Prior to 1492 our Yesah ancestors lived in a loving spiritual based world where all decisions were made based upon the unseen world.  White people created a world where in all situations the empirical evidence that we see, touch, taste, smell and hear in the physical world, with our five senses is how we determine reality.  It is called science, logic, analysis and it is seen as absolute.  

Today we send people to the electric chair, we sentence people to life in prison, we decide if food is rotten or eatable, we decide people’s race, we make life and death driving decisions daily all based upon the five senses and the empirical evidence—what we see, touch, taste, smell and hear.  If we hear a bear growl in the woods and then we see the bear with our eyes, we don’t check bear’s dna or go to the courthouse records to see what someone wrote down 300 years ago, in order to decide if it is a bear.  We conclude that it is a bear based upon what we see and hear—the empirical evidence of our five senses.  And we take the appropriate life or death actions.

In science we accept as truth and reality the idea or theory which is supported by the most or the preponderance of the evidence.  In court we find people guilty and sentence them to long prison terms or death based upon the preponderance of empirical evidence. And once found guilty the judge does not qualify their statements.  They state as an unequivocable absolute fact that you are guilty with no qualifications. In ALL areas of life empirical evidence is the golden rule for determining reality for everything. 

When they came to our Yesah land they were so adamant about empirical evidence being the only way to determine reality that they were willing to exterminate Natives to force the empirical worldview upon Natives.

However, when today when it comes to one thing--who is native--they decided to create some different rules.  When it comes to who is Native they ignored this universal rule that they always go by with everything else and changed the rules to favor their self-interest and be biased, racist and genocidal against Natives.  This is where we get the saying, white man speaks with fork tongue.

When it comes to who is Native and can claim their tribal identity White people created the criteria to be recognized as Native decades ago.  However, this criteria is impossible to meet for the vast majority of Natives in the USA thus it works to have the intentional affect of reducing the Native population.   Most tribes who have received recognition in the past decades did not meet the criteria but got their recognition by acts of state and federal legislatures.

When is comes to determining who is native we must use the same standard as in all other areas of life.  Why must natives have some different and higher standard to meet--that is possible for only a relative few Natives to meet?  This is a form of genocide. To be held to a higher standard than anything else in life is blatant racism and white supremacy for purposes of land theft and maintaining possession of stolen Native land.  To support the tighter standards, that white people set for determining who is Native, is to support the genocide and ethnic cleansing that white people perpetrated against Native people since 1492. 

Thus our criteria for determining who is Yesah Native or a Yesah Native descendent is based upon reasonable or the preponderance of empirical evidence just as in all other areas of life.

The reason that "they" say, "A picture is worth a thousand words" is because it is. That includes a thousands words recorded by racist white supremacists white  census takers, a thousands words recorded by racist white supremacists white hospital birth certificate administrators, and a thousands words written by white supremacists white clerks of court and a thousands words by recorded by racist white supremacists white historians and a thousands words by recorded by racist white supremacists white county coroners. . 

We cannot be gullible and foolish enough to allow white supremacists to try to change the rules on us and create some new rules for determining reality ONLY when it comes to who is Native and who is not.  And have us chasing a our tails for a few crumbs.  They left a few crumbs so that masses of Natives would not be able to claim Native by their rules.  But their rules are not absolute.  Empirical evidence is absolute.  The tens of thousands of people in Southside VA that we know are Yesah Natives or Native descendants because our eyes tell us so, along with the oral history from their families, and the locations and histories of their families are not going to be denied our true heritage because white supremacists intentionally mislabeled, destroyed records, changed records and exterminated our oral traditions.  We are here and growing and not going anywhere.

Preponderance of Empirical Evidence 

Based upon the above, the preponderance of empirical evidence shows that Ralph Travis, pictured below, to be unequivocally Yesah Native based upon his phenotype and the fact that he was born on the Saponi reservation land and has lived their most of his life and his family, who also have significant Native phenotype and has lived there going all of the way back to the 1700's. 

Additional evidence is great but not necessary to conclude and state without qualification who Ralph Travis is. Likewise with Alise Clay of Clarksville Virginia, home of Occoneechee Island and the Occoneechee people.  With her family being from Occoneechee, still living in the area and going all of the way back to the 1700 and 1800s and with her family having significant Native phenotype, it is reasonable to conclude and a preponderance of empirical evidence shows, that she is unequivocally Occoneechee Native.  More evidence is great but again not necessary unless one is intentionally trying to keep the Native population artificially and untruthfully low.

