Was anyone else’s ethnic background improperly reported when they were adopted?
When I (28F) was adopted, my parents were told that I was around 1/2 Native American, so they “raised me to be proud of who I was.” They had me active in the community, I took special history/culture classes while being homeschooled on my “tribe,” and learned musical instruments and beadwork.
Then in my adult life my mom gives me the gift of an Ancestry DNA test so I have a chance at finding my biological family (they were okay with contact, my mom just couldn’t find them after losing touch long ago) and my “ethnic profile” results says that I’m almost completely Scottish, English, and German with only a minuscule amount of Native in me. (Cue the identity crisis)
So now after all these years of being proud of who I was, then finding out it wasn’t true, it’s allegedly “cultural appropriation” to wear, enjoy, and participate in things that I thought for so long were a part of me. Now I guess I’m “just like every other white girl that wears a headdress to Coachella” even though that’s never been me.
Has this happened to anyone else? What do you do when you find out your life is a lie?