Black Natives exist! We are Indigenous peoples of (what is currently known as) the Americas and the Caribbean, and we are also the descendants of Indigenous peoples of Africa. This idenтιтy often includes Freedmen—the free men and women who were once enslaved by citizens of the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, and Choctaw)—and their descendants. Black Natives and Freedmen are the legacy of our Black and Native ancestors. We are the personification of their joy, pain, resistance, and endurance, and it is because of our Black and Native ancestors’ hope and resilience that we are still here.

It is impossible to lump Black-Native idenтιтies into a single idenтιтy. We are as diverse as we are numerous and our lived experiences, like our idenтιтies, are not monolithic. We therefore refer to ourselves in a number of ways, such as “Afro-Indigenous,” “Black Native,” “Indigenous and Black,” “Black and Native,” “Black and a tribal idenтιтy.” Many of us, by choosing to honor both our peoples through our idenтιтies, are intentionally pushing back against America’s tradition of classifying people into distinct racial categories. We are pushing back against society’s pressure to choose between our idenтιтies because we may look more like one than the other, or not enough of both. Some of us are even simultaneously decompartmentalizing and desegregating our Black and Native idenтιтies by using traditional language or developing a new language of resistance to speak to who we are and the peoples we come from.