Catawba -- Saponi -- Melungeons; Ch. 11: The Melungeons

CHAPTER XI – THE MELUNGEONS[1] 

Lewis Jarvis Article

Most Melungeon researchers know about the Lewis Jarvis writing. 

About 1903 there was a discussion about just what was a Melungeon. People would tell all kind of stories. These were hucksters, selling the equivalent of Snake Oil, in the form of fake history. I ALWAYS use the “Occam's Razor” test. This is what scientists do. We'd be wise to use their methods. Occam's Razor states basically to never use more than what is required to explain a thing. Had people followed that rule these non-existent Portuguese, Jews, Turks, Welshmen, and escaped East African slave stories would have never gotten off the ground. Lewis Jarvis wrote a short article that was locally published in Northeastern Tennessee on April 17th 1903, in Sneedyville, Hancock County, Tennessee, in an attempt to explain just who the Melungeons were. Please note Mr. Jarvis had lived amongst the Melungeons all his life. William Grohse transcribed the article and copyrighted it © 2005. 

Here's what Jarvis wrote;

“Much has been said and written about the inhabitants of Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater in Hancock County, Tenn. They have been derisively dubbed with the name “Melungeons” by the local white people who have lived here with them. It is not a traditional name or tribe of Indians. [NOTE: He is saying the word “Melungeons” is not the name of a tribe of Indians]

“Some have said these people were here when the white people first explored this country. Others say they are a lost tribe of the Indians having no date of their existence here, traditionally or otherwise. 

“All of this however, is erroneous and cannot be sustained. These people, not any of them were here at the time the first white hunting party came from Virginia and North Carolina in the year 1761-- the noted Daniel Boone was at the head of one of these hunting parties and went on through Cumberland Gap. Wallen was at the head of another hunting party from Cumberland County, Virginia and called the river beyond North Cumberland Wallen’s Ridge and Wallen’s Creek for himself. In fact these hunting parties gave all the historic names to the mountain ridges and valleys and streams and these names are now historical names. Wallen pitched his first camp on Wallen’s Creek near Hunter’s Gap in Powell’s mountain, now Lee County, Virginia. Here they found the name of Ambrose Powell carved in the bark of a beech tree; from this name they named the mountain, river and valley for Powell, Newman’s Ridge was named for a man of the party called Newman. Clinch River and Clinch Valley--these names came at the expense of an Irish man of the party in crossing the Clinch River, he fell off the raft they were crossing on and cried aloud for his companions to “Clench me", "clench me", and from this incident the name has become a historic name. About the time the first white settlement west of the Blue Ridge was made at Watauga River in Carter County, Tennessee, another white party was then working the lead mines in part of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. In the year 1762 these hunters turned, coming through Elk Garden, now Russell County, Virginia. They then headed down a valley north of Clinch River and named it Hunter’s Valley and buy this name it goes today. These hunters pitched their tent near Hunter’s Gap in Powell’s Mountain, nineteen miles from Rogersville, Tenn. on the Jonesville, Va. road. Some of the party of hunters went on down the country to where Sneedyville, Hancock County, now stands and hunted there during that season. Bear were plentiful here and they killed many, their clothing became greasy and near the camp was a projecting rock on which they would lie down and drink and the rock became very greasy and they called it Greasy Rock and named the creek Greasy Rock Creek, a name by which it has ever since been known and called since, and here is the very place where these Melungeons settled, long after this, on Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater. Vardy Collins, Shepherd Gibson, Benjamin Collins, Solomon Collins, Paul Bunch and the Goodmans, chiefs and the rest of them settled here about the year 1804, possibly about the year 1795, but all these men above named, who are called Melungeons, obtained land grants and muniments of title to the land they settled on and they were the friendly Indians who came with the whites as they moved west. They came from the Cumberland County and New River, Va., stopping at various points west of the Blue Ridge. Some of them stopped on Stony Creek, Scott County, and Virginia, where Stony Creek runs into Clinch River. 

