Excerpts from “Who’s Your People”
Dr.
Richard Allen Carlson wrote a PhD dissertation about his family. He, like me,
had Indian blood that he couldn’t prove. So in a sense, he and I are on similar
quests. He speaks of his family’s Guion Miller Application being rejected back
at the beginning of the 20th century. I hope to quote bist and
pieces of this work. Carlson ties the Melungeons to the Saponi Indians. He
never mentions they were part “Portuguese”.
On
page 6 Carlson says; “Today the
Salyersville Indians persists a small but distinct population of people living
around the old Michigan and Ohio “muckfields” and parts of Oklahoma and the
Kentucky Mountains. Their families came from Appalachia to the ‘muck’, a folk
term referring to the vast peat bogs that once dotted the Midwest n the early
to mid1900s in order to find seasonal work in the onion fields that thrive
there. For nearly two centuries prior to that time the people’s ancestors had
maintained their Indian identity while living in a distinct Indian community
deep in the heart of Kentucky’s Appalachia. . . . During that time, a few
expatriate Cherokee families attached themselves to the families of a band of
Christian Saponi. . . . By the early 1800s, these citizen Indian families left
their homes off the New River in the Mountains of the Virginia-North Carolina
border region and ultimately formed the Grasy Rock, Stone Mountain, and
Salyersville Indian Communities.”
Carlson
speaks of “refugee Indian families” (p 7-8). He speaks of three Indian
populations, i.] Greasy Rock, ii.] Stone Mountain, and iii.] Salyersville, then
says “Just prior to the period when the
prominent anthropologists, like James Mooney and Frank Speck, were speculating
on the identity and fate of ‘Eastern Indian Survivals’, other outside observers
were characterizing these three interrelated Indian populations as “Melungeon”
and this trend continues to this day No confirmed etymology of this regionally
specific label has been developed, but most contend the word stems from the
French mélange, meaning “mixed [6]”. . . .
Primarily a
result of a few particularly influential publications that emerged from 1889 to
1891, the imposed Melungeon lable 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 sailors, and/or the Lost Tribes of Israel, all of
whom were said to have ‘took up’ with Indian women to contemporary ‘Melungeon’
populations. These theories segregate ‘Melungeon’ identity from Indian
identity, and instead hold the Stone Mountain, Greasy Rock, and Salyersville
Indian population to be representative of many mislabeled ‘marginal groups’, or
‘racial isolates’, ‘racial survivor’ or ‘racial enclaves’ scattered throughout
the American Southeast. Implicit in these labels are sociological assumptions
regarding the ‘culture of poverty’ and 'miscegenation’.
From
Pages 21-22;
Most popular and 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 people’s own assertions of being Indians in
favor of emphacizing the possibilities of White, Black, Portuguese, Phoenecian,
Jewish, Moorish, Turkish, and/or Lost Colony ancestry among them (even though
all mention that these potential old world ancestors must have taken up with
the Indians to bring forth the present population). . . . A poignant example is
apparent in a 1947 Saturday Evening Post article focusing on the Greasy Rock
population. Showing a photo of elder Asa Gibson, the author wrote “were his
ancestors Welsh warriors, Phoenecians, or Survivors of Roanoke? . . . [Asa]
say’s he’s 75 years old and an Indian [39].”
From Chapter 1, The Saponi and their
Relations; Crisis to Christ, and Back Again, p 41.
With the
consent of the ex-Governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, a small band of
Christian Saponi Indians had been residing on Spotswoods private land holdings
at Fox’s Neck on the Rapidan River. They had lived there on the western fringes
of Old Virginia at least since 1738. But not long after Spotswood’s death in
the Summer of 1740, this band of Christian Indians had become having troubles
with the local settlers. In the Spring of 1742, 26 of the Saponi men residing
at the Fox’s Neck village were in court defending themselves from the vague
accusations of “doing mischief”. Now, less that one year later, Saponi men
again found themselves arrested and brought before the court of Orange County
held near Somerville Ford “for stealing hogs and burning the woods”. Names are
preserved in court records show Saponi men named John Collins, Alex Machartion,
John Bowling, Maniassa, Craft Tom, Blind Tom, Foolish Jack, Isaac and harry as
being among those arrested and brought in to face the charges. Having had their
guns seized, the men were taken before the court for trial “by precept under
the hands and seals of William Russell and Ed Spencer, gentleman under the
charges of not only stealing hogs and burning the woods, but also “terrifying
one Lawrence Strothers”, who claimed he had been shot and chased by the Saponi.
The Saponi men were ordered held until bonded, after which they were ordered to
leave the county. . . .[67]
Following the
identity of the Saponi from documents recorded before this 1743 incident, it
becomes clear that this band was previously a part of the composite Indian
community that, some twenty-five years earlier, had flourished at Fort
CHristanna Reservation down on the Meherrin River. . . . The Christian Band of
the Saponi were also living legacy of the Saponi signers of the infamous Treaty
of Middle Plantation of 1677.
