Understanding what linksof "melungeon" & "Trail of Tears"
Self-Determination on the Paleface Reservation
The Melungeon Reemergence in Southern Appalachia
By Jason Adams
@ http://www.interracialvoice.com/jason.htmlhttp://www.interracialvoice.com/jason.html
Other stories that still persist in Melungeon lore that they were forced off of their lands geographically link them to the Catawba, which in turn reinforces the connection to the Saponi who had traveled there at various points (Elder, 1999, p.142). Later, around the period of the Trail of Tears, these Catawba would be left landless due to a "mismanaged removal" (Everett, 1999, p. 370). Interestingly, one testimony linked to Old Ned Sizemore, a man often thought to be Melungeon, says that he came originally from the "old Catawba reservation" (Jordan, 1987). Several other ancestors of people now referred to as Melungeons are known to have been identified as Catawbas while living in North Carolina as well – people with traditionally Melungeon surnames such as Bowling, Gibson, and Collins (Everett, 1999, p. 364). It seems that through the course of history, some Saponi may have become Catawbas, who in turn later became known as Melungeon, while still others became Cherokee.
The variations of these histories in time as well as location demonstrate that many related "Melungeon" groups were formed in just this way. Seeing themselves as sovereign "nations", rather than federally regulated ethnic groups, southeastern Indian tribes always had been quite open to the concept of naturalization before the Trail of Tears. The question of whether one was actually of Indian blood or not became most important when the U.S. government decided that a certain degree of Indian blood would determine whether one would be eligible for benefits from federal treaties (M. Nassau, personal communication, May 2000). The historical context suggests that Melungeons "became" part of many different tribes, adopting and shedding their tribal names as white encroachment brought new challenges to indigenous peoples. And remnants of tribes such as the Saponi, deemed to no longer exist in the South, are equally as likely to have reappeared as generic mixed-blood Indians, labeled Mustee, Mulatto, Melungeon and other things by those who had an economic stake in defining them as an "other".
The Trail of Tears commenced with Melungeons on both sides of the barricades, as indicated by the presence of Melungeon surnames recorded afterwards in both ...