“The white immigrants with the friendly Indians erected a fort on the bank of the river and called it Fort Blackmore and here yet many of these friendly “Indians” live in the mountains of Stony Creek, but they have married among the whites until the race has almost become extinct. A few of the half-bloods may be found - none darker - but they still retain the name of Collins and Gibson, etc. From here they came to Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater and many of them are here yet; but the amalgamations of the Whites and Indians has about washed the red tawny from their appearance, the white faces predominating, so now you scarcely find one of the original Indians; a few half-bloods and quarter-bloods-balance white or past the third generation. The old pure blood were finer featured, straight and erect in form, more so than the whites and when mixed with whites made beautiful women and the men very fair looking men. These Indians came to Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater. Some of them went into the War of 1812-1814 whose names are here given; James Collins, John Bolin and Mike Bolin and some others not remembered; those were quite full blooded. These were like the white people; there were good and bad among them, but the great majority were upright, good citizens and accumulated good property and many of them are among our best property owners and as good as Hancock County, Tenn. affords. Their word is their bond and most of them that ever came to Hancock County, Tennessee, then Hawkins County and Claiborne, are well remembered by some of the present generation here and now and they have left records to show these facts. 

“They all came here simultaneously with the whites from the State of Virginia, between the years 1795 and 1812 and about this there is no mistake, except in the dates these Indians came here from Stoney Creek. (216)

Jarvis recollections exactly fits the scenario Dr. Carson proved through land records. 

New River Families

Carlson mentions some families in North Carolina and others in Virginia, on New River.

Other families Carlson associates with the Christian Saponi living on/near the New River (p. 144) are the Bunch’s, Collins’, Gibson’s, Sexton’s, Bowling’s, Aicee/Sicee, Anglicized to “Thomas” Other surnames are Cole, Clonch, Minor, and Sizemore. One Sizemore descendant, surnamed Blevins, in his application for Miller-Guion acceptance on the Cherokee Rolls, was rejected. But he stated on his application; “Old Ned” Sizemore came from the Catawba River, or the Catawba Reservation as he called it.” (217) It is a mistake to say the Catawba and Saponi and Saura are different tribes, rather they are different bands of the same tribe loosely confederated together. On pages 144-145 Carlson adds the surnames Williams, Nickells, and Moore. The land description of the Moore brothers shows their lands next door to my Gist's near Castle's Woods (also spelled Cassal’s Wood”). By page 146 Carlson mentions some families in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He covers the 1790s. To confirm these are the descendants of the Indians at Fort Christanna, there is a “Griffen” Collins mentioned on page 147. Rev. Charles Griffin, a white man, was the name of the old school master at Fort Christanna about 1715. A younger “Charles Griffen” in listed as a Saponi Indian in the 1740s. Now we have a “Griffen Collins. Mentioned by 1790. Carlson has masterfully followed the same families on a migration from Fort Christanna to New River. (218) (219)

Carlson says; “It might be assumed that the Indians had settled beyond the 1763 Proclamation Line. This would be in error, for the Cherokee boundary was reset in 1767-1768, and then again in 1770, placing the Cherokee boundary west of the entire New River watershed. (220) Additionally, if the Christian Saponi were being considered squatters on non-ceded Cherokee territories, then Colonial law would have mandated that they be removed back into ceded lands, and thus they would not be openly taxed on Cherokee lands. Yet neither the Virginians nor the Cherokees ever accuse the Christian Saponi of establishing a squatter settlement in any document I have found so far . . . taxable Whites were living much further west . . . than were the people of the New River Indian Community. And none [of the taxable Whites] are noted in 1773 as living on “Indian lands”, like John Collins and the rest.” Carlson speculates as to whether the Virginia government might have given some sort of land grant to these Christian Saponi. Maybe it later reverted into private property and thus to a taxable status. Carlson concludes on this topic; “Regardless of the 1771 status of these Indian lands, no list after 1774 shows the Christian Saponi as residing on “Indian Lands”, although the community remained right where it was.” (221)

Carlson says, . . . in 1764, a large contingent of Catawba who could muster 150 warriors were reported to be found wondering on the frontiers of North Carolina and they too had made peace with the Cherokee and the colonists. Back to those Carlson refers to as the “Christian Saponi’s”. He says; “By the end of the 1760s, the old Christian Saponi families from the Flatt River Community and the old Louisa-Cumberland areas of Virginia began to bring their old tribal relations back together again. With the threat of the Iroquois now gone (p. 130) and new friendly ties existing between the Cherokee and the Catawba and the colonists, the Christian Saponi strategically accommodated the situation by removing to the western fringes of colonial settlement. They would consolidate into a new community right at the New River boundary between Virginia and North Carolina and the lands of the Cherokee Nation, technically beyond the settler zone.” 

