Tika & Native American Research

The Spokane River is the boundary between Spokane and Stevens counties. Also, the north shore of the river borders the Spokane Indian Reservation. Boating there once, far up (east) on the river, we spotted an Indian cemetery high on a sandy bluff. I was explaining to Tika (who never misses a boat trip) about our local Native American peoples.

While I've learned that in my pedigree I have no Native American ancestry, I'm sympathetic to those who are so lucky. To that end, I picked up a flyer at the Family History down in Salt Lake City that details Finding Your Indian Ancestor. So I was explaining these tips to Tika:

1.  Find out where your ancestor lived.
2.  Find what tribes were located in the area where your ancestor lives, and learn who kept the records.
3.  Search all record types for your ancestor's time period and location.
4.  Identify and locate specific records by using the Family History Library Catalog.
5.  Search the records for your ancestor.

While I don't know if you can request a copy of this little flyer, I do know that if you click to www.familysearch.org and then "search" and then "Wiki" you will get 3996 hits for "Indian" and 1755 hits for "Native American."  

And I learned this tidbit:

Did You Know?

• The term Indians of North America is the traditional term used by English-speaking non-Native Americans. Despite the widespread use of the term, both within the Native American community and the North American population, many people prefer to use the term Native Americans, acknowledging the fact that these peoples were the original inhabitants of the continent. The term is associated with the 1960's Native American campaigns for civil rights - campaigns which helped to change the policy of the federal government to one of self determination for the tribal communities.

Tika says, "Don't ever give up on finding your Indian ancestors.... just keep looking and learning about new records and resources."  I agree!