SRS, thank you for posting the long explanation. I live in an area of the US with one of the few remaining substantial Native populations. I've lived and worked with a lot of Native people. I know of no other subject than quantam and Indianness that causes such fierce battles among American Indians and between American Indians and whites.

I also don't know of anything that causes Native people more pain than sitting around and listening to the kinds of "claims" of Native ancestry being made in this thread. And I'm not about to explain why, because it just depresses me.

Perhaps you are right, that we should just leave the matter alone. But I couldn't sit here silently without commenting about something I find so profoundly disturbing as this behavior by European Americans. Most of the Native people I know fully support the Lakota Declaration of about 10 years ago--vociferously.