Ancestral Amnesia: A Hallmark of the Western Mind

Many White people have never thought about the indigenous European peoples as THEIR ancestors. This was not by accident, it was by design. We're being called to reconnect.

ChatGPT’s rendition of me connecting with some of my ancient Celtic ancestor Guides

Growing up, my maternal grandfather’s family was obsessed with a family story that my 3rd-great-grandmother was part Cherokee (one of the groups of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island). This tradition was held with absolute certainty. It was actually the catalyst for my nerdy little gay teenage self to dive into genealogy research. The idea of having an Indigenous American connection was magical to me. Even though I wasn’t sure why.

Turns out, though, the family lore was false. Like, really false. Nothing but White, settler-colonial ancestors to see on that lineage—and all of my other lineages.

Americans and Cherokee Ancestors

As a genealogist with now 30 years of very extensive experience, I cannot tell you the number of people I have encountered (clients or otherwise) who have a similar story: that some great-great-grandmother (it’s almost ALWAYS a grandmother) was part Cherokee (and it’s almost ALWAYS Cherokee).

I won’t do a deep dive on this here, but starting in the early-1900s (and up into the 1930s), White Americans became very fascinated with Indigenous peoples, despite all of the harmful and egregious ways the federal and state governments, in tandem with religious institutions, were actively working to erase Indigenous culture with forced relocations, cultural shaming and assimilation, forced removal of children to boarding schools, and many other hurtful programs and actions.

Despite romanticized fascination of Indigenous peoples, make no mistake there were still racist views heavily baked into the American cultural and structural systems. However, scores of White Americans started believing they had an Indigenous ancestor. I could offer more insights from my own study and research experience as to why this was, but for now, I only wish to highlight that many family myths surrounding Indigenous ancestors have origins in this early-1900s era.

Out of hundreds of times over the years in helping people explore such myths, I can count on two fingers the number of times a story actually resulted in a legitimate, documentable connection to an Indigenous American ancestor. I even stopped taking clients with these research requests years ago because what I found over and over again were people who, despite my very expert skills and insight, refused to accept the conclusion that there were no Indigenous American ancestors to be found in their family trees.

Despite all the various ways these untrue family stories of Indigenous ancestors originated, I have a sense there is a common thread as to the deeper, and perhaps less-conscious, motivation.

Our Need to Belong

Humans come from the earth. Our bodies are made of the composted bodies of other beings time and time again. Our blood is made of the waters that have been part of this planet for billions of years. We breathe air that has been breathed by countless other beings for that same amount of time. Simply put: we belong to the Earth, our Great Mother.

Because we belong to Her, I believe our human DNA carries a deep, innate spiritual need to feel belonging and connection with our Mother, the Earth Goddess. I sense it’s one of our most primal, foundational belonging needs.

The portals to deep Earth connection are the unique, specific patches of land we get to call home. And this applies to all of us, regardless of how long we, or our lineage ancestors, may have lived in a specific place. However, when people hold deep relationality with a particular place for generations, a unique culture arises that bears the unique imprints of the land—its climate, topography, natural features, plants, animals, soils, available fibers to make clothing, dyes to color those clothes, songs inspired by the local mountains and rivers, etc. Culture (real culture, that is) comes from the land; and culture connects us to Mother Earth through a specific piece of Her great body—thereby allowing humans to have one of their most basic needs of deep belonging met.

Indigenous cultures (past and present) hold deep, rich relationality with the lands they call home, and thus a vibrant connection to the Earth Mother herself. Cultures rooted in earth/land-based relationality also serve as nourishing containers for another primal belonging need—to belong in community. Being woven into interconnected and interdependent human communities within a larger tapestry of an interconnected non-human world is one of the core characteristics of Indigenous peoples.

Through a myriad of violent, brutal, and tragic historical events, the indigenous cultures of Europe were shattered, and the relationships that had been held and tended for thousands of years with the respective lands largely died. People were displaced, forced to migrate around, abandon ancient languages, convert to Christianity, and abandon the customs, the songs, the dances, and the rituals that were gifts of the lands to their ancient ancestors. And yet, even though the cultures were broken and dismantled, and in many cases destroyed, what was not destroyed was the innate need and yearning to belong to Mother Earth.

So, while they likely never had the awareness to recognize it, I believe early American settlers and colonists, despite their distain, racist views, and harmful actions towards Indigenous peoples, also carried with them a deep, hidden jealousy—jealousy that they didn’t know how to speak with the river, dance with the Moon spirit, commune with the ancestors, speak and heal with the plants, interpret the dreams, know their gifts to offer community, receive a rite of passage as a youth, and so on, and so on, and so on. So, when early-20th century Americans developed a new, romanticized fascination with Indigeneity (believing it had been, or was close to being, completely erased), I suspect it was this deep, innate yearning to belong to the Earth that was really at the root of it. Because humans yearn to belong to a land and a village.

