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Interesting, this is not one that I had on my bingo card.
I guess the possibility of extramarital relations on the part of her mother is not addressed -- this seems similarly plausible with Turpell-Lafonde as something which one might know but not want to publicize, leading to the fun web of lies for journalists to dig into. (and not contradicted by the birth certificate)
She certainly looks very indian in all the pictures from cradle to (near) grave -- much more so than anyone else in her family.
Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera Oscar de Corti, confusing Italian blood for Native is not unusual.
Sure, and he looks about like DeNiro or Alan Alda (nee Abruzzo) when you get him out of the Indian drag: https://oldshowbiz.tumblr.com/post/187609018569/iron-eyes-cody-and-rodd-redwing-were-a-pair-of
I'm not saying that an Italian can't fool Americans who have never seen an Indian into thinking they're an Indian -- I'm saying that I grew up around little Indian girls who looked just like her in her toddler pictures; their moms looked just like her on her album covers, and now she looks just like their grandmas.
She didn't even start wearing Indian stuff on her album covers until some time in the seventies; I'm not saying I couldn't be wrong, but 'long hair, some feathers and a tan' are what I'm talking about at all.
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Her father was Italian, so depending where her paternal grandparents came from (e.g. Sicily which has been colonised by Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians, then much later by Arabs, in between bouts of Western Europeans invading), she could be very dark-skinned and 'foreign' looking for someone born in New England.
She could, but that's not what I mean -- I grew up around lots of (Western) Canadian Indians, and she looks a lot like them through the years. More facial structure than complexion.
If she could prove recent native ancestry via DNA test (anything more than 10%, even), she obviously would, that would be a slam dunk.
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Yeah, when you say "a lassie with black hair and olive complexion" you could easily be describing my half-Italian (part Sicilian) sister. But I'd be the guy to look at such a person and tell them they looked more like they were from New Jersey than the First Nations, which is probably one of the reasons I'd make a lousy music promoter.
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I seem to recall that this was the defense of Shaun King (I think? Some BLM activist) who was accused of Dolezal-ing. This seems like the perfect response to any accusations like this. The people who want to believe have a possible - perhaps even plausible - narrative they can latch onto, giving you the support you might need for facing the accusations. And the people accusing you have almost no recourse to actually verify your claims. DNA tests aren't common, and the father might be long gone anyway, and DNA tests are fallible too.
King probably is ‘biracial’ in the sense that I think he clearly has some black ancestry, even though he’s obviously mostly of European descent.
In the case of alleged ‘pretendians’, DNA tests are an easy way of refuting allegations.
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Very likely in this case -- I think Buffy's in her 80s!
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