Tennessee history, preservation and educational artifacts

"The D.N.A. study announced was the highlight of the Fourth Union and a milestone in Melungeon research,' said Winkler, ' but does not solve the mystery entirely. While it tells us a lot more than we know at present, there are variables that modern technology has not learned how to explain with D.N.A. and intermarriage since the Melungeons were first discovered with Native Americans and other Europeans have to factor into the results of those who were tested.'

Other present at the Fourth Union say they are skeptical of the results because of succeeding intermarriages with the families and the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that exists showing that they could have very well been the first successful colonists to make it in North America.

'Because oral history among the families was often not shared with succeeding generations, a lot has been lost that could have helped answer many questions,' said Terry Goins. 'As to African DNA, that is easily explained if we are of Moorish or Portuguese descent. I think Dr. N. Brent Kennedy's personal work on the subject is more believable to me and the fact that many suffered from the same disease he did and it went undiagnosed until he was able to identify it. As to intermarriage with Indians, that stands to reason since the first Melungeon colonists had to survive and options were limited in those days.'

In 1998, the Melungeons of Tennessee stormed out of a meeting of the then-operating Tennessee Indian Commission when they found themselves labeled as Native Americans' stating that those who had tried to put that label on them had no knowledge of the Melungeon peoples and, if they did, would know that they were not Native Americans. "