A Surname is a family name. It is that part of a person's name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. In the case of African Americans their ancestral names have been lost forever in many instances. The only claim the African American has is his or her name given by slave masters.
I started my journey to discover my Native American heritage and history many years ago. The history that I had not known began to intrigue me. It was the ancestry of my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. We were Cherokee from Alabama. Cherokee from Alabama was my ancestry.
Many questions about how the "Trail of Tears" was avoided. How our ancestry was kept secret since the 1870's for fear of repercussions? Why, now was it important to discover my identity? These were all questions that could be answered and were as I embarked on my journey to discover my family tree.
The journey led me to the National Archives, census forms, family Bibles, family elders and to a Cherokee Elder of the Kituwah (Cherokee people). My rich Native American history, and ancestry is now complete and will be shared going forward to all generations. No more fear to be a Native American!
2010 CENSUS – DID YOU KNOW…The first person listed on the Census form will determine if this is an Indian household. If you have persons of several races living in the same household please list the Indian person first, as this will determine the race of the household.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) are co-sponsoring IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas, a traveling exhibit about people of mixed African American and Native American heritage. Do you have a story to tell about your family's Native and African American ancestry? Please visit the NMAAHC Memory Book and share your experience.
James Austin ("Pap") Wiley, born in 1872 in Hamburg, Arkansas, was the son of Ellen, a black Cherokee born in Alabama about 1855. Photo courtesy of the Branton family.
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Native Poetry 
