Council passes several changes to Enrollment Ordinance

Due to the recent completion of the audit of the enrollment records of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the issue of enrollment is on many people’s minds. That topic was discussed during the regular session of Tribal Council on Thursday, June 3 as several changes to the Tribe’s Enrollment Ordinance were approved in the form of Ordinance No. 277.

One of the major changes will be the addition of a DNA test being required for an enrollment application. The ordinance states that the following will be required for an application to be processed, “The results of a DNA test, from a lab acceptable to the Enrollment Committee, establishing the probability of paternity and/or maternity by the parent(s) through whom lineage is claimed for an applicant.”

Historical Melungeons: Award of Distinction presented to Jack Goins, MHS president

Donald Collins

Say What?

Donald Collins, of Nevada and Helen Campbell donated a very rare magazine, "The Chicago Post" that was dated 1947, to the West Virginia Archives and History Center. The magazine featured the Melungeon.


Thank you Don Collins!!!

The Melungeon Web

The Melungeon DNA Surname Project

By Melungeon Researchers Elizabeth Hirschman & Donald N. Panther-Yates

Do you have ancestors from the Appalacian Southeast, this site might be of interest to you.

Melungeons mentioned in 1907

American Indians by Fredrick Webb Hodge Published 1907

Page 840 : See Croatan Indians

TN Encyclopedia: MELUNGEONS By Ann Toplovich , Tennessee Historical Society

The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Excerpt:

"The most well-known location for Melungeons in the state is in the Clinch River area of Hancock and Hawkins Counties. Other groups of people called Melungeon can be found in the Graysville area of Rhea and Hamilton Counties and in Davidson and Wilson Counties in Tennessee, as well as in the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana. One estimate is that approximately forty nonwhite/nonblack communities similar to the Hancock County Melungeons live in the South."


Another Excerpt:

"A major phenomenon in the Melungeon lore of the 1990s and early 2000s was a revival of interest in the possible Portuguese lineage of the group, spurred in large part by college administrator Brent Kennedy's 1994 book The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People. In this work, Kennedy gleans from his own family's history a theory that the Melungeons originated as Islamic Moors from Iberia, Turkey, and North Africa, refugees from Spanish and English activities on the Atlantic coast in the 1500s. Masking themselves as Christian Portuguese to avoid possible ethnic cleansing, he asserts, the men made their way inland, intermarried to a limited degree with Native Americans, and created the people called Melungeons. Research into this theory is centered at the University of Virginia branch campus at Wise, and the Muslim-Portuguese account can be found at several Web sites devoted to Melungeons."

Today's Standard-Times

"Excerpt: The discovery of one's roots can be an exciting and rewarding experience, but the road leading to the ultimate goal can sometimes be painful and disheartening."

"Last Sunday, Dr. N. Brent Kennedy spoke at the fifth annual fund-raiser of the American-Portuguese Genealogical and Historical Society at Taunton's main library, detailing his quest for his ancestry."

Dr. Kennedy,discovered he was a Melungeon, and he wrote a book The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, and Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America."

Melungeon First Union

The two mayors, Nuri Ertan and Caynor Smith, became friends after the two countries came together when their two cities became "sister cities" when they enrolled in a program Sister Cities International. This picture was taken on the steps of the County Courthouse in Wise County, Virginia in July 1997. The mayor of Cseme, Turkey, along with his wife, the mayor of Wise, stood next to Melungeons in support of their new found friends, the Melungeons.

On that day, in July 1997, Connie Clark, loudly proclaimed these words, "We are not going to take it anymore...." Connie Clark was talking about the ongoing oppression that her people have had to endure for centuries. It was on this day that the people of Turkey forged a kinship with the people of Appalachia.

Melungeon Health

Read about genetic diseases that are common in Melungeons.

MHA needs a BIG budget for security at their Union

Are the Melungeons being threatened. Is it safe to attend the 12 Union? Don Collins thinks that MHA will need a large amount money to hold back the crowds who wish to do harm to the Melungeons.

Well, from what I heard the university has it's own campus security team. So, I assume that they will keep the crowd under their control.

World Americas : Lost people of Appalachia

"The Melungeons were long ostracised in the US for their dark skin. The BBC's Richard Lister travelled to Appalachia in search of these isolated mountain people."

Melungeon Discussion

A discussion of the Melungions and how the Barlow/Barlowe surname might relate...
This site is one you may want to bookmark and email to others who are interested in learning more faacts about the Melungeons.

The Melungeons: Genetic, Linguistic, and Historic Evidence of Their Turkish Roots

By Mehmet Cakir

Excerpt:

"Hundreds of years ago, there were tales of a tri-racial people different from others. This tri-racial group of people was simply called mysterious. In eighteenth century Virginia this mysterious group was pushed and forced further west, higher up in the mountains as Scotch, Irish, English and other settlers moved into the area where the mysterious people had been living for centuries."

Melungeon "Skeleton Key"

Where Do We Come From? Genetics DISCOVER Magazine by Kathleen McGowan

"Kennedy calls himself a Melungeon, but no one knows exactly what that means. There are perhaps as many as 200,000 Melungeons in the United States today, all descended from a mysterious colony of olive-skinned people who lived for centuries in the foothills of the Appalachians. Some say the Melungeons can be traced back to Portuguese sailors, shipwrecked in the 16th century, or to colonial-era Turkish silk workers. Others point to Gypsies, to Sir Francis Drake's lost colony of Roanoke, or to the ancient Phoenicians. It's not even clear where the word Melungeon comes from: It might be derived from the French mélange or even a corruption of an Arabic or Turkish term for "cursed souls."