From Indian to Mustee to Mulatto to Colored to Negro to Black to African American and to a Black American of African Descent
(All images below were inserted by the author)
Do you think it's possible that the North American inhabitants Europeans encountered upon their arrival were various shades of brown and would today be identified as "Black" or "African American"? Well, take this information as you may but the North American "Indian" would indeed be racially categorized today as "Black". Although this truth can be hard to accept and process for some, below I present several facts with hopes that the reader challenges their own thinking.
We came before Columbus, because we were already here ~Dane Calloway
In an attempt to claim American lands and resources, the British government regularly started, instigated and maintained war between other European countries as well as the American Aborigine/"Indian" nations. As a result, the British government determined who would be "fit for war" and able to defend themselves against existing oppositions. The British government (and other countries with advanced weaponry) accepted American Aborigine/"Indian" soldiers and removed their "Indian" identities and reclassified them as "Black" and "Mulatto". (click image)
A reality rarely discussed is how often American Aborigine/Indians refused and even challenged foreign entities to keep their sacred Indian identities. Again, foreign powers created chaos, and provided the resources to resolve any existing troubles that were exasperating and provoking the American Aborigine/Indian. While the Haliwa and the Sampson County Indians filed a law suit against the Secretary-Treasurer to change their racial classification from "the colored race" to "the Indian race", Indians throughout various states in along the Eastern shores of North America were attempting to be recognized by their true identities ~ Indians! (click image)
Often, Native Americans abided in rural and newly suburbanized communities where their ancestry was ambiguous but they were considered Colored people or Negros... ~James F. Brooks
European governments created agencies throughout the US that perpetuated the idea that lighter shades of brown-skinned Original American inhabitants were more "Indian" than some of their own darker brown-skin tribal members . This deceptive practice impacted the psychosocial well-being of many American Aborigine/Indian nations, and in many ways it continues til' today. In addition, American Aborigine people also reclassified themselves when they believed they would benefit by racially reclassifying. Hence, the Negro was, and is the American Indian. (click image)
You may request sources listed below from Chief Ivy if you are not able to access them online.
SOURCES:
Dane, J. K., & Griessman, B. E. (1972). The Collective Identity of Marginal Peoples- The North Carolina Experience 1. American Anthropologist, 74(3), 694-704.Murray, P. T. (1987).
Who Is an Indian? Who Is a Negro? Virginia Indians in the World War II Draft. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 95(2), 215–231.
Johnson, G. B. (1939). Personality in a White-Indian-Negro Community. American Sociological Review, 4(4), 516–523.