RootsWeb: Melungeon-L Re: [Melungeon] Allegheny

RootsWeb: Melungeon-L Re: [Melungeon] Allegheny: "From: Brent Kennedy
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Allegheny
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:41:52 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <000901c5ff23$93f878c0$3a261c3f@pavilion>

Dennis and Curtis and Helen, et al,

While I certainly believe some early Ottoman immigrants could have and likely did impart words to the Native American tribes with whom they intermarried (as all cultures do when they admix), most similarities would be better explained by what Turkish anthropologists have espoused for decades: that some Native American peoples share a common heritage with early central Asians (i.e., ?Turkic? peoples). Physical phenotypes, DNA studies, and cultural similarities all point strongly in this direction, so at least some language similarities shouldn?t be surprising. Native Americans were still Native Americans, regardless of the fact that most originated in central and/or east Asia (or possibly, as some Turkish scholars believe, that at least some Turks are descended from early Native Americans who crossed the Bering Strait in a WESTWARD direction).

Also, any Turkish or south Asian infusion (and remember, 16th and 17th century ?Turks? included not only central Asian Turks, but Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Bosnians, Arabs, south Asians, etc. ? ALL under the rubric of ?Turks?) would not negate any earlier African or Angolan presence. Indeed, it would have been these darker ?Turks?, along with Native Americans, that would have been most likely to intermarry with their fellow disparaged human beings from Africa. There?s no need to erase their lives in order to preserve the memory of their African brothers and sisters. I do agree with this often made point, however: "