Native Heritage

I have read with great delight your article “Trail of Tears” (Sept. 5). As an African Choctaw woman, I visited both the Mississippi band of Choctaw and the Oklahoma band. I have been investigating my heritage and the increasing presence of black Indians in the powwow arenas. The more people who have the chance to gain more knowledge about this often neglected topic, the sooner we can begin to bridge the gap between Indians and their black kin.

I have recently completed a photographic essay of 50 urban black Indians in the Southern California area. It will be exhibited at the William Grant Still Art Center in Los Angeles beginning Nov. 7. Inspired, in part, by the Black Native American Assn. in the Bay Area, we have formed the African Native Americans of Southern California.

VALENA DISMUKES

Vice President, ANASCA

Los Angeles