Been trying to track down some ancestors in my husband's lines that were Native Americans-don't know which tribe yet but it's been fascinating studying their history. Learned so much about our early American history too. It gives you a sense of where you fit in and how much things are changing and developing in our day and age. Ran into a new term for me "freedmen" seems these were slaves that were freed or became free men after the Civil War. Also found out that the Indian tribes had black slaves and intermarried with blacks as well as whites.
It was accepted because of the lack of white or caucasian women in the wild west that white men would intermarry with Native American women. Many early trappers did this. Intermarriage served two purposes for men-getting a wife and also being accepted into her tribe and being able to get land that way. It was rare that a white woman would marry a Native American man. No blacks and whites intermarried.
Nowadays we have blurred those lines and are overcoming hopefully our past racial prejudices. I know when I was in high school one of my best girl friends married a black man. It was a shocking thing in those days and their biracial children were discriminated against. They have now been happily married almost fifty years. So glad we are moving forward and welcoming a new President who has pushed back the racial barrier that Lincoln fought so hard to destroy-slavery of one man by another. On to the celebration of new more promising days for America.