Historical Query: How did African Americans Acquire Indigenous American Heritage?

 

How did African Americans Acquire Indigenous American Heritage?

African Americans were initially separated from their identities when they became commodities of the Transatlantic Slave trade. Over the centuries, many Black Americans knew their ancestors came from Africa, but did not know the African country, Native groups, or culture their ancestors were a part of before arriving on the shores of North America. This loss of identity persisted on through the formation of the United States. During the Civil Rights Era, Black Americans began to reconnect with their West African roots, even if through a broad lens of African culture. As the Information Age expanded the access to various presentations of relevant historical research, African Americans became more informed on the West African countries and ethnic groups heavily affected by the slave trade’s forced migration of people to the New World. And technological advancements such as DNA testing, have helped the narrowing down of West African Countries and tribes with regards to individual DNA.

However, this has not lent much to the discussion on the intersection of African slaves and First Nation peoples. It could be a byproduct of the lack of research on enslaved Indigenous people in the United States, or an effort to blur the lines of intersectionality between two ethnic groups. Current debates surrounding Afro-Indigenous ancestry and relations are centered around the suspected migration of African people to the Americas prior to colonization and conspiracies suggesting that the Transatlantic Slave trade is mythological, it didn’t exist, and all African Americans are indigenous to this land. While this analysis will not directly address those concepts, it will work to dissect and reconstruct the history involving the ways in which African Americans and Indigenous Americans connected and often amalgamated, resulting in a larger number of Black Americans who are unaware of their complete ancestry.

The enslavement of Indigenous peoples in the colonial United States is an often overlooked chapter in American history. While the enslavement of Africans is widely acknowledged, thousands of Native Americans were also captured, bought, sold, and forced into labor across the Americas from the 1500s through the 1800s. Enslavement of Native Americans predates African slavery in parts of what is now the U.S. The Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonizers enslaved Indigenous peoples through warfare, raids, and trade. Native slavery took multiple forms, such as chattel slavery, forced relocation, indenture, and debt peonage. By some estimates, 2–5 million Indigenous people were enslaved in the Americas between 1492 and 1900 in North America.

Indigenous American Tribes Enslaved

Region	Tribes Enslaved	Colonizer	Slavery Type
New England	Pequot, Wampanoag, Nipmuc	English	Chattel slavery, export
Carolinas	Apalachee, Creek, Yamasee, others	English	Export, household, field
Southwest	Pueblo, Apache, Comanche	Spanish	Forced labor, peonage
Louisiana	Natchez, Pawnee, Chickasaw	French	Household, farm
California	Ohlone, Chumash, Tongva	Spanish (missions)	Religious labor slavery

 

Colonial Regions involved in enslaving Indigenous peoples were the New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island), The Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania), French Colonies (Louisiana, Great Lakes), Spanish Colonies (Florida, Southwest, California), and the Carolinas. During the Pequot War (1636–1638), hundreds of Pequot people were killed, and the survivors were sold into slavery in the Caribbean or enslaved locally. King Philip’s War (1675–1676) saw thousands of Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Nipmuc people were captured and many were sold as slaves to Bermuda and Barbados. These Indigenous slaves worked in Puritan households, farms, and shipyards. Between the late 1600s and 1715, South Carolina was the leading exporter of Native American slaves. Colonists with Native allies, such as the Catawba and Yamasee, conducted raids on rival tribes and captured individuals who were then sold to planters and merchants. The Yamasee War of 1715 was predominantly ignited by Native opposition to this slave trade and the victims included members of the Apalachee, Cherokee, Creek, Yamasee, along with numerous smaller tribes.