Carlson states families from both Louisa County, and the Flatt River Community, came to live on New River, and are recorded as living there in 1770 and 1771. (222)

Small Pox

On page 129 Carlson says; “Compared to the Cherokee, the Catawba and their confederates were a relatively small population to start, and the war and recent small pox epidemics had taken their toll on adult Catawba males.” (223) This is referring to as the French and Indian War. 

My Family

Notice Carlson mentions that this Moore family lived at “Castlewood’s”. Well in earlier times this was called “Cassal's Wood”. I had run into them in researching my own family. I have the following; 

We the Commissioners, etc...do certify that John Dickerson, heir-at-law to Humphrey Dickerson, who was assignee of Joseph Blackmore, who was assignee of Nathaniel Gist is entitled to 310 acres of land lying in Washington county on the north side of Clynch River in Cassell's Woods, to include his improvement. Surveyed the 28th day of May, 1774. [Vance’s note: when discussing the Melungeons, recall Jarvis words, where he said the whites “with the friendly Indians” built Fort Blackmore.] (224)

The Nathaniel Gist it mentions is OUR Nathaniel Gist – my direct ancestor – not the famous Nathaniel Gist, but his first cousin — and he KNEW Joseph Blackmore. And these Moore brothers who were known Melungeon families, were his neighbors.

“The above writer is referring to the children of Joseph Blackmore, for Captain John Blackmore, builder of Blackmore’s Fort, had in the year 1779, left for the area for settlement on the Cumberland in Tennessee. Joseph Blackmore was a brother of Captain John, and owned the adjoining farm to the old Fort tract to the south and down Clinch River.” Joseph and John Blackmore were brothers, and they built Fort Blackmore, famous in the history of the Melungeons as having been built by the Whites with the help of the “friendly Indians.” And the adjacent farm to the fort had previously been Nathaniel Gist's. Those friendly Indians were from bands of the Catawba, NOT the Cherokee. They were destined however, to become known to history as the “Melungeons”. (225)

Page 149 - Richard Moor...390ac...Commissioners Certificate...on the waters of Beaver Creek, north branch of Holston River...Beginning on the north side of the big ridge...corner to Cornelius Carmack’s land he now lives on...corner to Carmack & Nathaniel Gist...June 6, 1782 - Richard Moore...390 ac on a branch of Beaver Creek, surveyed on January 12, 1775, includes improvements, actual settlement made in 1774...August 17, 1781 Page 151 - Nathaniel Gist...200 [NOTE: THIS is the son of Nathaniel Gist b. 1736-d.1780] . . . Preemption Warrant #1972...on the waters of Beaver Creek, north branch of Holstein River...Beginning corner to Cornelius Carmack’s land he now lives on...corner to Richard Moors land he now lives on...June 5, 1782. From this we see my Gist’s, lived next to these Moore's. They were neighbors. Read above a few paragraphs, and we see they were next to Fort Blackmore, as well. Fort Blackmore was on one side of Nathaniel Gist's former lands, and the Moore brothers were on the other side. The Moore's are known Melungeon families, and it was said Fort Blackmore was built by “the friendly Indians” and the Whites. (226)

When my Wayland's moved up that way, they were surrounded by Melungeon surnames – Gibson's, Moore's, Nichols, George and others lived a stone’s throw away. The two closest names mentioned are John and James Gibson, and Nevil Wayland’s wife’s maiden name was Keziah Gibson. 

Page 148 brings us to the Battle of Fallen Timbers, and the last battle between settlers and Indians in the area. With the Shawnee, Miama, and Cherokee finally subdued, settlers came streaming through Cumberland Gap into Tennessee and Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, at a quickened pace. Carlson comes to the conclusion; “As early as the mid 1790s, a few of the New River Indians and mixed bloods were frequenting the Cumberland Gap and Clinch Valley region . . . as a new generation attained adulthood, most of the New River Indians would eventually migrate to this region.” (227)

