Finding more information on my father

[purpleocelot]

Hello: First I want to say that I'm in my 50's now and I've been trying to find this information since I was about 18 years old, and have so far come up empty in all respects.

I've always been told my father was Blackfeet Indian, and thats about all I was told when I was growing up. Over the years I've contacted multitudes of American Indian organizations trying to find anything on him, all resulting in zero. I've made inquiries about birth certificate searches in Texas and surrounding states with his name, again, zero results.

After my mother died, I found some paperwork with his name on them, but no social security number, military number, or birth date. Apparently back in the 60's they only needed signatures for things. I did find out he was in the Air Force based in Colorado. The base does not exist anymore.

I was told back in the early 80's that he died, but not given much in the way of any other information. My mother was tight lipped about him and would never tell me anything other than he was Blackfeet Indian.........but MY birth cert if marked "white".

Since I found the paperwork that said he was in the military, I contacted the military archives in Washington, DC several times, who have never responded to my inquiry on how to get information on him.

I have a friend whose sister has one of those ancestry accounts and did some research for me on this, and never really found anything.

Aside from a DNA test, I'm at a dead end. And I don't even know what DNA test is best for finding out this kind of thing.

So, I'm wondering if there is something else I can try that I've missed or don't know about? Any suggestions?

Thanks

[OLChemist]

Welcome to powwows.com.


Blackfeet is one of those "tribes" that comes up a lot in family lore. It can be a somewhat murky term.

There are the Niitsítapi, the Blackfoot Confederacy, which is comprised of four nations: the Blackfoot, Bloods, Northern and Southern Piegan. Three of these groups live in Canada; only the Southern Piegan have a reservation in the US. Further clouding things are the Sihaspa, the Blackfeet Lakota. Then there is use in some African-American family stories of the term Blackfeet as a catch all for ancestors that claimed Native ancestry but did not have a known tribal affiliation.

Here are some resources for the Blackfeet Nation in Montana:


Blackfeet Genealogy Database

Free Indian Census Rolls

Blackfeet Nation Tribal Website