Spanish colonies implemented systems like encomienda and repartimiento, which compelled Indigenous labor under the guise of protection and religious conversion. In regions like New Mexico and Texas, the Spanish enslaved Apache, Pueblo, Comanche, and other Indigenous populations. California missions (1769–1833) relied heavily on Indigenous labor, often subjecting workers to harsh conditions. French colonial settlers and fur traders used the term Panis to refer collectively to Native slaves, with early victims often being Pawnee. In French Louisiana, Native slaves comprised Natchez, Chickasaw, and Choctaw, many of whom were captured through intertribal conflicts. In New France (Canada) and the Great Lakes region, Native slaves were utilized for domestic work, agriculture, and fur trading operations. Additionally, enslaved Indigenous individuals existed in Dutch New Netherland and subsequent English colonies. During the 1600s, Munsee, Lenape, and Mohican peoples were captured during wars and held in slavery. Historical records indicate that both Native and African slaves were owned by settlers in New Amsterdam, which is currently New York City.

Native women and children were preferred by colonists because they were seen as less rebellious and more easily assimilated. Many Indigenous women were sexually exploited and forcibly married into settler households. Children born to Native women and enslaved Africans were usually considered “Black” under colonial law, erasing Native identity. The enslavement of Indigenous peoples disrupted tribal societies and population stability, contributed to colonial wealth and expansion, and created lasting Afro-Indigenous communities where many descendants today have oral histories of both African and Native ancestry. In many U.S. regions, Native slavery has been historically obscured, often conflated with or overshadowed by African slavery.

Patterns of Enslavement

Pattern	Details
War Captivity	Native captives taken in colonial or intertribal wars were enslaved.
Trade Networks	Colonists traded goods (guns, alcohol) to tribes in exchange for captives.
Missions & Conversion	Catholic missions (esp. in Spanish and French colonies) used forced labor.
Indenture to Slavery Pipeline	Some Natives were “indentured” but conditions mirrored slavery.
Racial Mixing & Legal Codes	Native slaves often became invisible as they were classified as Black or mixed.

 African Americans acquired Indigenous American heritage through a combination of historical processes that varied across different regions of the United States, East, South, and North, but were most pronounced in the Southeast. For historical context, this region which comprises of Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Alabama, etc., was home to many Native American tribes like the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. There were many key factors of blending in this region, such as enslaved Africans living among or escaping to Native tribes. Some ethnic groups, especially the Seminoles, took in escaped African slaves who were known as Black Seminoles. There were many instances of intermarriage and adoption, as Africans and Native Americans sometimes intermarried or lived in shared communities, especially in frontier zones. These two groups experienced a shared displacement. During events like the Trail of Tears, African-descended people who were enslaved or adopted by tribes were forcibly relocated with them to Indian Territory, which is present-day Oklahoma. As a result, there are many African Americans today with roots in the South have Cherokee, Creek, or Seminole ancestry, whether genetically or culturally.

For East Coast (moderate influence) Regions, like Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, etc., early colonial settlements experienced significant interaction between African and Native American populations due to geographical proximity. Key factors were the early intermingling of free Africans with Eastern tribes like the Powhatan and Lenape during the 1600s and 1700s and a shared resistance to colonization and enslavement. Subsequently, individuals of African American descent originating from the East Coast may possess traces of Native American heritage, although generally less pronounced than in the Southeast. In the North and Midwest (less common, but still present) Regions, including the Great Lakes region, Ohio Valley, and parts of New England, African Americans who relocated northward during the Great Migration might have intermarried with Native American groups such as the Ojibwe, Iroquois, or Shawnee. Additionally, some African-descended individuals escaped slavery and integrated into Native communities further north. In this region,  Indigenous heritage is present but tends to be less common or prominent. Some African Americans might possess oral histories or cultural connections to Native ancestry, even if genetic evidence is limited or difficult to detect due to distant generational links. Because of historical erasure and reclassification, utilized racial classification systems, including the "one-drop rule," Native identities were often obscured in individuals of mixed Black-Native ancestry by classifying them solely as Black.