To the Magoffin County, Kentucky Melungeon (Saponi) Families

In the next chapter Carlson discusses the movement of certain families to Magoffin County, Kentucky. He says, as early as the 1790s some families made seasonal hunting trips into Eastern Kentucky. By 1840, these people have become known as the “Salyersville Indians”. He mentions some family surnames for some of these people. These surnames include Nickels, Perkins, Sizemore, Brown, Hale, and others. In mentioning some surnames in Eastern Kentucky, he mentions on p. 239-240 the surnames Mosley, Allen, Nickolls, Howard, Castile (note: now that IS a Spanish surname! Castile is a province in Spain. Moore, Steele, Perkins, and Cole are also mentioned. On page242 he adds Sizemore, Grant, and White. There are also Gibson and Collins. They are everywhere! Carlson mentions that these families were all mixed-bloods, and were also in Floyd County, Kentucky. Some of these families, the same families designated “W” for white in Tennessee, were designated “M” for mulotto, in Kentucky. On p. 259 he mentions the Dale surname. He says by the 1860s most of the families were in the newly created Magoffin County, and says they were, for the most part, classified as “M” on census records. Page 263 mentions 2 new surnames – Auxier and Musgrove. As the years pass, he continues to add more and more surnames, presumably Whites who have married into these families.

On page 288, he mentions some families moving to Ohio, 125 miles north of Salyersville, to Highland County, Ohio, to the town of Carmel. (228)

Chapter 8 starts on page 292, and describes the migrations of more and more families from Magoffin County, Kentucky to Carmel, Highland County, Ohio. These people are now often called “Carmel Indians”. Census records of these people do exist and they are easily discovered through genealogical methods. It is the earlier lines that Carlson so skillfully pieced together. I simply think this material needs to be out there for Melungeon researchers to discover their roots, that they DO go back to the Saponi and Fort Christanna, back to the Catawba and Associated bands, and they should be proud of their TRUE ancestry, and ignore stories that they were Portuguese, or something else.

Ohio and the Carmel Indians

Per Forest Hazel, an out-migration of Indians from the Texas community occurred from the 1820s to 1840s, when a number of families moved to Greene County, Ohio (with some later moving on to Rush and Whitley counties, Indiana). It is clear that when the Indians arrived in Greene County, Ohio, there was some degree of uncertainty among the Whites as to their ethnic background. This was also true when some of them moved on to Indiana. Their uncertain racial status resulted in 13 separate court cases involving members of the Jeffries or related families. Is what Mr. Hazel calls “The Texas Community” the same thing that Dr. Collins calls “The Flatt River Community”? (229) Maps of these areas would be helpful, and I have none.

The first, an Ohio Supreme Court case, occurred in 1842 in Greene County, Ohio, when Parker Jeffries was refused the right to vote by the officials of Xenia Township because "they were of the opinion, as they said, that he was a person of color and not entitled to vote" (Greene County Clerk of Courts 1842). The jury, however, found "that the plaintiff (Jeffries) is of the Indian race, the illegitimate son of a White man and a woman of the Indian race, and that he has not more than one fourth of the Indian blood in his veins." On this basis, Jeffries was awarded six cents and allowed to vote thereafter. Few other details are given in the court records concerning evidence presented or information about Parker Jeffries's mother.

The second case occurred in 1866 in Whitley County, Indiana, and is referred to as Jeffries vs. Smith et al. In substance, it was similar to the Parker Jeffries case. The facts were that Mortimer Jeffries had attempted to vote in 1864 and that the defendants "with knowledge of all the facts concerning the plaintiff's pedigree and blood, willfully refused to receive his vote on account of his color" (Kaler and Maring 1907). According to court records, Mortimer Jeffries was the son of a quarter-blood Indian father and a white mother, making him white within the scope of the law. The Indiana Supreme Court found in favor of Jeffries. A history of Whitley County, Indiana, gives some additional information about the trial and about Mortimer Jeffries. His father, Herbert Jeffries, was a native of Greensville County, Virginia, who married a woman, supposedly of French descent [NOTE: There were many thousands of French Huguenots in the Carolina's and Virginia. I keep reminding the reader that the word “Melungeon” is of French origin and means “we mix”], in North Carolina. It further states that "Herbert was of French and Indian extraction and his children in this township have always claimed to be free from African blood, which their stature and physiognomy does not belie." During the trial, an alleged expert witness was called by the defense to examine a lock of Jeffries's hair, the witness supposedly being able to determine African ancestry by examination of a person's hair. Unbeknownst to the witness, however, Jeffries's lawyer submitted a lock of hair from the presiding judge, which was duly found to be from an individual of African ancestry. The judge was not amused, and Jeffries won his case "and was granted suffrage for himself and brothers, which they afterwards exercised undisputed under the scornful eyes of some of their neighbors." (230)