(p 52) In
1732 William Byrd III recalled the configuration of these Siouan tribes
consolidating at the Fort Christanna Reservation. He described how “. . . each
of these was formerly a distinct Nation, or rather several clans or canton’s of
the same Nation, speaking the same language, and using the same Customs.”
Starting
p. 59, Carlson says; Governor Spotswood
had long proposed to educate Indians in their own towns . . . The governor argued
elsewhere that, by educating the Indians in their own villages, Virginia could
go far to “banage [sic] savage customs in a generation or two” among the tribes
where they could be made more “. . . useful as neighbors” . . . As Spotswood
perceived it, the Colony’s military and economic interests directly related to
his long-standing conviction of wanting to “Christianize and civilize the
Tributarys” [115, 116, 117].The Indians living in the colony of Virginia
wre called in those days “tributary” Indians.
Carlson
mentions in 1716, a trip made to Fort Christanna, a place where the Saponi were
settled been by Spotswood. The governor visited the fort with a clergyman named
Rev. John Fontaine. Fontaine mentioned the fort was located on the Meherren
River, and about 200 Sapony Indians resided near the fort. Fontaine says he was
surprised that some of them could speak good English.
Carlson
then says (p 64); Fontaine spent a
considerable amount of time conversing with the instructor of the Sapni Indian
school, Rev. Charles Griffin. Frustrated at the repeated denials from the
Virginia Council to fund a missionary schoolteacher for the Saponi, Spotswood
still personally employed the English Clergyman. Fountaine found Griffin
enthusiastically carrying out his mission “to teach the Indian children and
bring them to Christianity”. Besides running the Fort’s church, Reverend
Griffin’s work among the Saponi involved teaching their children to read the
Bible and rpeat “common prayers”. He was also teaching broader skills in
speaking, reading, and writing English, and Fontaine noted he “hath had goog
success amongst them.” One evening Fontaine attended a common prayer reading
and noted that the eight Indian boys participating “answered very well to their
prayers and understand what is read.” [133]
. . . In 1716 Spotswood was
reporting to the Bishop of London on the continued success of the school in
operation for the Saponi, but desperately requested more funding. And the
governor frequently made trips to the Saponi Reservation and the law officially
“directing the Indian Company to take over the fort later in December” was
passed.[136, 137]
Carlson
speaks of several attacks from the Five Nations Indians and others, upon the
Saponi and mentions the killing of some Catawba’a, whom it says are allies of
the Saponi. He says (p 69) despite the peace made in 1718, the Iroquois
attacked again in 1722. [150]
More about Rev. John Fontaine
Rev.
John Fontaine wrote a memoir entitled “Journal of John Fontaine: An Irish
Huguenot Son in Spain and Virginia, 1710-1719”. At http://www.virginiaplaces.org/settleland/fontaine.html
there is a section on the Huguenots. Several paragraphs ane dedicated to this
Rev. John Fontaine. Quoting from it, we have;
John Fontaine's father and
grandfather were Huguenots who suffered official persecution by the Catholics
in France. In 1693 John was born in England, to which his father had fled as a
refugee. His father then migrated to Ireland, and succeeded in getting John a
commission in an Irish regiment in 1710. John Fontaine served briefly in Spain,
then investigated Virginia in 1715-19 before returning to England.
Learn
more about Virginia’s Huguenot peoples at the link above.
So
we have a Saponi Indian surnamed Griffin in 1743 living on Governor Spotswood’s
lands, and a teacher at the Saponi School near Fort Christanna surnamed
Griffin. We have a French Huguenot Reverend visiting the Saponi at Fort
Christanna, and the word “Melungeon” comes from the French “mélange” meaning
“to mix”. There is also a “Collins” Saponi in 1743 and we know there were
Collins Melungeons in the 1790s. We have evidence connecting the Melungeons to
the Saponi. I am looking foreward to more evidence that will emerge in the next
500-plus pages.
Troubles
with Neighboring Tribes
Pages
70 to 95 of Carlson’s Dissertation discuss fom about1718-1728. The author talks
about the Indians at Fort Christanna, sayingthat although they went under the
name of Saponi, they were a Occoneechi, Stengenocks, Meipotskis, and Tutelo.
The author includes the Outaponis as well.
There is a story of an Indian named
“Sawney” who had recently returned to Virginia from Canada. He had been
captured by the “French Indians”. Somehow he escaped about 1724 and returned to
Virginia. Once in Virginia, he was arrested and was accused of threatening the
inhabitants with incursions from his former allies, the “French Indians” from
Canada. He denied bringing messages to the Saponis. I mention this because I
knw dad had an uncle named “Uncle Swaney”, so the story of this “Sawney” caught
my attention. The similarity of these names is probably just a coincidence,
though.
