I thought I'd found a Publisher. I told them I can't afford to pay for it and was told not to worry about that! When I was finished with it, I was sent a contract. In the contract I was to pay quite a bit. I thought this person would keep their word, but they did not. To make a long story short, I was given back the rights to my work, and I am just too tired to have to work through seeking another publisher. That book is contained in the next few blog entries. This blog entry is the introduction and table of contents. It was to have been entitled "Catawba -- Saponi -- Melungeon".
Catawba-
Saponi-
Melungeon
INTRODUCTION
First I'd like to mention a quote about United States Indian Policyat the end of the 19th century: I have
to say that it is the policy of the government to abolish the tribal
relationship of the Indians as fast as possible, and to settle each Indian upon
a separate tract of land that he can call his own, to the end that he may
become self-supporting and independent of government bounty. It would not be in
keeping with this policy, I think, to gather up people who happen to have more
or less Indian blood in their veins and are living among the Whites, separate
and apart from Indian communities, and incorporate them into a tribe and place
them upon an Indian Reservation.
I have long been interested in genealogy, but this became an obsession in the 1990’s. Genealogical information became easily accessible. I have heard that we had Cherokee blood since I was a small boy. Dad took us to local pow-wows all over southwestern Oklahoma. There was the annual “Anadarko Exposition” as well. Anadarko became famous as “Indian City, U. S. A.” I recall many local tribes participated in parades.
I have long been interested in genealogy, but this became an obsession in the 1990’s. Genealogical information became easily accessible. I have heard that we had Cherokee blood since I was a small boy. Dad took us to local pow-wows all over southwestern Oklahoma. There was the annual “Anadarko Exposition” as well. Anadarko became famous as “Indian City, U. S. A.” I recall many local tribes participated in parades.
Once the Internet
became popular, I heard from people who were of mixed race who had never come
to Oklahoma -- they had remained back East. Some of my ancestors led me
straight to the Cherokee surnames. I was surprised when I discovered
ancestors that took me to people I’d never heard of called “Melungeons”. That led
me to the Saponi. I had never heard of them, either. Who were they? They led me
to the Catawba, of whom I had heard.
This was all new to me. I learned there were state recognized tribes,
and other groups. I didn’t know there was such a thing as state recognition.
First, I am
very thankful to the Saponitown Forum website. When I first heard of them, I
was very skeptical. I was also very naïve. In the beginning, I thought what
they were telling me was probably nonsense, but they seemed to be interested in
my story, so I stuck around. Having been raised in Oklahoma I had a perspective
that these Easterners just didn’t have. It took me a good long while to figure
out where they were coming from, and they probably thought I was odd as well.
Eventually the Saponitown forum and I parted ways. But they helped start me on
my way, and for that I am grateful. I’d also like to thank Dr. Thomas Blumer.
He and I emailed back and forth for a couple of years, then I quit hearing from
him. I have since heard he passed away. But before that, he told me about an
organization called the “Western Catawba Indian Association” that tried to
organize a Catawba tribe in Arkansas and Indian Territory, a. k. a. Oklahoma.
What happened to this group? I’ve been trying to find out. My family was in many of the places he mentioned. I got curious about them, as well as the Cherokee. I started down the road to researching the Catawba, Saponi (one of their bands), and the Melungeons, which some of their descendants were called.
About the year 2000
or so I started commenting on a Melungeon board and was hearing a lot about the
Melungeon people being “Portuguese” and me, being a stickler for facts, well I
just couldn’t stomach that. This whole thing seemed ridiculous. They are saying
that of people with surnames Gibson, Collins, Moore, Bolling (a surname that goes
back to Jamestown in 1607), Bunch, Sizemore and others. These surnames were NOT of Portuguese origin. Why wouldn't these people have Portuguese surnames? If they were Portuguese, why
could they be traced back to England? I thought that they were mixed race American
Indians from day one. Occam's razor -- accept the simplest explanation until evidence arises displacing it, as the simplest explanation. That hasn't happened, twenty years later.
Anyhow,
that’s how this book got started, although at the time I never thought it would
become a book. I read every book I could get my hands on. Then I read Dr.
