A Melungeon HomePage: Turkish Research Inititative

"Major Turkish Research Initiative Underway

Provided by Professor Turker Ozdogan

George Washington University Washington, DC

l-to-r, Brent Kennedy, Turker Ozdogan, and Frank Keel
An unprecedented Turkish, Eurasian, Central Asian, and Siberian research initiative into the origins of the Melungeons, as well as possible connections to at least some Native American Indian tribes, is now in the formative stages.

On August 25, 1997, three American representatives engaged in what will surely be seen as a historic journey by attending the Turkish World Research and Economic Development Congress in Izmir, Turkey.

Dr. Brent Kennedy, Vice Chancellor of Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia, Professor Turker Ozdogan of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Frank Keel, Eastern Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs represented, in turn, American Melungeons, Turkish-Americans, and Native Americans in search of cultural roots and/or potential economic connections to the Turkic populations of Turkey, Eurasia, the Central Asian republics, and Siberia.

After an astounding welcome from those assembled, both Keel and Kennedy addressed the Congress of Turkic peoples, receiving enthusiastic responses from the delegates. The event was covered by international news media.
With academic freedom re-emerging in the Central Asian republics following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the general consensus among Turkic and Central Asian scholars is that both American Melungeons and Native Americans can now expect access to important previously unattainable research data, as well as the cooperation of qualified Central Asian scholars who have long held the view that cultural and genetic linkages existed between themselves an"