Well,
the Northern Indians did continue their attacks in Virginia. Carlson says; “More Virginia settlers were killed by
Iroquois in the winter of 1725-1726 . . . the sachems of the Five Nations
replied . . . it was some of their warriors operating without authority in
conjunction with some French Indians and Tuscaroras who committed the
killings.”[151] The sachems of the Iroquois defended their warriors, saying
the killing of the Virginians was a mistake, and that they were really after
“enemy Indians”. It was recorded that about this time, seven Saponi were killed
or captured by some Tuscarora warriors.
In
1727 the Saponi came to the Virginia Assembly in Williamsburg and asked for
satisfaction. The Saponi said in the Virginians took no action on the
Tuscarora, they would take the matter into their own hands. Well, Virginia did
nothing, so the Saponi went to the Catawba, who did take action.
There
was an attack on the Meherrin Indians, who complained to the same Virginia
Assembly the Saponis had complained to the pevious year. They blaimed the
Occoneechi’s and Saponis. And the Nottaways complained the Meherrins had
attacked them. The Saponis with the Catawba attacked the Tuscarora, of King
Blount’s Town. North Carolina officials meanwhile, blamed the Catawba and the
primary instigator of these feuds, also holding the Saponi and Occoneechi
responsible.
Governor
Spotswood had retired and was replaced by Governor Gooch, and he was not as
friendly towards the Saponi as his predecessor. The Virginians had done nothing
to help the Saponi when they asked for help after seven of their men were
killed, while the Catawba did come to their aid. To add to this mistrust, three
Saponi men were accused of killing two Nottaway’s. Three Saponi chiefs were
held in jail until those guilty of the killings were brought forward. The
killing of the son of the Tutelo chief also added fuel to the fire. A report
came in (page 76) that John Sauna
(Sawnie) and a fellow named Ben Harrison (apparently an Indian named after the
White trader), went south to bring up one hundred Catawba warriors to protest
the incarceration of the three Saponi men . . . the Saponi said that if Captain
Tom was hung, they would take their wives and children over the Roanoke, and
then return to drive the Whites and Negroes to the James River, and go to war.
[181]
The
Tutelo king, grieving over the death of his son, threatened the life of the
governor, saying then he’d go off to some foreign Indians. The old Tutelo king
was ordered to be arrested, but Carlson says he found no evidence that this
ever happened.
This
takes us to the end of 1728, and the end of Carlson’s first chapter. From 1714
to 1728 the Saponis, Tutelos, Occoneechis, and others came together. War with
the Iroquois, and pressure from the colonists forced this option upon them.
However pressures from the colonists to make them conform to colonial laws also
alienated them. They did obtain satisfaction from the Catawba, their allies.
Acording
to Carlson, Byrd stated (p 93) that the executions by the colonists of three
Saponi caused the Saponi to remove to the Catawba’s.
There
are some interesting comments about the Indians way of life. First is the
mention of corn. Carlson is paraphrasing Byrd. When talking of the colonists he
calls “borderers, meaning the people that lived on the Virginia/North Carolina
border (P. 82), Byrd also decries the
“borderers” means of economy and subsistence; especially in North Carolina
where he contemptuously nted they raised Indian corn instead of tobacco and
fruit orchards which he blamed on laziness. Indian corn, he noted; “. . . is of
so great increase that a little pains will subsist a very large family with
bread . . .”
Concerning
sex between races, Carlson again turns to Byrd, saying; Byrd and a few other ex-traders of the survey team would make a
sidetrip into Virginia in hopes of finding some “entertainment” in the Nottaway
Indian Town. The entertainment the surveyers sought out among the Nottaway
turns out to have been sexual in nature. After mentioning two “pretty
English women, the narrative continues; . . . we could find it in our hearts to change these fair beauties for the
copper coloured ones of Nottaway Town.” Continuing to quote Byrd, Carlson
writes of Byrd; He wrote in that evenings
journal entry that the Nottaway “offered us no bed fellows, according to the
good Indian fashion, which we had reason to take unkindly.”
Continuing on this theme, Carlson writes (P. 85), still
quoting Byrd, “. . .one way of converting
these poor infidels, and reclaiming them from barbarity and that is, charitably
intermarry with them according with the modern policy of the most Christian
King in Canada and Louisiana.” He continues saying that had the English
done as the French, the country would be swarming with more people than it has
insects, and . . . even their copper
coloured complexion would admit of bleaching, if not in the first, at the
farthest in the second generation . . . it is strange, therefore, that any good
Christian should have refused a wholesome, straight bed-fellow, when he might
have so fair a portion with her, as the merit of saving her soul.[210]
Byrd had a Saponi guide, Ned Bearskin.
It was said this was his hunting name. Ned it was said, was a great hunter and
kept them fed. It was said that Ned spoke English very well. Mention was made
of seeing the smoke of Northern Indians, enemies of the Eastern Siouan Indians,
as they were “firing the woods”, as was the Indian custom.
This takes us to the next section of
chapter two, the Saponi Diaspora, 1728-1743.
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