Paper Genocide: The Full Record
Walter Ashby Plecker (1861-1947): The Architect
Walter Ashby Plecker served as Registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912 to 1946 — 34 years of systematic, bureaucratic genocide. He weaponized birth and marriage certificates to erase Native American identity across the state of Virginia.
What Plecker Did
- Directed the reclassification of nearly all Virginia Indians as "colored" on birth and marriage certificates
- Declared publicly: "there are no native born Virginia Indians free from negro intermixture"
- While the law defined "colored" as someone with 1/16th or more "negro blood," Plecker personally considered a person "with even a trace of negro blood" to be "colored"
- His tampering made it impossible for descendants of six of eight Virginia state-recognized tribes to gain federal recognition
- In December 1943, Plecker sent county officials a letter warning against "colored" families trying to pass as "white" or "Indian," specifically targeting Tennessee Melungeons
Plecker's paper genocide began a trend that quickly spread throughout the 50 states and continues to this day.Source: papergenocide.org
National Park Service: The Racial Integrity Act, 1924
TIME: How Virginia Used Segregation Law to Erase Native Americans
Encyclopedia Virginia: Walter Ashby Plecker
The Dawes Rolls: Sorting by Skin Color
The Dawes Commission created three racial categories for the Five Civilized Tribes: "Freedmen, Intermarried Whites, and Indians by Blood." The system was appearance-based:
- Full-blooded Native people — Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, and others — were reclassified simply because they were copper-colored, had tightly coiled hair, or didn't "look Indian enough" in the eyes of government agents
- Light-skinned people could end up on the blood roll, while darker-skinned people were listed on the Freedmen roll
- Tribal members listed "By Blood" were assigned a blood quantum, but Freedmen were intentionally denied a blood quantum, even when they were biologically related to those on the Blood roll
- Full-blood Natives received small parcels of land while mixed-blood Natives received larger, better tracts
"Freedmen" was not a heritage designation — it was a racial classification imposed during Reconstruction. It didn't mean someone was African or enslaved. It meant someone was dark-skinned. In many cases, it was used to separate Black Indigenous people from their tribal identity, their land, and their treaty rights.
Native Black Ancestry: "Freedmen" Is a Reclassification
Harvard Political Review: Blood Quantum and The Freedmen Controversy
The Census as Weapon
The 1930 Census Instructions formalized hypodescent (the "one-drop rule"):
A person of mixed black and American Indian ancestry was to be recorded as "Neg" (for "Negro") unless they were considered to be "predominantly" American Indian and accepted as such within the community. More generally, any mixture of white and non-white should be reported according to the non-white parent.
Blood Quantum: A System Built on Skin Color
The Colony of Virginia introduced the "Indian Blood law" in 1705 to reduce civil rights of Tribal people with 1/2 or greater blood quantum. The system was, in part, based on what settlers saw before them, such as the darkness of a person's skin.
Oppression is really built on the color of one's skin. It is also a demonstration of policies used to rid or control people of "darker" skin.
The economic logic was explicit: "It was not desirable for Natives to be higher in numbers, whereas it was desirable for Black folks to be higher in numbers because they were considered property... the more people that were Native, the more people the government was accountable to."
The Artists: Full Evidence Dossier
Each entry below is marked with verification status: DOCUMENTED means verified through records, scholarly work, or tribal acknowledgment. CLAIMED / UNVERIFIED means publicly stated by the artist or family but not independently documented. PARTIAL means some evidence exists but the full lineage is not confirmed.
The distinction between "documented" and "claimed" is itself part of the story. When government systems destroyed the documentation, they made it impossible for families to "prove" what they know. Oral history vs. paper record is one of the central tensions of this film. Present both honestly — the audience will understand.
Charley Patton (1891-1934)
The "Father of the Delta Blues." Patton's ancestry was a mixture of white, Black, and Cherokee. One of his grandmothers was full-blood Cherokee. Born in Hinds County, Mississippi — former Choctaw territory.
