Are American true native speakers of English?

@SteveZ,

You do realize that British English has evolved a lot in the last few centuries. In some respects North American English is closer to the original Elizabethan English than modern England English is. For example in GA, final r's are still pronounced. Shakespear would have pronounced all of his R's, as well as pronouncing "can't" and "shan't" like most modern North Americans.

American English isn't quite the same as the UK version but diversity was bound to occur the moment the two communities were geographically separated.

There are a lot of people in the States who are not of British descent but speak English as their native language. It's been established a long time over there!

YOu could just as easily ask, do Scots and Irishmen count as native speakers of English? After all, their ancestors most likely spoke a Celtic language.

Why single out the Scots and the Irish? And why overlook the Welsh guys?

Every individual native to these islands in the true sense of the word has ancestors who didn't speak English...they were already roaming about this fair land dressed in their very best woad long, long before the English Language was "invented" in what is now England. Ancient Britons speaking Ancient "British". ;-)

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I was wondering, do people from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales consider themselves to be Celtic or Anglo-Saxon or both? I ask because it seems like England has had major influece over these countries over the years.

It's true, Cherokees are definitely of pure Germanic stock.