How weird is it that all four top Heisman candidates (Tebow, Bradford, McCoy, Harrell) are white? (though Bradford is part Native American)

There is some delicacy in glorifying the connection. Bradford’s father is one-eighth Native American descent; his great-grandmother, Susie Walkingstick, was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. Bradford, whose mother, Martha, is white, is one-sixteenth. But until OU began publicizing his lineage, it wasn’t a story line in his life.

“I knew I was part Cherokee. My dad had told me that,” Bradford says. “But as far as actually talking about it (in depth), no. Nobody really brought it up.”

Says his dad, who played with the Sooners from 1975-78 under Barry Switzer and now, at 51, is an Oklahoma City insurance agent: “It is our heritage. Yeah, we’re proud of it. But we haven’t ever been active in it or anything. I don’t know how that topic came up.

“It’s not a problem. I’m comfortable with it. But I’m not the one who was claiming Indian heritage. … We’re, you know, just normal people. We’re not Indian, white, anything.”

Beyond Susie Walkingstick’s name, the elder Bradford says his family — Sam is an only child — knows little about her.

When the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, which serves Native Americans in central Oklahoma, honors Bradford at its annual powwow next spring, he says it’ll be the first Native American function he has attended.

“I’m definitely proud of my heritage. If it affects someone in a positive way, then I’m all for it,” he says. Still, when asked to specify his ethnicity, Bradford says, “I just put ‘white’ or ‘Caucasian.’ “

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/big12/2007-10-08-oklahoma_N.htm