Howlin' Wolf said he learned to play the guitar from "an Indian man" by the name of Charley Patton. Featured in the documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017).
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)
Hendrix was one-sixteenth Cherokee. His paternal great-grandmother, Zenora, was described as a full-blooded Cherokee from Georgia who married an Irishman named Moore. In 1883, they had a daughter named Zenora "Nora" Rose Moore, Hendrix's paternal grandmother.
More specifically: Fanny Moore (Nora's mother) was half Cherokee and half African American.
His grandmother, a vaudeville performer from Vancouver, passed along Cherokee traditions to him. She "imbued him with the stories, rituals, and music that had been part of her Afro-Cherokee heritage."
Musical evidence: Incorporated Indigenous themes in songs including "Castles Made of Sand," the instrumental "Cherokee Mist" and the 1967 Native American liberation anthem "I Don't Live Today."
Recognition: Inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
Hendrix's Indigenous ancestry has never been documented by blood — the heritage was passed down through family accounts rather than official tribal documentation. However, the Native American Music Hall of Fame recognized the lineage.
Howlin' Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett, 1910-1976)
Howlin' Wolf's mother, Gertrude Jones, had Choctaw ancestry on her father's side. His grandfather was a Choctaw named John Jones. Wolf learned guitar from Charley Patton, creating a documented lineage of Indigenous blues musicians.
Thelonious Monk (1917-1982)
One of the founding fathers of modern jazz and bebop. Monk had Tuscarora ancestry, as featured in the program "A Weaving of Traditions," which honors jazz musicians with Native roots. His Indigenous heritage was largely unknown during his lifetime.
Charlie Parker (1920-1955)
Parker's mother Adelaide "Addie" Bailey was of mixed Choctaw and African-American background.
Miles Davis (1926-1991)
Miles Davis is noted as being "of Cherokee ancestry." Featured in "A Weaving of Traditions" program honoring jazz musicians with Native roots. Specific genealogical documentation is limited.
Eartha Kitt (1927-2008)
Eartha Kitt's mother, Annie Mae Keith, was of Cherokee and African descent. This aspect of her heritage does not appear to have been prominently featured during her career. Born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina.
Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
Michael Jackson's father Joseph Jackson stated in his book "The Jacksons" that his great-grandfather Jack was born into a tribe of Choctaw Indians at the beginning of the 19th century. According to family account, Jack was an Indian shaman who fell in love with a Black slave named Gina. Michael and Jermaine Jackson also stated this heritage publicly.
A distant paternal cousin, Thomas Jackson III, partnered with FamilyTree DNA. Results showed the Jackson male line traces back to France, not Native Americans. Some sources suggest his great-great-grandfather July was the biological son of a white plantation owner named James Joel Richbourg. However: DNA testing traces patrilineal lineage only; maternal Indigenous ancestry could exist without appearing in Y-chromosome results. The claim may be partly true through a different lineage than assumed.
For the film: MJ is a case study in how oral history collides with paper records. Whether the specific Choctaw claim holds or not, the Jackson family's assertion — and the impossibility of proving it after generations of reclassification — IS the story.
James Brown (1933-2006)
James Brown claimed his paternal grandfather was "pure Indian, a Cherokee" and that his mother's ancestry had "a strong Asian element and some American Indian." All of his known documented ancestors are described as Black.
Historical context: Many African American families, especially those with roots in the South, have oral histories of Cherokee ancestry. Due to the one-drop rule, they would still be listed as Black or Mulatto on all records. The absence of documentation does not disprove the claim — it demonstrates the system working as designed.
Chaka Khan (b. 1953)
In 2016, Chaka Khan publicly stated she proudly comes from Native American ancestry and identifies as Blackfoot. During performances with Rufus, she sometimes included Native American garb in her stage attire. Genealogical sources do not include specific documentation of tribal enrollment or genetic verification.
