Difficulty in Native Leadership

[reocurringdream]

Most American Indians fear change because they believe it will make them non-Indian. That's sad as, if what you do changes who you are, you have just made an intrinsic value extrinsic.

To wit, if every Native person, en masse, decided we were going to shave our heads, dye ourselves blue and live in geodesic domes we stepped out of every ten years we would STILL be Native people.

It's a good point. But I then wonder what the fear about 'what makes one's identity?' is from. Is it something you choose, your bloodline, is it told to you (i.e. your parents), how you look, how you are perceived by others,...? Could a white person choose to be nDn and be just as valid as a "real" nDn? How is identity determined?
For example, I have mixed race black friends, and they say they are black, irrespective of the other race. I get the feeling they think it has a lot to do with how they are perceived by others. In school, growing up, I remember how there was an argument about how one person said they were black, but other blacks didn't see him as black. He was lighter skinned, and was mainly accused of not 'acting' black. Now it seems "acting" black means rejecting white. You're black if you say you are black, have black blood, and reject the white.