 

Likewise with Eola Valentine below of Bracey VA community.

Since we are a biological species our DNA determines all physical aspects of who we are including what we look like.  Thus is we look Native and we are living on a Native reservation and our family looks Native and we have oral or documented history of being Native and we have Native customs, then we are Native.  This is not rocket science. 

How can phenotype be absolute when there have been people of Asian, Black and White ancestry who looked native and have faked their way in Indian country?  Supporters of white supremacy will say, but look at Buffy Saint Marie, she looks Native and she faked her way into Indian fame and money and it was a complete fabrication and lie, of a pretend Indian, who was doing significant tanning.  However, Buffy only met one of the criteria above.  It is impossible to fake all of the criteria above as a non-Native.  Again we must take into account the preponderance of ALL of the empirical evidence and not just one narrow sliver.  One cannot fake an entire community of hundreds Native looking people documented and connected to the Saponi Reservation such as this:

 

The Case for Phenotype

From the time white people set foot in the Western Hemisphere to the late 1700s they were deciding who was Native based upon phenotype.  Imagine Columbus and his crew determining who was Native and who they would enslave, Their assessment was based upon phenotype and empirical evidence and it is 100% guaranteed that they were correct in their assessment 100% of the time.  And this was true from 1492 to the 1800s.  So why did white people change the criteria?

In the 1800s white courts stopped using phenotype.  White people, white judges and white courts shifted to "official" documentation because the courts were freeing too many Native "slaves" who were illegally kidnapped and being held in bondage.  White people were losing today's equivalent of millions of dollars of "property" because of the powerful undeniability of phenotype.  

In the the 1800's the white people shifted to only accepting official documentation to prove that one is Native in court.  This corrupt and manipulative action forced a higher, and most of the time, impossible level to evidence to meet. This was because white people controlled what was documented and they artificially manipulated the records and thus maintained an artificially low Native population.  The quote below is from an article regarding Natives in the 1700s suing for freedom in courts in Yesah territory of Dinwiddie County Virginia..

"Physical features in other words, tell the judge everything he needs to know about race. . . The NOSE on one's face explained family history far better than any genealogical evidence a plaintiff brought to the court."

We have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amuck into only using white supremacist manipulated false documentation to decide who is Native to be recognized by state and federal government entities. This is pure racism of a rigged system and a continuation of the genocide since 1492.  Most of the tens of thousands of Yesah Native descendants in Virginia do not have historic documents proving who they are because white supremacists intentionally destroyed, distorted, lied so that there would not be documentation for the masses of Yesah Native descendants. 

So if we only use the system created for us by white supremacists, of historical documentation, we as a whole Yesah people, have been checkmated before we even sit down to play the game.  And the number of Yesah Natives or Yesah Native descendants or Yesah tribes and Native Americans in general will always be artificially low--thus keeping us politically powerless in our own homeland. xx

Keep in mind that there is no tribe in the state of Virginia who has met the state or federal criteria for recognition.  All tribes recognized by state of Virginia or the federal government has occurred via the political process and the reason always given is that it is impossible to meet the criteria. therefore. the political process is the only route.

The Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of Virginia is still living on the Saponi reservation in Brunswick County Virginia. Looking at our people one clearly sees undeniable Native phenotype as shown here. We have historic and genealogical records linking us back our Saponi ancestors from the 1700's in Brunswick County VA.  However, there of tens of thousands of Yesah Native descendants from all over Virginia that do not have this mountain of hard evidence that the Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe has.  Thus it is our intention to use our evidence to reveal tens of thousands of Yesah Native "descendants" in Virginia.

White supremacists have worked diligently since 1492 to reduce the documented evidence and thus reduce our numbers and detach us from our Native identity via paper and identity genocide.. The most famous example is the Va state registrar Walter Pleckler in the early 1900s. As stated through out this website Pleckler, just 100 years ago was so focused on completely eliminating the remaining Virginia Native population because as long as there are Virginia Natives left in Virginia there is always the potential for challenge to the ownership of the land.  Since 1492 it has always been about the land and today the continued genocide via the recognition process and other micro genocide actions is about the land.