Richard Carlson’s PhD dissertation, “Who’s Your People?” I realized he’d found
the answer – the Melungeons descended from the Saponi, who’d gone to Fort
Christanna. The Saponi were a band of the Catawba. It all made sense! Thank
you, Richard. His work tied it all together. Same with Forrest Hazel and
Richard Haithcock. They had some writings I discovered, both online and in book
format. It tied many of the same families together. I'd like to thank Dr. Carlson as I quote and mention his work quite a lot.
But there
are still people peddling that Portuguese story. If you have ever heard the
story of blind men trying to describe an elephant, well that’s what was going
on. One person said the elephant resembled a tree because they felt his leg.
Another man felt his trunk and said the elephant was like a mighty python, and
so on. No one was looking at the big picture. The Melungeons are but one part
of a larger picture. Melungeons are NOT just a tree or a snake or a Portuguese
adventurer. Snakes are good and trees are good and Portuguese adventurers are
good – but a tree is not an elephant, and Portuguese adventurers just aren’t an elephant, either. I thought it was important for the Melungeon people to know who
they are, and to have pride in that.
I’d like to
thank Linda Carter for helping put me on this path. She was administrator of
the “Saponitown Forum” website for many years. Joanne Pezzullo has done a lot
of work in an attempt to document the Melungeons. We argued to no end. I learned from her, just the
same. Jack Goins, Pat Spurlock Elder are
a couple of names that come to mind, as helpful researchers. Richard Haithcock
and Pony Hill have done excellent work on researching other branches of some of
the same families. Malinda Maynor-Lowery, Karen Blu and others provided
insights about the Lumbee.
But the
Melungeons and the Saponi are but one branch of a far larger tree. I’d like to
thank Paul Dutilly who knows quite a bit about the Catawba. Richard Thornton
has some interesting insights that he has shared online. I strongly disagree with many of Thorton's conclusions, but I can still pick fruit from him insights. The authors of several
books taught me a great deal – Alan Gallay, James Merrell, Douglas Summer
Brown, Charles Hudson, Chapman Milling, Alexander Gregg, and especially Thomas
Blumer -- and so many others.
I need to
thank the researchers who participated in the in the Y-chromosome and mtDNA
project -- specifically Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, Janet Lewis
Crain. It was a difficult task and needed to be done. All these efforts that
help us seek the truth are necessary. In my search to find my family, I ran
into ten dead-ends for every step forward. But they were necessary for me to
find the only path to my ancestors. False leads had to be eliminated. Some of
the research done lead nowhere, but by discovering they lead nowhere allowed us to look elsewhere for the truth. So, I thank all the researchers,
and not just those with whom I agree.
American
Indian people of that era could be very cruel and brutal. I haven’t forgotten
about that. Please remember the English and Spanish were just as cruel, and
just as brutal.
A
lot of nonsense is written about the Melungeons. I hope to show an alternative
path, which I believe is the truth about the people. I hope others will be willing
to listen to it.
There
was also a forgotten incident in the latter half of the nineteenth century --
Catawban peoples were promised a home in Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma.
The American government then did everything it could squash that dream.
Everything that was tried had a counter argument, and the counter argument won
every time. This has been forgotten and we need to be reminded of it.
TABLE
OF CONTEXT
Chapter 1 – Spanish Explorers . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Chapter 2 – English Explorers . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15-29
Chapter 3 – Indian Slave Trade in
Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 30-41
Chapter 4 – Indian Slave Trade in
South Carolina . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .42-52
Chapter 5 – The Tuscarora,
Yamassee, and Jenkins Ear Wars . . . . .
. . . . . . .53-70
Chapter 6 – The French and Indian
War, 1754-1763 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71-96
Chapter 7 – The Cheraw, the Pedee,
and Small Pox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97-107
Chapter 8 – The Saponi . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108-126
Chapter 9 – One Band of the Saponi
Becomes the Melungeons . . . . . . . . .
. .127-136
Chapter 10 – The American
Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137-142
Chapter 11 – The Melungeons . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .143-153
Chapter 12 – Identity Crisis . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154-166
Chapter 13 – The Sun Rises in the
East, and Sets in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . .167-185
Chapter 14 – The Catawba Tribe of
Indians, 54th Congress,
2nd session, Doc. 144, February 23rd,
1897 . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .186-199
HOW CAN I BUY THIS BOOK???
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