Indigenous and African American Intersections

Region	Indigenous-African Connection Strength	Common Tribes Involved
Southeast	Strongest	Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw
East Coast	Moderate	Powhatan, Lenape, others
North/Midwest	Less common	Iroquois, Ojibwe, Shawnee

 The relationship between African Americans and the Choctaw and the other Five Civilized Tribes, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole, is a complex and deeply rooted history of shared experience, enslavement, resistance, and cultural blending. These five Southeastern tribes were labeled “civilized” by European Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries because they adopted European American customs, including Christianity, written languages, and plantation-style agriculture. They had governments, schools, and constitutions, and participated in chattel slavery like European Americans. The term "Five Civilized Tribes" is now considered outdated or controversial, but it's still widely used in historical discussions. The Choctaw enslaved Africans, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. They held plantations, particularly in Mississippi and later in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) after forced relocation during the Trail of Tears. Choctaw slaveowners adopted many Southern practices, including Black Codes and slave patrols. Some freed African Americans remained within the Choctaw Nation after Emancipation (1866) and became known as Choctaw Freedmen. Freedmen were promised citizenship in tribal treaties post–Civil War, but many were later excluded from full rights in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Cherokee Nation had the largest number of African slaves among the Five Tribes. They utilized a racial hierarchy, with some Cherokees becoming wealthy plantation owners. There were also Black-Cherokee communities, especially after the Trail of Tears. The 1866 Treaty with the U.S. required Cherokee Nation to grant citizenship to their freed slaves. Cherokee Freedmen played major roles in the development of Indian Territory. Citizenship and identity battles continue even today for the Cherokee Freedmen. The Chickasaw maintained one of the strictest racial policies and had less intermarriage with Blacks than other tribes. They enslaved Africans, primarily in Mississippi before removal to Oklahoma. After the Civil War, the Chickasaw refused to grant citizenship to Freedmen until forced negotiations in the late 19th century. Many Chickasaw Freedmen were ultimately left landless. Creek Nation also enslaved Africans, but had notable interracial families and alliances, especially during periods of war with the U.S.. Large numbers of African-descended people were integrated into Creek society and language. After the Civil War, the Creek Freedmen were promised tribal citizenship and land. Like the Cherokee Freedmen, they've faced recent challenges over tribal recognition. The most unique among the five is the Seminole Nation. Black people were never widely enslaved in the same way. Instead, Black Seminoles (descendants of escaped slaves from Georgia and Florida) lived as allies and warriors, often forming independent towns. Many fought in the Seminole Wars (esp. 2nd Seminole War) against U.S. troops. Some Black Seminoles were later resettled forcibly in Oklahoma, where they became part of the Seminole Nation but often in separate bands. Despite being full participants, they have often been denied tribal recognition or land. All Five Tribes were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeast to what is now Oklahoma in the 1830s. Many enslaved Africans were forced to walk alongside Native Americans in these removals. In Indian Territory, new Black-Native communities emerged. After the Civil War, the U.S. required tribes to emancipate slaves and offer citizenship to Freedmen in their 1866 treaties.

Many descendants of African-descended members of the Five Tribes, called Freedmen, have fought long legal and political battles for Tribal citizenship, for access to benefits, healthcare, scholarships, and land rights, and for cultural recognition. Some tribes, like the Cherokee, have restored Freedmen citizenship after court rulings, while others like the Choctaw and Chickasaw continue to restrict it. African Americans with ancestry in the South, especially Oklahoma and Mississippi, may have oral histories of Native ancestry from the Five Tribes. This is important because the identification of genetic traces though Native DNA is underrepresented in commercial databases. Descendants of African and Indigenous American people likely practice cultural traditions influenced by both African and Indigenous roots, especially in food, medicine, language, and spirituality. The relationship between African Americans and the Choctaw and other Five Civilized Tribes is one of shared suffering under colonization, complicated power dynamics involving slavery, and persistent struggles over identity and belonging. It has been detailed some historical research, but the intersection of African Americans and Plains tribes within the Louisiana Territory is often less emphasized in mainstream narratives. It’s a rich and layered history involving enslavement, migration, trade, military service, and cultural exchange.

