Invisible Indians: Carmen's Story

I read your letter in the Muscogee Nation News about "invisible" Natives. I am a proud, but invisible Muscogee.

Currently, I am a professor of intercultural communication and multicultural education at a college on the US/Mexico border. I teach courses that relate to the study of ethnic groups, cross-cultural communication, prejudice reduction, etc. I am passionate about my work. My invisibility has had a tremendous influence on who I am and my choice of career.

Two years before my father passed away in Birmingham, Alabama, he told me about the long-held family secret concerning my Great-grandmother. He informed me that I had the right to know that she was full Creek. I was thrilled. That was twelve years ago, and my search has been spotty with years of raising children, obtaining my education, and teaching.

My family hid my grandmother. Martha Ann was not allowed to go grocery shopping and be seen in public. She stayed home and my grandfather had all the public contact. She grew up in Sylacauga, Al. The family was forbidden to discuss her "Indianess." My research has been an obstacle course with family living in the South who do not want to discuss, or even admit, that Annie was Muscogee.

I regret to say that all the documentation I have found so far states that she was W. She was married to a Scotsman, she was not Black, so she must be White, right? My family did not go to the reservation which is a problem for me because there are no numbers, no recognition of Native heritage.

I have moments of discouragement, and then, I meet another Native who asks if I am Lakota, or Seminole because of appearances. My nativeness is acknowledged by others I meet face-to-face. Most of the time, I am now content to know that I am Muscogee. I tell my students of my heritage and pride. But, when an affirmative action form comes with job applications and I am allowed to only check one box, and if I mark Native American and include a number, I end up tossing it in the trash. I am White and Muscogee. I will wait for the Census 2000.

I would like to be counted, just to be counted with the other Muscogees. The dental/medical program and other so-called benefits are not offerings that I strive for. Acknowledgement of my heritage and my grandmother's struggle would be award enough.

Thank you, and best wishes,

Carmen Chambers

Through letters, essays, photographs and documents, New Tribal Dawn is documenting the life stories of full- and mixed-blood Native Americans who have had difficulty proving their ancestry, belong to unrecognized tribes, have felt it necessary to pass as non-Indian or have otherwise been "invisible" to the rest of America. Write us if you have something to offer.
 
The Muscogee Nation is a Native American tribe, also known as the Creeks. Originally from the Southeast, the U.S. Army forcibly relocated them to Oklahoma in the 1830's.