The third and final case, Jeffries vs. O'Brien Guinn et al. (Rush County Clerk of Courts 1869), is the most detailed of the three, and provides more information about the situation of the Indian people while they were living in the Greensville County, Virginia, area. This information is contained in the depositions of four witnesses called by William M. Jeffries to give evidence as to the race and background of his parents. Four persons gave depositions; three of them appear to have been white while the fourth, Shadrack Jeffries, was an Indian and a relative of William Jeffries. All agreed that: i.] Jeffries mother was of Indian and white ancestry; ii.] she was born in Northampton County, North Carolina, near the Virginia line; iii.] she did not associate with blacks; iv.] his father was Macklin Jeffries, of Greensville County, Virginia; and v.] Macklin Jeffries was a mixed-blood Indian. The testimony of Susan Wooten is particularly interesting in that she states that "Jeffries' mother associated with White people and those who had Indian blood with regard to her Indian blood. She descended from an old Indian settlement in that neighborhood. This indicates that: i.] there were a fair number of these Indian people in the area who had social (as well as kinship and marriage) ties; and ii.] they stayed in some distinct geographic location. Jeffries's mother, who was named Mary Turner, could have been Nottoway, Saponi, Meherrin, or a member of some other tribe. All three of these tribes lived in that general area and, although the Turner name was found among the Nottoway prior to their absorption into the general population, the "settlement" may also have been that of the Saponi of Greensville County, Virginia, or the so-called Portuguese settlement near Gaston, in Northampton County, North Carolina, where the Turner name also occurs. It may also refer to another settlement entirely. Susan Wooten was born, by her reckoning, in 1799, so the settlement she refers to could have dated to the mid-1700s, if she thinks of it as an "old" settlement. It could conceivably even refer to Junkatapurse, which may have been inhabited until the 1740s. (231)

Other local histories refer to the Indian blood of the Jeffries’. R. F. Dill's History of Greene County, Ohio (Dill 1881) contains short biographies of prominent persons, and gives the following information about James Jeffries: "James Jeffries, Furniture Manufacturer . . . was born in Greenville County, Virginia, January 30, 1821 . . . son of Silas and Susan (Pruitt) Jeffries. Silas was a descendant of the Catawba tribe of Indians." Similar information is given for Mason Jeffries, son of Uriah Jeffries, of Greensville County, Virginia, who is also said to be a descendant of the Catawba tribe. (232)

The Indian people who moved to Indiana and Ohio appear to have been absorbed into the general population, but as late as 1910, the U.S. Census listed some families of Jeffries’ in the Whitley County area as Indian (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1910), showing that the awareness of their heritage may still not have died out completely.

On page 340-341, Carlson reveals that some of the Salyersville Indians were ‘astonished’ to discover that the U.S. Claims court had ruled in favor of all the Eastern Cherokee in 1905. Carlson says, “In January, 1908, they were perturbed that the government had never informed them, and they were told that in less than a month the government would cut off all further enrollment of potential claimants, regardless of whether they were entitled or not. Evidence needed to be gathered and sent into the Special Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Guion Miller . . . The court of claims decision stemmed from two decrees of the Court issued in May of 1905 and 1906 which stated that the Eastern Cherokee had been wrongfully separated from their eastern lands under the treaty of 1835, and were subject to further wrongs under the Treaty of 1846. As a result, under the June 30, 1906 Act of Congress, a little more than a million dollars [was] appropriated as compensation . . . For participation in this fund it was first necessary for the clamant to ‘establish the fact that they are eastern Cherokee by blood . . . Guion Miller . . .would ultimately receive nearly 90,000 applicants. In the end, only 30,820 would be allowed.” The Salyersville Indians, specifically the Coles, had maintained for years they had (p. 341) “been swindled of land held by them in the old Cherokee hunting reserve around the Cumberland Gap . . .Furthermore, Salyersville Indians were unquestionably a long-standing community of Indian people despite the ambiguity of their historic ties to the Eastern Cherokee . . . As with past Cherokee enrollment events, Kentucky was considered by Washington officials as out of the Cherokee Nation Zone, that is, the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation as it existed in 1835.” (233)

Early claimants from the Salyersville Indian community intrigued the Special Commissioners office enough to delay the cut off day of applicants for another year. Carlson says (p. 344); “Before the Summer was out, over 120 applicants representing over 400 individuals . . . were received by Miller from members of the Salyersville Indian community.” (234)

