Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

I have no idea if its true or not although we also heard the same thing in our family. We all originate in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.

you might try finding out about mississippi choctaw, jena choctaw, MOWA tribes.
there are also state and federally recognized tribes. use the geographic location where your family settled at different times for searching for tribes.

My grandmother told me the same thing when I asked her the question, " Are you indian like Grandpa ? ". That was when i was a young boy. I never knew what it meant until I was 62 yrs. old when I started to research my Choctaw roots.

In the 1600s and beyond, Portuguese traiders went to the Dutch colonies of Africa to purchase slaves. The first of these slaves were on a ship which was attacked by pirates who took the slaves and brought them to the Virginia Colony in 1619. Some of these slaves might have been a mixture of African and Dutch or African and Portuguese, or, perhaps, this simply refers to the fact that they came from a Dutch colony in Africa. Some of these slaves mixed with white colonists and others mixed with the Native Americans. Some of these biracial people mixed with a third race of type of Native American. Upon the abolishment of slavery, it became a social tabu to claim to be any part black, and, being Native American also was a dangerous thing. These triracial peoples are now called Melungeons and there is much on the internet concerning these peoples. My daughter’s father is related to melungeons who are part black, part white, and part Cherokee. She also has some Nottoway and some Choctaw on her father’s side. Some of her relatives were excited to find this out, but others, who are less accepting of interracial marriages, deny that this could possibly be true. I hope this helps. Alice

Great answer, Alice Courtney.. My fam is from Louisiana and Mississippi – terms like "Black Dutch, Melungeons, and Red Bones were used to describe tri-racial people historicallly(Indian,black, & white)… but now, pp dont tend to use the term “Black Dutch or even Melungeons anymore – now it falls under ’ Creole”..

I believe the “Black Dutch” term is based in reality, though the meaning may mean different things to different people. I’ve also heard the term Melungeon to describe some of mixed blood and met such people in West Virginia in the 60s. These kinds of mixed blood people were discriminated against by both blacks and whites. The term Creole is another mixed blood term.

My family is from NC, KY, AR, OK on one side and European on the other. My father always said he was “Black Dutch” when we asked what he was. I have done research and from what I could find in collaboration with a cousin who heard the same thing, we think it is a term which originated from them having mixed blood and a fear of society. I cannot yet prove it but current evidence leads me to believe it is from having Black ancestry. I do not believe it is from Indian ancestry, though my great great grandfather was supposedly a Choctaw chief.

It doesn’t matter to me if my ancestors are of mixed blood as their unique blending are why I live and exist. I find it interesting and am only interested in finding those connections for family history reasons. I do know there will be some who will have a hard time accepting they may have mixed blood.

One last item which may be of interest, I have a niece, very caucasian with European father, mother and grandparents and she carries the gene for sickle cell anemia. Tells me we may well have Black ancestry somewhere, even if it is very far back.

In my family “Black Dutch” was a derrogitory term for Germans usually considered lower class.