My understanding is that a lot of the "Cherokee blood" mythical ancestors for us whites were actually black, and for whatever racist reason it was more acceptable to say you had a Cherokee ancestor than a black one.
I believe it's also related to the same brain worms that led to the US naming all their attack helicopters after certain native tribes: these kinds of chuds always chose the "warlike" or "warrior" tribes (said with heavy air quotes here) as their "distant ancestry", because toughness or something
My understanding is that a lot of the "Cherokee blood" mythical ancestors for us whites were actually black, and for whatever racist reason it was more acceptable to say you had a Cherokee ancestor than a black one.
I think it was because there were some Cherokee slave owners, historically
I believe it's also related to the same brain worms that led to the US naming all their attack helicopters after certain native tribes: these kinds of chuds always chose the "warlike" or "warrior" tribes (said with heavy air quotes here) as their "distant ancestry", because toughness or something