I do a lot of child abuse and neglect cases, and one of the issues that always has to be addressed is Native American status. A while back the Indian community became concerned that State Child Welfare agencies were putting a disproportionate number of Native American children into foster care. So there is a Federal Law that says that if an adult or child involved in an abuse or neglect case is associated with an Indian tribe, a slightly different standard applies for foster care placement and the Indian tribe has the right to intervene in the case.

As a result, in every abuse or neglect case I have to check to see whether my client, the other parent, or their child fits the criteria. A surprising number of the poor have Indian blood. Most of them don't fit in the statute, but I would say about 1 in 4 will tell me they have a fair amount of Indian blood.

And I've gotten to the point where I can spot it. The cheekbones are usually a give away, but the shape of the eyes, the skin tone, and the hair color can also give clues. I can see similar features in people I see in the streets

There are very few people who claim to be Indian left. I think the numbers are less than 1% of our population. But I think if we were to look at how many people in the country are of Indian descent, the numbers would be much higher. Many Native Americans interbred so much that they no longer consider themselves Indian. Looking at my mother's cheekbones and my pictures of my grandfather's face, I wonder if there might not be a bit of Indian in there with the Irish blood. We've tracked the family name back to the 1820s, but the fellow that came on the boat into Philadelphia married someone who had grown up in the U.S.

The truth is though that when we speak about what we did to the Indians, what we are really talking about is what we did to ourselves. The culture and language may be English in origin, but the people of the U.S. are Americans, racially a mixed bag from everywhere. Including here.