that wouldnt suprise me one bit.

think about it:

for as far back as anybody can remember, your people followed thier tribal religion. it was part of everything you did, kept you happy and healthy. suddenly, europeans appear and around the same time your people start dying. en-masse, whole villages wiped out by these plagues, not enough left alive to bury the dead. your religion has no explanation, your traditional medicines are powerless. you patch together tribes out of the few survivors left from dozens of previously flourishing tribes, escaped slaves and, later, even a few europeans who have forsaken thier old way of life. you are going to listen when these newcommers who dont get sick tell you of thier beliefs that have kept them safe.

and this would certainly be information that “history books” would never want to mention.
good heavens, the very idea that islam might have played a part in our american history would make thier heads explode.
shit, they dont even mention the plagues most of the time in thier pathetic eurocentrism.

I would imagine that if you did the research you would also find elements of tribal african religions intermingled with the cultures of the native tribes during that period as the people cast about for some explanation for what was happening and something they could do to regain some semblance of control.

Anonymous, thanks for that.

I know of St. Augustine, the oldest still survivng settlement in what is now the U.S. state of Florida and you are right, there were Black/African people in this country way before Jamestown and the cruelty of white English slavery.

I still to this day wonder what life would be like for us black people if the Spanish, and not the English, had kept control of this country.

Sigh.

We will never know.

PS-You aren’t the only Black guy watching baseball, but you might be one of about 10 African Americans. (Just joking… :) )

Rachel- Wow, those are two good posts, somehow I missed those, thanks for putting me up on them. And you’re exactly right “ethnicity war”, see you got my little sociological joke :)

Here and Here .

PS–I guess you meant you didn’t want to start an “ethnicity war” LOL!! Sounds so awkward to the tongue.

quick story:
if you look at the historical and archeological evidence, you will see that the first settlement attempt made by non-natives in what is now the US was in South Carolina or Georgia (in that area anyway) 1526. Now these were spaniards comming from Haiti (Hispaniola or whatever: conveniently cleared of resistant Arawaks, by Columbuses thugs from what i understand) 500 or so settlers with 100 or so, you guessed it, African slaves. a year or so of disease and “disagreements” with the local tribes and there were only about 250 settlers left. the slaves revolted and were taken in by the local tribes. the surviving settlers fled back to Haiti.

now these slaves brought to the tribes something VERY important, immunities. it was during this century that around 90% of the native population on the east coast would die from the plagues. its FEASIBLE that the bloodlines of these first African-Americans survived for quite awhile (well… until they were enslaved again later i imagine…)

now, natives will call these guys natives. their kids were natives and they lived as natives. just makes one wonder, what else did the refugees bring to the tribes? my guess, what existed after that was a syncratic (is that the word? sumthin) culture, since these black folks just werent getting sick they would probably have to play a big role as the were assimilated into the tribes.

now i grew up with some black natives (one kid’s last name was Loonsfoot, the poor bastard, try being a 140lbs in 11th grade, look black, in a school of all whites and natives with that name… luckily he played football, so we wouldnt let anybody else tork on him and the coach would tork on us if we EVER gave another player too hard of a time.) i wonder if they play a similar game to the one i do: i.e. i can easily go from italian, to hispanic back to native based on my complexion and mood (tougher when i get too much sun…) are they going from Haitian, to Nigerian to african-american back to native?

one thing i have noticed though, these days, once you identify with native ethnicity, you dont go back. I have no interest in learning much about my mother’s heritage and she his little in explaining it. even if your blonde with blue eyes, once you hear that your grandmother was a Cherokee (nevermind that in the 60s the Cherokees had a 0% bloodquantum requirement to enroll in the tribe and your grandmother was a hippie) you will ALWAYS tell any native you see about that connection.

the lines have always been a bit blurry, and getting blurrier still. skin color is plainly an idiotic way to seperate people and now race and ethnicity are becomming tougher to package. maybe this is progress. whatever, maybe this old rez indian had it right, “to me, your either an indian or your not, i dont discriminate”

-Andy Chosa

ps sorry for hijacking yer blog. its just cool to know other people are looking at this stuff with an open mind and from a different perspective, sometimes i babble :)