The Louisiana Territory and the Plains was acquired by the U.S. from France in 1803, and it  spanned a massive area from the Mississippi River to the Rockies and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. The Plains tribes included groups such as the Osage, Pawnee, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota), and others. Though the Plains are often depicted as isolated, they were highly connected through trade routes, intertribal diplomacy, and interaction with European powers such as Spain, France, and later the U.S. In areas like French Louisiana, including St. Louis, Arkansas, Missouri, and Spanish Texas, enslaved Africans were brought in by colonists. Additionally, some enslaved or free Blacks escaped into frontier zones and sought refuge among Plains tribes such as the Osage, Quapaw, or Caddo. French-African-Native mixing occurred in frontier settlements, especially in fur trade regions like St. Louis, Kaskaskia, and along the Missouri River. These early interactions helped produce Afro-Indigenous lineages in today’s Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Maroon communities sought refuge among tribes, and escaped enslaved Africans sometimes joined Plains tribes as a form of resistance. Oral histories suggest runaway slaves were adopted into groups like the Comanche, Pawnee, and Osage in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some Plains tribes resisted slavery outright and others captured African Americans and integrated or enslaved them depending on political context.

After the Civil War, African American soldiers, known as Buffalo Soldiers, served in the U.S. Army and were stationed across the western Plains (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana). They often interacted with Plains tribes during the Indian removal military campaigns with which they were tasked, but also during peaceful posts. In some cases, they intermarried with Native women, settled in frontier towns, or formed Afro-Indigenous communities. Black soldiers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma had sustained interaction with Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache peoples. During the Exoduster Migration (1870s–1880s) after Reconstruction, African Americans fled violence in the South and migrated into Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, which were former parts of the Louisiana Territory. These settlers sometimes lived near or among Native populations. Towns like Nicodemus, Kansas and others existed near tribal lands and involved mutual aid or land disputes with Native communities. With Freedmen of the "Prairie Tribes" in Indian Territory, many of the southeastern tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole) were relocated into Oklahoma, overlapping with lands held or contested by Plains tribes like the Kiowa and Comanche. African-descended people enslaved by Southeastern tribes sometimes came into contact with Plains peoples. This created multi-tribal Black-Indigenous communities in western and central Oklahoma. Unlike the Five Tribes, most Plains tribes didn’t sign treaties with Freedmen clauses granting rights to formerly enslaved people. However, intermarriage, military service, and shared land struggles laid the groundwork for shared identities. Many African Americans in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas today claim ancestry from both Black settlers and Plains tribes. Through cultural exchange and shared elements like horse culture and mobility, some Black frontier settlers and Buffalo Soldiers adopted Plains horsemanship styles. There is also evidence of syncretic spiritual practices blending African American Christianity, Hoodoo, and Plains spiritual beliefs like vision quests or peyote ceremonies. Additionally, multilingual environments speaking English, Spanish, tribal languages, and Creole were common.

Indigenous and African American Relations

Tribe	Relationship Type	Region
Osage	Trade, refuge, intermarriage	Missouri, Oklahoma
Comanche	Captivity, integration of escapees	Texas, Oklahoma
Pawnee	Limited refuge, trade interactions	Nebraska, Kansas
Kiowa	Buffalo Soldier interaction, proximity in Oklahoma	Oklahoma, Texas
Cheyenne & Arapaho	Postwar contact, land and settlement proximity	Colorado, Oklahoma

 African American interaction with Plains tribes in the Louisiana Territory was shaped by colonial escape and integration, Maroon-like resistance, military service (Buffalo Soldiers), settlement after Reconstruction, and Freedmen policies that had an indirect impact. These intersections helped create Afro-Indigenous communities in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, many of which persist today in family oral histories and community identity, even if un- or under-recognized in mainstream history. Equally, the reclassification of Indigenous people as Black in the United States is a significant but often overlooked aspect of racial history. This process involved African American, Native American, and mixed-heritage individuals being officially categorized as “colored,” "Black", or “Negro” in legal documents, census records, and social systems, effectively erasing Native identities and restricting access to tribal recognition, land, and rights.