Carlson says the Collins, Gibson, and Bolling families, known as Saponi, didn’t apply. A few Indians applied who said they came from Indian families of “Old Virginia.” The large Sizemore family also applied. One applicant, Shep Cole, was asked when he left the Indian Nation to live in Kentucky. His reply said he went to Kentucky when he “left the Indian Nation” in 1845. Carlson says “The Indian Nation Shep was referring to was possibly the Greasy Rock Community itself.” (235)

Carlson’s paper suggests some interesting details about the Sizemore family as well. For instance, Steven Sizemore says that originally, the Sizemore’s were Indians from Eastern Virginia. We have (p. 352) Carlson saying, “This history shows that, by the Revolutionary War, most Saponi, and over two dozen other tribes eventually subscribed to the label Catawba or Tutelo.” Other Sizemore’s stated, per Carlson; “that Old Ned Sizemore’s and his brothers originally came from ‘The cypress swamp, back in Cherokee country, Virginia.” They had confused ‘Indian Country’ with ‘Cherokee country’.  (236)

Another replied “they spent time in the Cherokee Country on the Catawba Reservation.” Another said, according to Carlson; “Ned Sizemore was duly enrolled upon the rolls of the Cherokee Nation and made in that year . . .in the Catawba Reservation.” Carlson, in summing up several Sizemore respondents, says; “Most of Ned’s descendants claimed that Old Ned had come from ‘the Catawba River of the Catawba Reservation’ . . . before coming up to New River. . . they shared a collective memory of the Sizemore’s leaving their original habitation from ‘the great swamp’ in eastern Virginia even prior to that.” (237)

Through all the efforts of these families, they never proved successful in their attempts to explain their heritage. Many facts made their way to the surface, anyhow. At least one branch, the Sizemore’s, look more and more like Catawba Indians, not Cherokee. Carlson found what was called an “Old Indian Village” and discovered it was a settlement of the Melungeon Indians dating back only to the 1790s, and no earlier. We know that early Indian citizens of Southwestern Virginia, Northeastern Tennessee, and Magoffin County, Kentucky resented being called 'Portuguese'. But so much time has passed that parts of recent generations have forgotten that. (238)

I hope these words are helpful to some people. It has taken me many hours to transcribe these things, and more hours yet to paraphrase it when I grew weary of transcribing it word for word. I know I have left out parts some readers might be interested in. But Carlson's work is just too many hundreds of pages long! Please forgive me – I can't transcribe it all! I hope to honor Dr. Carlson's work, as it was a great effort on his part.

More from Mr. Hazel Forest

Mr. Forest Hazel also spoke of some Catawba who tried to sign up as Cherokee on the Guion-Miller Rolls;

Near the beginning of the Eastern Band of Cherokee won a settlement with the U.S. government based on violations of earlier treaties. This meant that thousands of persons of Eastern Cherokee ancestry were eligible for part of the settlement, and many of these people applied to the U.S. Court of Claims for a share (Jordan 1987-1990). It is interesting to read these applications, since a significant percentage of applicants were not Eastern Cherokee, but members of other tribes. These persons would now be identified as Lumbee, Alabama Creek, Meherrin, Haliwa, and Occaneechi (Saponi), along with a number of individuals who probably were of unmixed white or black ancestry.

At least 20 Occaneechi descendants also applied; all were rejected by the commission as not being of Eastern Cherokee ancestry. Among these were Aaron Thomas Guy, born in Caswell County, North Carolina, the son of Henry Guy and grandson of Henry Guy. Henry Guy, Sr., was the brother of Richard Guy, Buckner Guy, and others who moved to Macon County, North Carolina, from the Texas community in the 1820s. Aaron Guy stated that his mother was a free woman of color, born free and raised by the Quakers in Guilford County, North Carolina. There is also testimony from a former slave who knew Henry Guy, Jr., to the effect that he was an Indian, married to a colored woman. Aaron Guy was living in Indiana at the time of his application.

William C. Wilson, from Wichita, Kansas, also applied. He stated that he was born near Hendersonville, North Carolina, and was the son of Sam Wilson, a "half Cherokee," and Julian Guy. Julian Guy was the daughter of Richard Guy and Martha Whitmore, and Martha's mother was Lottie Jeffries. Wilson claimed that his grandfather, Richard Guy, was a white man, although the Macon County records list him as a "Free Colored head of Household." He also stated that his father, Sam Wilson, could speak the Indian language. Assuming he was not exaggerating to impress the government man, William Wilson's father may have spoken the old Saponi language, or he may have learned Cherokee from his neighbors in Macon County.

