It’s weird to grow up “white” but be part-Native American. I always longed for a rich, fully involved cultural heritage and known family lineage. Some of my girlfriends went to frequent pow-wows, had grandmothers with homemade frybread recipes, and who won Indian Princess contests with their beads and homemade dresses year after year. By contrast, my grandfather’s father, who was a full-blood Cherokee, converted to become a Southern Baptist at some point in his young life. He was awarded a scholarship to study seminary at Haskell College (now Haskell Indian Nations University), and proceeded to convert Cherokees on the Reservation to become Baptist Christians, too. He did not teach his children anything of their native customs, heritage or language, but showed them how to assimilate, as best they could, into small town, white Oklahoman culture. My grandfather was in the Army Reserve and married a white woman (my grandmother). What is assimilation? Part of assi