 

THE FACE OF EVIL

We Greentown Natives have the same family racial make up and same family oral history as the tens of thousands of the other Yesah Native descendants from through out Virginia. The point of this section on the Native phenotype is to say if we are Native or Native descendants then so are these tens of thousands of others like us. 

My nose, profile and phenotype is proof that I am Native, and me being native proves that my Southside family is Native.  If my southside VA family is native, then this proves there are Natives in Southside VA and we are not extinct. If we are not extinct then this strengthens all people in Southside VA with reasonable claims of being Yesah Native descendant.  Barry Carter

Below is a piece from an article regarding how judges in Dinwiddie County Virginia in the 1700s were deciding who was Native (Saponi) and who was not.  The point is that phenotype is real and it does have a historic and legal basis in law and precedent in history and Virginia courts for deciding who is Native.  The point of presenting this evidence here, has nothing to do with slavery or whether the person is African.  It could just as easily be an Irish person with red hair and freckles or a blonde blued eyed Swedish person.  The point is phenotype is the best evidence in determining who is Native and it has a legal and historic basis in Virginia.  

Phenotype, as the judge says, above is the ultimate and best proof of Native.  The article goes on to say that white judges stopped using phenotype as the deciding factor and shifted to documentation because they were freeing too many Natives being who were illegally held in bondage, using phenotype. reference

Though the judge's logic one can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that one has Native ancestry or DNA it does not disprove that an individual who does not have significant Native phenotype is not Native.  This is because of the way genetics works. One brother in a family could look black or white and another brother look Native and they have the same parents. However, if one looks at an entire extended family, a family with significant Native ancestry, will have significant Native phenotype in many of its members.  This is science and genetics and 100% concrete proof both of significant Native ancestry.  Statistically if there is significant Native DNA or ancestry then many family members will have significant Native phenotype. 

Based upon the above if you are biologically connected to a family with undeniably and significant native phenotype and other empirical evidence  this make you a Native descendent regardless of how you look or how little Native DNA you have.

If one is biologically connected to someone or a family who undeniably has significant native phenotype and a preponderance of the empirical  evidence shows them to be Native, then this make you at a minimum a "Native descendent" regardless of how you look or how little Native DNA you have."  This being said, using the same rules of empirical evidence we must be consistent and understand there are limits to who can be considered Native and there is a difference in being Native and a Native descendant as explored here.  Some groups and tribes today seeking some form of recognition are actually Native descendants based upon the rules of preponderance of the empirical  evidence.

And likewise some tribes today who have received government recognition for all intents and purposes are not Native but are Native descendants. If your family  can operate in the world and get all of the perks and white privilege of being white because you look 100% white and if you have Native Ancestry then for all intents and purposes you are white and therefore are a Native descendant. Again the case for this is made in far more detail here.  

We Yesah people will not be denied our rights and our political power in our own homeland because of some clever and manipulative white supremacist genocidists, such as Walter Pleckler, put systems in place to deny us decades and centuries ago.

 There is no other Nose and Profile in the World

Like the Unique Ancient Native Nose and Profile

It is a phenotype that is instantly recognized as Native American anywhere that it is seen in the world!

              

  The undeniable ancient Native profile-phenotype is not present in all Native communities but families and communities where it is present have 100% proof of a community with significant Native ancestry! 

Barry Carter of the Greentown Native Community

The Native Phenotype is Distinct and Unique

 

The ancient Native nose and profile is now somewhat rare in Northern English speaking Natives because of the genocide.  But it is common with the 660 million Spanish speaking Natives in the USA and the rest of the single American land mass..

 

 

But the ancient Native nose is alive in the Occoneechee-Saponi-Totarto Tribe of the Saponi Reservation in Brunswick County VA

 

Barry Carter of the Greentown Native Community

Barry's native phenotype is reflected in his mother Eleanor Travis and his sister Cheryl Carter, great uncle Harding Travis, great aunt Agnes Travis and his son Travis Carter all of Greentown.

 

 

 

 

 

Barry Carter of the Greentown Native Community 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even when they try to belittle us they are making our case for us. This is because the ancient Native nose is such a well know phenotype that the ancient Native nose is the Native characture to illustrate Native!