remain fruitful avenues for further research. The violent vectors of "free soil" ideas impacted Anglo-American and Native American cultures, already buffeted by wage labor systems. This violence,symbolicor otherwise, interfaced with non-dichotomous notions ofkinshipand (related) Anglo-American lexical glosses of Native American cultural expression intreaties of friendship.Such treaties featured seventeenth- and eighteenth-century interpretive applications ofius gentium,the Roman law of nations, and infrequently appeared in the antebellum period. Newspapers and southern secession, the (a)politics of slavery, and the (a)politics of Native America would be crucial for a sociopolitical lens.Contemporary energy policy, technology, and notions of Native American sovereignties inpost-(neo)apartheidindigenous worlds converge, and then intersect with, community criteria inlandscapes of power.Thesegreen politicsrest on earlier precedents, such as the consequences ofGrand Coulee Damconstruction and 1950s scholarly debates over indigenous territoriality inAmerican Society for Ethnohistorymember testimony.

Mestizo

Mestizois the contemporary term forHispanicindividuals (whether US-born or immigrant) of a similar mixed ancestry (Indigenous and European), but based on different groups. Many Hispanic Americans who have identified as "white" are of Spanish descent, having had ancestors in theSouthwestern United Statesfor several generations prior to annexation of that region into the United States. However, identification on the US Census has historically been limited by its terminology and the option to only select one "race" in the past. Others have classified themselves as mestizo, particularly those who also identify asChicano.Hispanics ofPuerto RicanandCubandescent are most numerous on the East Coast, especially inFlorida,New YorkandNew England.

The most recent Hispanic immigrants, who arrived during mid-century until today, have mainly identified asmestizoorAmerindian.They have come fromMexico,Centraland NorthSouth America.Of the over 35 million Hispanics counted in the Federal 2000 Census, the overwhelming majority of the 42.2% who identified as "some other race" are believed to be mestizos—a term not included on the US Census but widely used in Latin America. Of the 47.9% of Hispanics who identified as "White Hispanic", many acknowledge possessing Amerindian ancestry, as do many European Americans who identify as "White". Hispanics identifying as multiracial amounted to 6.3% (2.2 million) of all Hispanics; they likely included many mestizos as well as individuals of mixed Amerindian and African ancestry.

See also

• Baster
• Half-breed
• Half-caste
• Luk khrueng
• Marabou
• Mudblood
• Mestizo
• Multiracial
• Quadroon

References

• Journals of Lewis and Clark
• Colby, Susan (2005).Sacagawea's Child: The Life and Times of Jean-Baptiste (Pomp) Charbonneau.Spokane: Arthur H. Clarke.
• Kartunnen, Frances (1994).Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors.Rutgers:Rutgers University Press.
• Lawrence, Bonita (2004)."Real" Indians and Others: Mixed-blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.ISBN9780803280373.
• Robert Dale Parker, ed.,The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft,Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007
• Mary M. June, "British Period - Sault Ste. Marie Timeline and History",Bayliss Public Library, Bayliss, Michigan, 2000

External links

• Dave Stanaway and Susan Askwith, CD:John Johnston: His Life and Times in the Fur Trade Era,Borderland Records.