I’ve always been aware of the double minority blood flowing through my veins. I’ve always known that I am always going to be different from someone; my tri-racial heritage is always going to exclude me from something.
When I was in preschool I was tormented by a little red-headed boy. He constantly made awful remarks about Native Americans. He’d say things about how we’re savages and drunken heathens who steal from the rest of America (I am now aware that there is no way a four year old can make these assumptions by himself). At the tender age of four I didn’t know why those things hurt. All I knew was that they were extremely painful for me to hear. And they left me with a deep sadness.
This early experience caused me to throw myself into my heritage. For 8 years I regularly attended pow-wows. I danced in my hand me down jingle dress. And I was proud that the drums caused my heart to swell. For many years I only identified myself with my Ojibwe heritage. I felt that I had to. If I didn’t show I was proud, who would?
Obviously, I have another minority to my name. I’m a Latina; I’m Puerto Rican.
When I entered high school I had discovered many things. I’d discovered my Scottish family line traced back for over a hundred years. I’d lived on Native American reservations for whole summers. I’d become very close to my Puerto Rican relatives.
I’d also discovered that, even though my father is full-blooded Ojibwe, I’m not recognized as a Native person by the federal government. Blood quantum (blood counting) forbade me from enrolling in my tribe. Legally I am not ‘Native’ enough to be a whole person. I think I’m recognized as a little under a quarter.
I was devastated and furious. Not only was I facing this but I’d encountered something similar on another front. My Native friends blatantly told me that I wasn’t Native. I wasn’t enrolled in a tribe like them. Therefore I wasn’t.
Even now I battle this as I apply for colleges and I’m told that I cannot claim this part of me on my racial identification.
Lately I’ve been clinging to my Hispanic roots. I feel it’s all I can claim without people staring me down or telling me I’m wrong. And even that is starting to change as I’m not fluent in Spanish.
I can say that, because of my experiences, I have no sympathy or patience for those who claim that their own minority blood holds them back. I’ve heard and seen some minority people try and distance themselves from their heritage. I can understand the desire to want to be seen as something other than a negative stereotype. What I can’t understand is why some of these same people want to say their heritage has nothing to with who they are.
I’ve been faithful to my tri-racial heritage and I’ve been ripped apart from it. I’ve lived most of my life trying to establish proof that I am a part of these cultures and I have a right to claim these ethnicities. It bothers me that some would feel free to leave their heritage behind as if it was only a circumstance they happened to be born with.
(And let it be known that I am not generalizing. I know many people are proud of their ethnicity. I know that many people strive to do good so negative stereotypes will change. This is solely against the few unnamed individuals who caused me become quite angry with them).
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