Westerners Yearn for Indigeneity

The structural systems of Whiteness, Colonialism, Capitalism, Patriarchy, etc. are crumbling. And the harmful spirit forces that have occupied those structural bodies are freaking out. Why wouldn’t they? Their losing their power, their grasp, their pervasiveness, and the energetic human bodies they feast on. And we can see their trembling—manifest through the fears expressed in human bodies they have so carefully entangled themselves with. Yet, the great Earth Mother, along with other benevolent forces and wise, ancient loving Ancestors are stirring human souls awake.

Yes, I believe we are waking up! And I know it doesn’t seem like it when we scroll through our social media doom feeds, or when we see calculated politicians and news anchors spinning narratives designed to keep us captive. But humans are being moved through a process of remembering.

I know the Matrix movie is WAY over-used in spiritual analogies, but I resonate with it SO MUCH… So, hang in there with me... Like the character Neo, it was only about seven years ago when I was jolted awake to find myself gasping for breath inside my proverbial Matrix pod prison. It was both a journey and a process, but I soon came to realize that much of the world I thought I knew was a fabricated illusion cast upon a sleeping soul. The difference from the movie, though, was that I found the “real world” to be far more beautiful, nourishing, expansive, and breathtaking! And it is.

I’ve shared this before in my writings, but discovering Ancestral Lineage Healing work was one of the key tools that re-wove me back into the “real world.” And one of the greatest gifts of the work was, for the first time, coming to realize that I DID INDEED have indigenous ancestors after all! They just weren’t the Cherokee ones I had once expected.

Growing up, I remember in history classes learning about Celtic peoples of Britain, the “mysterious” people who built Stonehenge, laughing about the “silly” pantheon of Norse or Greco-Roman deities, or the the “barbaric” Germanic tribes who fought against the Roman Empire. However, never once do I remember a teacher or any other adult in my life connecting the dots to explain that THESE WERE MY ANCESTORS! The indigenous, Pagan European peoples have been completely othered in Christian Western culture as being “not us”!

I have found this to be a common thing for many White American clients I have worked with. Many have never thought about their ancestors before Christian times. This was not by accident, it was by design.

As conquered peoples of Europe were forced to convert to Christianity, rulers and clergy worked hard to vilify the Pagan, animist, earth-honoring traditions of the conquered—lacing them with shame and disgust. They wanted there to be a literal severing with these ancestors. Even for many folks today, the word “Pagan” often conjures up dark, false images of devil worship, goat sacrifices, and forest orgies. These Christian ideologues did their work well.

Growing up Mormon, I was even taught that all White European peoples were actually descended from the lost Israelite tribe of Ephraim! This is not only laughably false, it is now heartbreaking to me. My indigenous ancestors were erased from memory and replaced with an actual, fabricated story that offered someone what they felt was a more palatable, divine origin story for White people—White Supremacy in action.

Reclaiming Connection with the Ancients

Spiritually connecting with any of our ancestors who are vibrant and well in spirit is beautiful and important! But there is an aspect of ancestor connection work that I have found to be not only life-changing, but game-changing for our personal and collective healing. This is the work of intentionally connecting with our own ancient, pre-Christian indigenous ancestors!

Turns out I didn’t need a 3rd-great Cherokee grandmother to find and reclaim my connection to Mother Earth. I needed to learn how to call in ancient, wise, magickal, witchy Celtic grandmothers—grandmothers who could teach me how they spoke with the Yew and Oak trees, how they worked with the Rosemary spirit in ritual, and how they sang and made offerings to the goddesses Danu, Brigid, and Ceridwen. I needed ancient grandmothers, grandfathers, and gender-blessed ones who could help me feel the power of pure, unfiltered, unconditional love that has not been fully felt in my lineages for over two thousand years! I needed these ancient grandparents to show me how traumas were born in my lineages, and then more importantly, how to heal those traumas with medicines found in the lineage gifts, rituals, and practices that helped me reconnect back to Mother Gaia and the greater Divine at large!

We are being moved by our ancient, pre-Christian Ancestors to reclaim and remember the earth magick that is embedded in our DNA. We’re being called to heal. We’re being called and supported to un-do the spells of amnesia that harmful systems of power cast upon us centuries ago. Yes, much of the earth-honoring ways of the ancient Indo-European peoples have been lost; but much can be reclaimed, and even more can be reimagined as we re-connect ourselves back into the vein of Spirit that can flow from the Ancestor Realms into our own bodies!

If you feel called to learn more about ancestral connection and Ancestral Lineage Healing work, I welcome you to connect with me. It would be an honor to hold space for you and guide you in learning how to reconnect with the Ancestors who are eagerly waiting to embrace you and teach you their magick!