American Negroes: Indigenous Prisoners of War, Not Slaves The historical identity of American Negroes remains central to continuing debates over Indigenous ancestry, racial classification and the treatment of Native populations following European arrival. The narrative presented by proponents of Indigenous Negro history is that Negro people were Indigenous to the land and that the systems later described through racial terminology obscured their original identity. Under this interpretation, people classified as Negro were prisoners of war in their own territory rather than members of a population whose history began elsewhere. Historical records establish that Indigenous peoples occupied North America before European colonization and that warfare, captivity, forced removal and enslavement occurred during the colonial period. Records also demonstrate that government officials repeatedly changed racial classifications and definitions. Federal census records provide documented examples. The 1930 census instructions directed enumerators to classify people with White and Negro ancestry as Negro, regardless of the proportion of ancestry involved. The same instructions addressed people with both Negro and American Indian ancestry, demonstrating that government classification could determine how mixed ancestry appeared in official records. Historical census reports also used terms such as “full-blood” and “mixed-blood” when documenting Indian populations and recognized combinations of Indian, Negro and White ancestry. These records demonstrate that ancestry and government racial classification were not always identical. The historical debate therefore extends beyond simple racial labels. Supporters of the Indigenous Negro interpretation argue that changing classifications helped obscure older identities and relationships to the land. Individual family histories can be examined through census schedules, land records, court documents, tribal records, church records and