<p>Hi ksarmand,
I was worried about that: marking myself as native american and saying that I’m not enrolled. I actually have applied for enrollment in the Cherokee nation, but the process takes months. I feel like it didn’t really come across in my first post, which is pretty jumbled, but the way I feel is kind of that my Native American, and other ancestry has been denied me by virtue of the fact of being African-American because it’s a designation often used in absolution without the notion of the various cultures that often contribute to the people it describes. Not just in cultures of non-African origin. I’m sure that my African ancestors came from varying places as well. It’s not that I’m trying to emphasize my non-African ancestry either, it’s just that in my search for information, that is what I have found documentation of and information about thus far. I am a lover of history, and reading the names of, and information about people whom, without, I would not exist today; people who contributed, no matter how small the amount, to my DNA, made me feel connected to my existence in the way that I do when I hear stories about my great-grandparents from my mom. I’m interested in learning more about anyone and everyone that make up the fabric of who I am, and what it means to be connected to those people. I’m not sure if what I just wrote explains this…but I do not want to come across poorly to colleges just because I am interested in learning more about being Native American.</p>