William and Joe Gibson, from Murphy, North Carolina, applied, and the note "Probably Negros" was written on their application. William Gibson stated that his parents "passed as part Indian. No Negro blood in them." He further stated that his father spoke the Indian language. On the bottom of his testimony is a note, presumably written by the agent, which says, "This applicant shows the Indian so does his brother now with him. However, their ancestors were never enrolled." These Gibsons, who lived at various times in Tennessee and North Carolina, probably were also related to the Gibsons found in the so-called Melungeon groups of eastern Tennessee and western Virginia, which appear to have originated in the early mixed-blood populations of the North Carolina Piedmont area. (239)

Hats off to Mister

Carlson shows us the path taken by the Saponi/Catawba remnant bands down to the present day, following their scent through time like a bloodhound. 

I remember as a child we’d visit my uncle’s home in the country. They had 160 acres and the branch of a creek ran through it. There wasn’t much water in it, but there were trees meandering along the length of the creek. A cousin and I would walk down to the creek, and call his dog, named “Mister”. That dog was amazing. We’d try to fool him by going around one tree 3 times clockwise, go around another then come back to the first time and go around it twice counterclockwise, make wild variations in the path we took, and then sit maybe the length of a football field away and just watch. We’d call him, and then remain silent and just watch him come from the house. There was an open plowed field, maybe five or ten acres, between us and the house so we could watch him approach us as we hid amongst the brush and trees lining the creek. That dog was amazing. Mister would follow the EXACT path we took, going clockwise 3 times around that tree, just like we’d done. Our efforts were fruitless. With his nose to the ground, he’d walk right up to us. Had he looked up he could have seen us much earlier. I always thought it was ‘magic’ that he found us at all. In our genealogical research we’ve gotta be just like Mister, and follow the EXACT path, even when it looks like our efforts are leading us in the wrong direction. To me, Dr. Carlson’s work rivals the efforts of the nose of “Mister,” and I say this as a great compliment. Same goes for Mr. Forrest Hazel. He did a great job documenting his people. Both have sniffed out the faintest scent of the Saponi’s from Fort Christanna to the “Carmel Indians of Ohio. Mister was a mixed large-breed mongrel of a dog. Being a farm dog, he had to be big as there were coyotes and bob cats to contend with that city dogs rarely come across. Hats off to Mister.

References:

216. Lewis Jarvis’ article written for the Hancock County Times, Sneedville, Hancock County, Tennessee, published 17 April 1903; transcribed by William Grohse.

217. Miller-Guion Rolls, #8584; William H. Blevins

218.  'Who's your people?': Cumulative identity among the Salyersville Indian population of Kentucky's Appalachia and the Midwest muck fields, 1677--2000. by Dr. Richard Allen Carlson Jr.; Michigan State University

219. “Finding Our Indian Blood;” Vance Hawkins; © 2013; Bluewater Publications, LLC

220.  'Who's your people?': Cumulative identity among the Salyersville Indian population of Kentucky's Appalachia and the Midwest muck fields, 1677--2000. by Dr. Richard Allen Carlson Jr.; Michigan State University

221. The Journal of John Fontaine 1710-1719; distributed by University Press of Virginia; © 1972 by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

222. 'Who's your people?': Cumulative identity among the Salyersville Indian population of Kentucky's Appalachia and the Midwest muck fields, 1677--2000. by Dr. Richard Allen Carlson Jr.; Michigan State University

223. Ditto

224. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~varussel/indian/28.html 

225. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~varussel/indian/79.html 

226. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~varussel/landgrants/washcosurvbk.html 

227. 'Who's your people?': Cumulative identity among the Salyersville Indian population of Kentucky's Appalachia and the Midwest muck fields, 1677--2000. by Dr. Richard Allen Carlson Jr.; Michigan State University

228. Ditto

229. “Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the Texas Community of the North Carolina Piedmont” by Forest Hazel

230. Ditto

231. Ditto

232. Ditto

233. 'Who's your people?': Cumulative identity among the Salyersville Indian population of Kentucky's Appalachia and the Midwest muck fields, 1677--2000. by Dr. Richard Allen Carlson Jr.; Michigan State University

234. Ditto

235. Ditto

236. Ditto

237. Ditto

238. Ditto

239. “Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the Texas Community of the North Carolina Piedmont” by Forest Hazel

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