Origin of the term Melungeon
There is a lot of
noise and confusion out ther about the origins of the “Melungeon” families. As
Carlson so skillfully demonstrated, they can be DIECTLY taken back to Fort
Christanna, and a settlement of the Saponi Indians, who were made up of the
remnants of many bands of the Eastern Siouan peoples.
Carlson has a great
deal to say on these topics (p-7-8), starting with; Looking for remnant groups of historical tribal populations, the few
early ethnogrophers and other professional researchers aware of the Greasy Rock
(Hancock County, Tennessee), Stone
Mountain (Scott County, Virginia),
and Salyerrsville (Magoffin County,
Kentucky) Indian populations concurred, in part, with the people’s own
explanations by defining them originally as ‘wasted tribes’ and refugee Indian
families. But true to the thinking of the times, these observers held
assumptions about the nature of social and cultural assimilation that led them
to conclude the people’s still distinct and asserted ‘Indianness’ would soon
disappear.
Of the term
Melungeon, Carlson says; “No confirmed
etymplogy of this regionally specific label has been developed., but most
contend the word stems from the French ‘melange, meaning ‘mixing’.
To be exact, the
French verb ‘melanger’ means ‘to mix’. First person plural of this French verb
meaning “we mix” and is still in use today in the French language, is
‘malungeon’. If you have read these little reports I have made by rteanscribing
bits hither and yon of Carlson, you will know that we have shown a French
Huguenot minister visited the Fort Christanna Saponi and associated bands early
in the second decade of the 18th century on at least one occasion,
and he also visited some of the Indians, it could have been the same Christanna
Indians, later in that century. In fact there were thousands of French Huguenot
refugees from European persecution during that time frame, in the Carolinas and
Virginia. This region of the country is also the origin of the Melungeon
families.
A scientific
principle known as ‘Occam’s Razor’ (paraphrasing it) states that if there are
two or more explanations for a single event, choose the simplest. There are
other theories. Some say if is Arabic or Turkish in origin, others it is from
the Congo or Mozambique. These are all tantalizing and intriguing – but the
simplest explanation is the French origin, which is an EXACT MATCH, letter for
letter.
Theories
Now that we have the
origin of the name, what is the origin of the people? What does Carlson say (p.
8)? “. . . by 1840 the Indians considered
this label pejorative, and did not use it to identify themselves. Primarily as
a result of a few particularly influential publications that emerged from 1889
to 1891, the imposed Melungeon label is used in attempts to explain ‘Melungeon
origins.’ These explanations are based on various conjectural histories supported
by popular myths and legends regarding, in part, shipwrecked Phoenician
sailors, the lost colony of Roanoke, Turkish mercenaries, the Welsh Chief
Modoc, Pardo’s lost soldiers, and/or the lost tribe of Israel, all of whom were
said to have ‘took up’ with Indian women to form the contemporary Melungeon
population. These theories segregate ‘Melungeon’ Identity from Indian identity,
and instead hold the Stone Mountain, Greasy Rock, and Salyersville Indian
populations to be representative of many mislabeled ‘marginal groups’, or
‘racial isolates’, or ‘racial enclaves’ scattered throughout the American
Southeast. . . . Categories such as these are used to help explain away the
persistence of people’s Indian identity claims.”
Carlson says all
these ideas are flawed and he provides three reasons, the most important of
which, in my opinion – my opinion and a buck and a half will buy you a cup of
coffee – is the third; ‘lack of historic
and ethnographic data needed to support their suppositions regarding the very
nature of identity itself; that is, identities are socially constructed and
culturally reinforced.’ In other words, there are no documented historical
records that can cite a progression of events that show a distinct, continuous,
group of related people migrating from Europe or elsewhere, to the Southern
Appalachians, for which the label “Melungeon” has been given them.
Portuguese
On page 21 Carlson
starts to address the ‘Portuguese’ question. He says; Most modern professional writers still accept the premise, generated in
the 1800s, that Melungeon history and heritage – biological and social – is
forever lost to contemporary researchers. Such outsiders have thus downplayed
the peoples own assertion of being Indians in favor of emphasizing the
possibilities of White, Black, Portuguese, Phoenician, Jewish, Moorish,
Turkish, and/or Lost Colony ancestry among them . . . in a 1947 Saturday
Evening Post article focusing on the Greasy Rock population . . .the author
wrote “were his ancestors Welsh warriors, Phoenicians, or survivors of
Roanoke?” . . .[he] says he’s 75 years old, and an Indian.