Martha Redbone (Contemporary)
Mother: Mix of Chickamauga Cherokee, Shawnee, Blackfeet, and Mississippi Choctaw. Father: African-American and Lumbee from Robeson County, North Carolina.
In 2002, went public at the Native American Music Awards. Won Drama Desk Award (2020) for Outstanding Music in a Play. Named a United States Artist Fellow.
The New York Times described her voice as holding "both the taut determination of mountain music and the bite of American Indian singing."
For the film: Martha Redbone is a living embodiment of the thesis — a contemporary artist who carries multiple Indigenous lineages alongside African American heritage. She would be a powerful interview subject.
Additional Musicians with Documented Indigenous Roots
Featured in Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World and related sources:
- Jesse Ed Davis — Kiowa, Comanche, Seminole, Muscogee (documented)
- Link Wray — Shawnee (documented)
- Buffy Sainte-Marie — Cree (documented)
- Robbie Robertson — Mohawk/Cayuga (documented)
- Mildred Bailey — Coeur d'Alene (documented, first major female jazz vocalist)
Sinners (2025): The Proof of Concept
Choctaw Involvement
Eight members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians were directly involved in the film:
- Contributing to the opening war chant
- Taking on roles as vampire hunters
- Serving as cultural consultants
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians expressed their gratitude to Director Ryan Coogler for ensuring cultural accuracy, noting that the team cast actual Mississippi Choctaws, used accurate Choctaw language, and paid close attention to period-specific dress and cultural representation.
The Intermingled Histories
Coogler has spoken about the parallels drawn between African Americans, the Irish, and the Choctaw, noting the historical intermingling of these cultures in the Mississippi Delta and its influence on musical traditions.
The film includes the real history of the Choctaw sending money to the starving Irish during the English-induced famine of the 1840s, when the Choctaw were themselves experiencing genocide. This solidarity across oppressed peoples is central to the film's vision of a multiracial Delta where minoritized communities carry intertwined histories.
The Vampire as Colonial Metaphor
Coogler uses the figure of the vampire to critique the exploitative nature of colonial and capitalist systems while envisioning Black Southern music and memory as technologies of resistance, survival, and ancestral communion.
Miles Caton — "I Lied to You"
Miles Caton stars as Samuel "Sammie" Moore, an aspiring blues singer. The song "I Lied to You" was written by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson, set in 1932 Mississippi Delta. The lyrics — "they say the truth hurts, so I lied to you" — echo the film's themes of deception, erasure, and the cost of hidden truth.
Erased Communities
The Lumbee Tribe — North Carolina
The 1790 Federal Census of Robeson County identified all Lumbees as "free persons of color" — no category existed for Indians. Until 1835, Indians in Robeson County could vote, but those rights were stripped away through changes to North Carolina's constitution. On February 10, 1885, the state legally recognized their identity, but the damage to documentation was done.
Some scholars trace Lumbee ancestry to Virginia free Black ancestors from the 1630s-1690s (surnames: Oxendine, Gibson, Goins, Harris, Brooks, Johnson, Driggers) who migrated south to avoid rising prejudice.
The Melungeon People — Appalachia
"Melungeon" was a slur applied to individuals and families of mixed European, African, and Indigenous ancestry in colonial Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These "tri-racial isolates" settled in the Appalachian Mountains.
Plecker's attack (1943): He sent county officials a letter targeting "Tennessee Melungeons," directing offices to reclassify members of certain families as Black, causing loss of documentation showing their Indigenous identity.
The Goins Case (1915): Landmark court case: the Goins family sued the Indian Normal School at Pembroke, NC, which had refused to admit their children claiming they had Black ancestry. Because the school could produce no evidence to prove the family was not American Indian, the Goins family won. The system of erasure was challenged — and lost.
Louisiana Creoles of Color
Louisiana passed a law in 1970 declaring that anyone with one thirty-second of "Negro blood" was Black — the only law of its kind in the nation. It was repealed in 1983.
