I grew up hearing my Aunt Trish say that we had American Indian ancestry in our family. As a child, I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t yet understand the importance of American Indian heritage, so I brushed it aside.
As I grew older, though, something shifted. I began to look into the tribes of the Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountain regions. At first, I found little information. Maybe I didn’t yet have the patience or the wisdom to stay consistent with exploring my Native roots.
It wasn’t until recently that I truly sat down and focused my mind on reconnecting with my American Indian ancestry. Once I did, doors began to open. I spoke with family members and started collecting our oral traditions. I built a family tree on Ancestry.com. I reached out to people skilled in genealogy. The more I studied, the more was revealed – and the more I felt guided by something greater than myself.
On my maternal side, the line stretches far back. My grandfather’s mother – all the way up to my fourth great-grandmother – was known to be American Indian. She was said to be Sioux (Blackfoot), possibly connected to the Saponi Nation and part of the Nakota Tribe. This is significant because the tribes of interior Virginia are part of the Siouan-speaking family, which includes the Monacan, Tutelo, and Saponi Nations.
This search also led me to examine surnames tied to these tribes. I discovered several of my family names, on both my mother and father’s sides, connected to these peoples. We even still have land in Snow Creek, Franklin County, passed down since the mid-1800s. That land has a deep Native American presence – the Monacan Nation established settlements along its rivers long before European arrival in the 1600s.
The more I searched, the more was revealed. And the more it was revealed, the more healing began to happen within my spirit. I started to tap into a part of myself I hadn’t known before. I felt more connected to the land, to my family, and to our story – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
In my research, I also came across Walter Plecker, a known eugenicist who created the 1924 Racial Integrity Act in Virginia. This law forced American Indians to reclassify as either “colored/Black” or “white,” effectively erasing Native identity on paper. It was an act of paper genocide, rewriting the history of the original people of this land and disconnecting generations from their roots.
I share this to remind others to question what they’ve been told about their American Indian heritage. Investigate. Seek. Listen. It’s a powerful and spiritual journey of reconnection and remembrance. It’s also important to honor the intertwined histories of African and American Indian peoples, who often had to come together to survive.
I embrace the fullness of who I am – an Afro-Indigenous man from Roanoke, Virginia – and I will continue to write about this journey and share it with you all.
And remember: the only way out is in.