The "One-Drop Rule" was a social and legal principle that any Black ancestry, no matter how small, made a person legally Black. Enforced primarily in the Jim Crow South but influenced practices across the U.S. meant people with mixed African and Native ancestry were reclassified as Black, even if they identified culturally and tribally as Native. Additionally, U.S. Census takers often decided someone’s race by appearance. Native Americans who looked "too dark" or were known to have African ancestry were often marked as "Black" or "Negro." This happened even when individuals lived in tribal communities, spoke Native languages, or practiced Indigenous customs. It was also spearheaded by white supremacists like Walter Plecker, who aimed to "protect white blood" by eliminating Indian identity where it overlapped with African ancestry. Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act (1924) banned the classification of Native Americans unless they were considered "pure-blooded" which was nearly impossible by eugenic standards. Plecker and others reclassified entire Native communities like the Monacan, Pamunkey, and Chickahominy as "colored."

In Virginia,  the Tidewater Tribes like the Monacan, Rappahannock, Nansemond, and Chickahominy were classified as "Negro" under the Racial Integrity Act. This led to loss of Native land. It also resulted in exclusion from Native schools, services, and federal recognition and the denial of tribal identity for generations. North Carolina’s Lumbee and other related tribes in NC, including Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, were frequently labeled "mulatto" or "colored" in official records. Their ambiguous status meant that they were not classified as Native American in many federal systems. It also meant they faced denial of treaty rights, land claims, and services. Lumbee struggle for federal recognition continues today, partly due to these historical records. Many Freedmen, African-descended people formerly enslaved by Southeastern  tribes had tribal ties. After the Civil War, they were promised citizenship in tribal nations via 1866 treaties. Later, during the Dawes Rolls (1898–1914) in Oklahoma, those with visible African ancestry were often placed on separate “Freedmen Rolls”, even if they had Native parents or culture. This split led to long-term denial of tribal membership and land rights for Black Native people. A person with a Cherokee mother and African father could be placed solely on the Freedmen Roll, not the "By Blood" roll, cutting them off from tribal claims.

In Louisiana, there are various Creole and Afro-Indigenous Communities. Indigenous tribes like the Houma, Tunica Biloxi, and others were often classified as Black or Creole, especially if they lived among African-descended communities. This was part of a broader erasure of tribal identity in the Bayou regions, where race was based on appearance and presumed ancestry, not culture or community. Afro-Indigenous people, those of both African and Native ancestry, were often forced to choose or were forcibly placed into Black identity, erasing their Native lineage from public record. This reclassification stripped individuals and communities of land, tribal citizenship, and federal recognition. It complicated modern genealogical research and tribal enrollment. And created long-lasting divisions between "Freedmen" and "By Blood" members in tribes. Today, many tribes are re-evaluating their policies around Black Native identity. Court cases and grassroots activism have helped restore recognition in some communities like the Cherokee Freedmen who won full citizenship in 2017. However, many Black-identifying people with oral histories or cultural ties to tribes remain excluded due to old records that labeled them Black or Colored.

Means of Indigenous American Reclassification

Factor	Effect on Afro-Indigenous Identity
One-Drop Rule	Reclassified anyone with African ancestry as Black
Racial Integrity Laws	Erased Native identities, especially in Virginia
Census bias	Mislabeling based on skin tone or stereotype
Dawes Rolls (Freedmen)	Separated Black Native people from tribal citizenship

The history of tribal reclassification in Virginia by Walter Plecker & the Racial Integrity Act is one of the most striking examples of how policies intentionally erased Native American identities, especially for communities with mixed African and Native ancestry. Dr. Walter Plecker, Registrar of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics (1912–1946), was a eugenicist who believed in strict racial separation. Under his direction, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which recognized only two races: White and Colored. He refused to acknowledge Native Americans unless they could prove pure Indian blood, which was an almost impossible standard. Plecker labeled most Native Americans in Virginia as colored or Negro in official documents, including birth certificates, marriage licenses, and death records. His policies reclassified entire tribes and essentially erased Native identity from state records. This reclassification wasn't just a bureaucratic change, it severed Native people from legal identity, land rights, education access, cultural heritage, and federal recognition.

