My family history is fairly unknown to most of my family. What I gathered from speaking to my grandmother, mom, aunts and uncles is that we are some sort of white European mutt and no one knows for sure when we came to America. However dispite how we look there is more that just "white" running through our veins. There is one interesting story involving my great grandmother Blanche Davidson.
Growing up my great grandmother was someone who surprisingly enough admired people who had tan skin, she would sit outside in her backyard for hours tanning. Her father was very displeased by her doing this and told her that she looked like "one of those redskins". Dispite her fathers rude comments she continued to do as she pleased. As Blanche grew older she fell in love with "one of those redskins" as her father put it. His name was Dakota Chestnut and he was apart of the Chippewa tribe. Blanche's father was furious and disowned her. Blanche was a model for a while and then later in life became a teacher and Dakota was a photographer. They had one child, my grandmother Victoria Chestnut. Throughout their marriage they faced many racist remarks, because Blanche tanned her skin in the summer people thought they were two native Americans and people were surprised when they had a white looking daughter despite being half white and half native.
No comments:
Post a Comment