"Full Blooded"

[freep]

In a discussion of Native Americans today I came across the term “full blooded.” It made we wonder, is anyone today “full blooded” anything?

Consider this: In Scotland there are many considered full blooded Scots. But are they? William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Bonnie Prince Charlie and the rest of the Stewarts, all these people are of note in Scottish history but are they full blooded Scots?

No. Wallace and Bruce were of Norman origins. The Stewarts were originally from Brittany. The Scots themselves are descended from Irish that invaded Caledonia around the 4th century. In time they intermingled with the earlier Britons that were there first. A bit later, in the north and west, Norse invaders mixed with the Scot and Pictish residents.

So, in a nation so fiercely proud of its heritage, by strict definition there are very few “full blooded” Scots. Unless or course, a people can absorb and assimilate an influx of alien blood and make the resulting combination a new and perhaps revitalized “full blood.”

Using this Scottish experience as a guide, perhaps then we're justified in celebrating our Scottish (and Pictish and Norman and Saxon and Norse and Briton and . . . ) blood in an American way.