Plecker would change birth records of Native families to say “colored” if he suspected African ancestry. He would also threaten midwives and doctors who listed Indian on birth certificates, refuse to issue marriage licenses to Native people unless they married within a recognized  white or Black category, and send letters to other states warning them not to accept Virginia Indians as legitimate. In one case, Plecker wrote to a hospital demanding a child be reclassified from Indian to Negro because the family looked too dark. These acts led to generations of legal and cultural erasure. Most of the tribes listed above were not federally recognized until 2016–2018, primarily due to the lack of official documentation caused by reclassification. Community resilience through churches, schools,  and oral traditions, preserved tribal identity until legal recognition could be reclaimed. The reclassification of Indigenous tribes in Virginia wasn't just bureaucratic, it was a deliberate, eugenicist attempt to eliminate Native identity, particularly where African ancestry was present. The damage still ripples through today in struggles over identity, recognition, and sovereignty.

Tribes Affected by Reclassification in Virginia

Tribe	Reclassified As	Region	Language	Federally Recognized
Pamunkey	Some retained Native status	King William County	Algonquian	2016
Monacan	Colored/Negro	Amherst County, central Virginia	Eastern Siouan	2018
Chickahominy -East	Colored/Negro		Algonquian	2018
Chickahominy	Colored/Negro	Charles City County	Algonquian	2018
Rappahannock	Colored/Negro	Northern Neck Rappahannock River	Algonquian	2018
Nansemond	Colored/Negro	Tidewater Virginia	Algonquian	2018
Upper Mattaponi	Colored/Negro	King William County	Algonquian	2018

 To conclude this study, many African Americans in the United States have Indigenous American ancestry, particularly on the Eastern seaboard, in the Southeast region, and in the lands that were formerly known as the Louisiana Territory. The occurrences which facilitated this intersection were the offer of refuge for runaway enslaved people, the practice of agricultural slavery by the Five Civilized Tribes, and the enslavement of Africans alongside enslaved or indentured Indigenous Americans being the largest catalyst of amalgamation in the Louisiana territory by the furriers and their Indigenous and African slaves. While this analysis does not detail every interaction between Indigenous Americans and Africans who were involuntarily relocated, it is intended to outline the most apparent means of connection and relation between the two ethnic groups, and to offer interested parties direction in their search for elements of their ancestry. Micro histories on African tribes and Indigenous tribes not included in this study, does not negate their existence, importance or relevance within this phenomenon.

The research presented in this examination is a starting point rather than a complete study, and these findings will contribute to a larger body of research on the intersection of African Americans and Indigeous Americans. But what can be concluded for certain is there was much more extensive contact between the two groups on the North American continent than has been previously reported, and the stories that have been passed down in African American families regarding Indigenous ancestry have historical data and documents that indicate their truth. African Americans who have foundations in the regions discussed in this presentation can observe the enslavement patterns and the geography of Indigenous tribes; the documentation of the reclassification of certain Native tribal bands to “colored,” “negro,” “mulatto” or “black”, and also historical documents from the tribes who were slave owners themselves. Although there is less documentation available on this phenomenon among the Plains tribes in the Louisiana Territory, there are records of significant intersections between these two groups and their mixing with the French.

This is not in any way an effort to downplay African ancestry among Black Americans, of which there is tremendous pride and sense of belonging. However, it is common knowledge and openly discussed that many African American people were posited with European admixtures from the Colonial period to the Antebellum era. And yet it is less obvious through public history or discourse of the correlation between Indigenous and African Americans. Less research on this subject has been presented and the isolation of Indigenous tribes after Indian removal has also contributed to this lack of knowledge. Options for African Americans to observe and understand their complete heritage has become more accessible through DNA testing and access to Census records and other relative data, which has allowed them to embrace their ethnic variations while celebrating their African heritage along with their ancestral connections to the North American continent.

 

Scholarly Sources

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