Carlson doesn’t
mention the Portuguese connection again for some time. On page 60 he states; One month later [note, he had been
speaking of the early Spring of 1716],
the Governor [Spotswood] paid another
visit to Fort Christanna] with a clergyman named Rev. John Fontaine. I only
mention this because of something Fontaine later says. Fontaine was a French
Huguenot, showing an early connection between the future “Melungeon” peoples
and the French language. More on Fontaine later.
On page 80 we have
Byrd From the Spring to the Fall of 1728 je journeyed through some Indian
settlements, to survey the land on the North Carolina/Virginia border. He wrote
a journal of his travels. One entry was about the possibility of mixed-blood
(Caucasian/American Indian/Moorish) marriages, saying; “If a Moor may be washed White in three generations, surely an Indian
might have been bleached White in two.” Remember the Moors lived in
Portugal and Spain for 800 years.
On page 81 Carlson
talks of both Byrd and Fontaine, saying; “Byrd
also brought Rev. Fontaine on the survey.
On page 124 we
finally have the reason I have mentioned Rev. Fontaine. Carlson says; “. . . Reverend Fontaine, who had visited Fort
Christanna and travelled with Byrd and Ned Bearskin decades before . . . In a
letter dated March 30, 1757, remarked that the colonists ‘ought to have
intermarried with the Indians more frequently . . .he also noted his
concernwith physical appearance by claiming that by promoting such marriages
the offspring would result in Indian children as white at birth as a Portuguese
or a Spaniard. As far as I can tell, this is the earliest documentation
mentioning a Portuguese looking offspring of and Indian and a White man. And
this record was mentioned by man born in France, who knew the French language
as it was his first language. He would have known the meaning of “Malungeon”
very well.
Carlson doesn’t
discuss the stories of Portuguese Melungeons again until much later.
Carlson's Chapter Ten
In chapter 10
Carlson finally gets back to story of the origin of the mane “Melungeon”.
Carlson starts the chapter (p. 371-376); “For
nearly twenty years prior to the U. S. Court of Claims event described in the
previous chapter, regional and national presses . . . had taken an interest in
the Salyersville Indians relatives down in northeast Tennessee, the greasy Rock
Indians. Recall the Greasy Rock Indians particularly had been occasionally
labeled “Malungins”. Since at least the early 1800s. Up until the end of the 19th
century, such references were few and far between. However all that would
change in the late 1880s when a few professional academics , journalists, and
other curious onlookers began loosely throwing the label around . . . Because
this early printed dialogue would also directly and indirectly implicate the
Salyersville Indian population, and because these dialogues remain so
influential to outsiders’ perceptions . . . it is necessary to elaborate mor on
this early popular and professional literature.”
He speaks of the
writings of a man named Dr. Swan Burnett. He spoke at the American
Anthropological Society in February of 1889. His paper was entitled “A Note on
the Malungeons”. Note the spelling back the was EXACTLY the spelling of the
French verb meaning “we mix”. In fact he states the word Malungeon came from
the French.
Carlson says of
Burnett; “Burnett said to the Society
that some whites gave ceedence to the claim of them being a distinct race, a
few inclining to the Portuguese theory, some thinking they entered the United
States as Portuguese or Gypsies and afterward some have intermingled with
Negroes, Indians, or both.
“. . . Burnett admitted he had never been among the
greasy Rock Indian Community . . .
“. . . without any firsthand information and witout
giving any sources for his assertion, Burnett claimed that those he called
Malungeons “did not clam to belong to any tribe of Indians in that part of the
country, but they proudly call themselves Portuguese. . .
“Burnett’s writings stand in stark contrast to the
picture of the greasy Rock Indians presented here in previous chapters. . . .”
“Soon after his
presentation at the society’s conference . . . Burnett informed the society
that he had obtained some ‘new facts’ . . . from North Carolina State Senator
Hamilton McMillan. Apparently some mixed-Indian group in Eastern North
Carolina, along the Pee Dee and Lumber Rivers, were said to be called
Malungeons, as well.
Carlson adds (p.
376) Interestingly,despite the gross
errors and assumptions Burnett and McMillan forwarded . . . documents cited by
Gerald Sider in Lumbee Indian Histories in 1993 lends some credence to
the possibiltyof some sort of connection between the two Indian populations.
The year after
Burnett’s presentation, Carlson says (p. 377); an urban socialite from Nashville would take it upon herself to make a
‘field trip’to the Greasy Rock Indian community to learn more about
‘malungeons’.The result would be a series of articles that a Ms. Will Allen
Drmgoole would write and publish in the Nashville Daily American and the
literary journal The Arena. . . . The contents of the articles were a mixture
of fact and fantacy, but became, arguably, the most influential publications
impacting outsider’s perception not only of the Greasy Rock Indians, but also
of the Salyorsville and Stone Mountain Indian populations throughout the
following century. Many for instance, take for granted her claim that‘… so
much, or so little, can we glean from the records. From history we get nothing;
not so much as the name ‘melungeon’.
