When bringing up the topic of having Native American heritage, many people will typically say someone in the family, usually a grandmother or grandfather or great-grandmother/ grandfather, always claimed they are at least part Native American. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for example, has said that she grew up with such stories in her own family.
According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 50 percent of people surveyed who claim a mixed heritage say their grandparents or parents are of non-Hispanic White and American Indian heritage.
“This is higher than what the U.S. Census data show,” says D’Vera Cohn, a senior writer and editor for the Pew Research Center. “The difference being that the census asks people to self-identify their own race, while our survey asked people to give the race of their parents and/or grandparents.”
Twenty-one percent of multiracial adults checked the non-Hispanic White/American Indian combination in the 2013 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
The difference may seem like comparing apples to apples, but while 50 percent of the people identified their parents or grandparents of being of Native American heritage, they didn’t identify themselves as being “multi-racial.” Only 25 percent of these same adults surveyed consider themselves multiracial.
In addition, 12 percent identify themselves as non-Hispanic Black and American Indian, while another 6 percent identify as non-Hispanic White, Black and American Indian. Another 11 percent identify as multiracial Hispanic.
Doctoral student Diana Hart’s birth certificate may identify her as “negro,” but she identifies herself as multiracial, based on family stories of being of mixed Black and Native American heritage. “My brother identifies as a Black man. My sister sort of identifies as a Black woman, but it isn’t easy for either of them,” Hart says.
