Great question Zuri. Here's how I relate my answer through my own experience of ancestry. When I met my birth father in my late 30s, I found out that my DNA from him was Welsh and Cherokee, not French/Irish/Native American as I had been told as a child. So I am supposedly one quarter Cherokee. Theoretically that would make me eligible for federal benefits. I would never dream of applying for any such money because I don't live as a Cherokee and I would feel guilty taking money I don't deserve except for genetics! I would just know that my selfishness would impact some young Cherokee woman in Oklahoma who (for instance) didn't get some extra money for college and doesn't have the same privileges I had growing up white and middle class. That money would mean way more to her life than it would to mine, I'm sure.
Having said all that though, I've long been interested in Native American cultures, mainly because of the reverence for Mother Earth and the awareness that all beings equally share this planet. Since I was 6 I've been fascinated with the cliff dwelling and pueblo cultures of the Southwest U.S. and have often traveled to that area and visited Native places as a respectful tourist and invited spiritual pilgrim. I've traveled in northern Georgia exploring the Cherokee country [ETA after I learned my true ancestry] and learned about the sophisticated culture that was the Cherokee Nation in the early days of the United States. I've stood in the fields of the last Cherokee capitol where they were rounded up for the march on the Trail of Tears. My tears flowed for the grief and fear of being ripped from their home and the land that they considered their Mother. I've also toured a lovely brick mansion with the rolling fields of a plantation owned by one of the wealthiest Cherokee men in the area at the time, who owned hundreds of slaves. I came face to face with the history of Cherokee living as white people - assimilating to the point of owning other humans - and I felt sick inside.
But I think that anyone with a normal compassionate heart would feel those things, wouldn't they? Do I feel it more strongly because of my Cherokee DNA? I dunno!
As to your question about suddenly identifying yourself as Irish and if that would offend people from Ireland, my experience of traveling on the Emerald Isle says that as long as you are buying the Guinness, no one is going to complain
They are a very warm people, generally speaking. They live in a magical place and they love sharing it with visitors. You should go visit sometime. I guarantee you will fall in love with the place. It's impossible not to, IMVHO.BTW, the Irish culture is very ancient and the ancient Celts were very well traveled. There's a great book called How The Irish Saved Civilization, that I highly recommend.