Carlson continues
(p. 378) of Dromgoole; “The first of
Dromgoole’s articles asserted and accepted the people’s claim of Indian
identity. Her impression was then that ‘. . . in appearance they bear a
striking resemblance to the Cherokees., and they are believed by the people
(around them) to be a kind of half-breed Indian. . . . but by the last of her
series of articles she had shifted her opinion in favor of the claim that they
were of ‘ a mixed origin of Cherokee and Portuguese.’
“. . . Not accustomed to rural, et alone mountain
life, Dromgroole’s descriptions were of course filtered through the lens of her
particular elite urban life. . . . Their homes were, to her, miserable hovels .
. .”
Oh this is
interesting. On P. 380 Carlson says of Dromgoole; “Dromgoole even claimed to enter the cabin of one charmer. . . . this
woman claimed to be able to remove warts . . .” I recall Dad’s story of his
grandma removing his warts. But this is a story for another day.
Back to Carlson and
Dromgoole. He says Dromgoole emphacized the exotic elements. She claimed the
men were slow and lazy. He says Dromgoole falied to mention that some of the
local Indians were economically better off than some of their White neighbors.
He continues “It is little wonder that
both Indians and non-Indian of Hancock County came to resent such unfounded
commentaries.”
P. 381, Carlson
says; “Together, Dromgoole and Burnett .
. . would do more damage to the reputations of the . . . Indian populations
than anything before or since.” On p. 382 Carlson speaks of ‘resentment among the Greasy Rock Indians
regarding Dromgoole’s work. He continues, “Considering all the errors and biases evident in Dromgoole’s writing,
and the fact that she was just in the community for only a few days at most,
one must question Dromgroole . . .”
Carlson mentions
there were many ‘letters to the editor’ about the Melungeons in the Nashville
newspaper, and says “Dromgoole would
borrow liberally from these responses when writing her arena aticles.”
It was all he ridiculous stories by Dromgoole,
Burnett and others, people who had never lived near nor knew anything about the
the Melungeons, that prompted Lewis Jarvis to write his article about the
origin of the Melungeons in 1903. Unlike the others, Jarvis was raised then the
Melungeons, and had known them all his life.
Jarvis agrees with everything Dr. Carlson
says, except he said it in 1903. He says they came from new River, and later
locations Carlson also mentions. He calls them the friendly Indians who came
with the early settlers. He doesn’t mention Portuguese settlers.
Carlson says of Jarvis’ account (p. 403 of his
dissertation); Not much commentary needs to be made of Jarvis rendition of the
history of the Geasy Rock Indians, except that it closely correlates with the
data independently gathered to inform the previous chapters of this
ethnohistory. In other words, Melungeon history is not as mysterious as some
writers now claim it to be. Yet among the hundreds of articles that would be
written about the Tennessee Melungeons, Jarvis’ article would not be cited by
another until 1989. . . . Subsequent writers would mostly continue to assert
that the Greasy Rock Indians, and their relations living at Stone Mountain and
Salyersville, in Eastern Kentucky, were actually the descendants of ancient
Phoenicians, the lost colony of Roanoke, Juan Pardo’s lost soldiers, Portuguese
pirates, and/or even the lost tribe of Israel.
Carlson continues to discuss all the
misleading articles as harmful. On p. 406; “In
1965, Bar noted that the Indians around Greasy Rock resented being called
‘Melungeons’,, as well as some of the articles being published concerning their
society because they feel they are misleading and harmful.” . . . he
continues, same page; “Writers throughout
the century would come to the conclusion of what one visitor to the Grasy Rock
community wrote in 1963, that ‘both the Melungeons and non-Melungeons of the Hancock
County region resent much of what has been published concerning them’.”
I suspect that’s true
to this day. It s interesting to note that the Portuguese argument existed only
in the region of the country that had strong Jim Crow laws – and the Melungeon
families later found in Ohio or Oklahoma don’t have this tradition of a
“Portuguese” ancestor. Only families that lived in the Southeastern states that
until recently denied the Civil Rights of African Americans, had to undergo the
humiliating ordeal of being forced to prove they were NOT part African in
courts of law, claimed Portuguese ancestry. This lends support to the notion
that they sid they were Portuguese NOT because they were Portuguese, but rather
so that their status as people who could vote and have all the rights available
to Whites, would continue.
