Our Ancestry

DNA and Identity

Modern genetic testing has helped reclaim identities long suppressed. African Americans are tracing their roots to the Yoruba, Igbo, Bantu, Akan, and many other proud African nations.

Each DNA result is a window into a past forcibly severed—and a future we can now shape through truth and reclamation.

The Dawes Roll & the Erasure of Black Indigenous Identity

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S. government created the Dawes Rolls to register members of the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole. But these records didn’t honor everyone’s identity—they erased it.

Freedmen—Black people of African descent who had been enslaved by Indigenous nations or born into tribal communities—were often denied full tribal status. They were placed on “Freedmen Rolls,” separate from “By Blood” rolls, even when they had Indigenous ancestry.

In many cases, Black Indigenous individuals were reclassified as simply “Black”, severing legal, social, and cultural ties to their Native nations. This deliberate misclassification was part of a larger effort to disenfranchise and erase Black Native identities.

Identity is not binary. Many African Americans are also Indigenous—and their erasure is a wound that still seeks justice.

Reclaiming What Was Lost

Our ancestry is not limited to the labels others gave us. It is complex, royal, and sacred. Through DNA, oral histories, and ancestral research, we honor all parts of who we are—African, Indigenous, and more.