The Tignon law required Creole women of color to cover their heads with a scarf, making it easier to determine race "at a glance" since lighter skin or untextured hair could cause them to be mistaken for white.
Louisiana Creole scholars are now reclaiming their identity as a post-contact Afro-Indigenous culture, against the backdrop of ongoing anti-Blackness and Indigenous erasure.
Hollywood's Role in the Erasure
Redface: White Actors as "Indians"
The main excuse was that "there were not any Native Americans who could play the roles." The truth: Native Americans existed in Hollywood but were uncredited and struggling to survive. White actors were simply seen as more hireable.
- Burt Lancaster in redface as Massai, an Apache warrior — none of the Indians were played by Native actors
- Audrey Hepburn in redface as a Kiowa Indian
- Espera Oscar de Corti ("Iron Eyes Cody"), an Italian-American, had a decades-long career portraying Native Americans
The Darker Truth: Even Native Actors Were Altered
Even actual Native actors were sometimes subjected to darkening of their skin to fit a "realistic" depiction. Navajo actors working on John Ford's Monument Valley films were coached by white consultants on how to "act Indian" despite already being Native.
The Western genre constructed a single visual archetype of "the Indian" — straight-haired, copper-skinned, feathered and beaded. This wasn't just inaccurate. It was actively exclusionary. It told the world that Indigenous identity has a specific phenotype. If you don't look like the movies, you're not Indian. This visual propaganda has been more effective than any legislation at maintaining the erasure of darker-skinned Indigenous peoples.
Key Scholars: Interview Targets
Kyle T. Mays — UCLA
Identity: African American and Saginaw Chippewa. Position: Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at UCLA.
Key work: An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States. His talk "Who Gets to Be Indigenous?" directly addresses when Black Americans lost their indigeneity, arguing that Black Americans throughout the diaspora did not fully lose their indigeneity.
Tiya Miles — Harvard
Position: Michael Garvey Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard. Previously Chair of Afroamerican & African Studies and Director of Native American Studies at University of Michigan.
Key works: Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (2005); The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story (2010). Co-edited Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country (2007).
Recognition: MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award" Fellow (2011-2016).
Dina Gilio-Whitaker — CSU San Marcos
Identity: Colville Confederated Tribes direct descendant. Key insight: "Settler colonialism sweeps everybody into its orbit, People of Color included; it's not enough to look at Indigenous erasure through the lens of race, because it's not about race."
Key works: "All the Real Indians Died Off" and 20 Other Myths (2016, with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz); As Long as Grass Grows (2019); Who Gets to Be Indian?
Alaina E. Roberts — University of Pittsburgh
Key work: I've Been Here All Along: Black Freedom on Native Land (2021). Specializes in Black-Indigenous relations in Indian Territory — the exact geographic and political terrain of this film.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. Key insight: "Land conquest and chattel slavery are so interlinked that if you separate them, you end up with a distorted story."
Jack D. Forbes (1934-2011) — UC Davis
Key work: Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples (1993). Two decades of study. Canonical text. One of the first scholars to research shared African and Native histories. Helped found one of the first Native American Studies programs at a major university (UC Davis, 1969). Use archival footage if available; interview his academic heirs.
Academic Miseducation: The Numbers
Students who learn anything about Native Americans are often only offered the barest minimum: re-enacting the first Thanksgiving, building a California Spanish mission out of sugar cubes, or memorizing a flashcard about the Trail of Tears. Most students don't get comprehensive, thoughtful, or even accurate education in Native American history and culture.
The settler myth of early contact being one of mutual aid and friendship works to remove settler guilt for the genocide and land dispossession. By teaching that Native people "vanished," the curriculum makes the ongoing existence of Indigenous peoples — especially those with darker skin — invisible.
Every source is linked. Every claim is documented. This is not theory — it is evidence. The film's job is to put this evidence in front of an audience that has never seen it.