If each of us was able to trace all of our lines back, and by "line" I mean the direct descent of each and every one of our ancestors, sooner or later we would all find ourselves a bit of everything. That is my sincere conviction because the math itself proves it.
In my lines, through my mother's great grandmother, I have Mohawk blood. A French Canadian ancestor, and my mother referred to him as a Canute, but I understand this term is not politically correct these days, named Collier married a Mohawk squaw and they settled in the Au Sable Forks Valley in northern New York near the Canadian border. My mother's mother was of English stock and my mother's father was almost pure Irish. These peoples had settled the Au Sable, Jay, Mohawk and Champlain valleys prior to the Revolution, and mother was a member of the DAR from one of these. Those valleys were Mohawk territory. The Mohawks were one of (some say) 5 or (some say) 6 tribes of the Iroquois nation; the only Native Americans with a written language.
I can prove my ancestry, so supposedly I could get on the tribal rolls; I do not actually know what it takes. The Mohawk tribe is officially in Canada these days. I have no desire to prove anything to anyone, except my children, who will inherit the family papers. And I feel my blood ties are way too watered down now for me to claim to "be" a Native American. But I do not hesitate to say proudly that I trace back to peoples who were here long before this continent was "discovered." Sort of pleasures me. My ancestor's name, for she was given one acceptable in her husband's community, was Phoebe Collier.
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