The Native pencil test decreed anyone with curly hair to be non-American Indian due to the straight hair myth enforced by white colonizers and Siberian Native Americans; however, melanated American Indian people with curls were oppressed by use of being deemed Black and misnomered by whites based on the fact that many Natives did not carry the straight hair gene. White people and Hollywood media utilized psychological warfare, only wanting to promote one hair trait, and did so for centuries, causing loss of culture and birthright for many full-blooded American Indians until now. Curly hair does not come from having an admixture of African or White blood; many full and close-to-full-blood melanated American Indians carry the curly hair gene, so for those ignorant folks out there stating otherwise, STOP pulling the “ADMIXTURE CARD” just because your closed and confused minds refuse to see the truth that melanated American Indians have more than one physical trait, which cannot be suppressed any longer by anyone who is biased to it simply due to their hate or misinformation. Truth is truth, so respect it.
The Native American pencil test all started when An american indian child in Robeson County, NC who had the exact same MATERNAL AND PATERNAL parents as their sibling was deemed not to be Native because they had curls and their (sibling) who had the very same mother and father as this child had the opposite, straight hair.
A physical anthropologist was also sent to determine the racial ancestry and degree of “Indian blood” of Robeson’s Indians. Both anthropologists used “scientifically based” means to determine the authenticity of physical features and blood type to ascertain if any of those tested would qualify as having half or more “Indian blood.” An example of the scientific means used to assess “Indianness” was the “pencil test. A pencil was slipped into a subject’s hair. If the pencil stayed after mild to vigorous shaking of the head, the subject’s hair was deemed too tight or “non-Indian.” If the pencil fell, it was understood to have fallen out of real Indian hair. OUT OF 209 LUMBEE INDIVIDUALS TESTED, 22 WERE CATEGORIZED BY SELTZER AS “INDIANS” (SELTZER 1936). In one particular instance of two full siblings, sharing the same parents, one was deemed to be Indian and the other non-Indian (Blu 1980:72).”
A physical anthropologist was also sent to determine the racial ancestry and degree of “Indian blood” of Robeson’s Indians. Both anthropologists used “scientifically based” means to determine the authenticity of physical features and blood type to ascertain if any of those tested would qualify as having half or more “Indian blood.” An example of the scientific means used to assess “Indianness” was the “pencil test. A pencil was slipped into a subject’s hair. If the pencil stayed after mild to vigorous shaking of the head, the subject’s hair was deemed too tight or “non-Indian.” If the pencil fell, it was understood to have fallen out of real Indian hair. OUT OF 209 LUMBEE INDIVIDUALS TESTED, 22 WERE CATEGORIZED BY SELTZER AS “INDIANS” (SELTZER 1936). In one particular instance of two full siblings, sharing the same parents, one was deemed to be Indian and the other non-Indian (Blu 1980:72).”
by Stargazer1411 August 11, 2025