Reprinted from the Redbone Chronicles. Volume II, issue 1, March 2008, pp. 20-52.

Aboriginal and Remnant American Indians of Holstonia

by Jim Glanville

Copyright Jim Glanville, 2008. All rights reserved.

Introduction geographical distribution of the Melungeons know that distribution is a perfect example We think of America as a patchwork quilt of of Holstonian interstate Tennessee-Virginia states. So our perceptions of geography are bridging. conditioned by those state boundaries – In this article, I will use the unqualified term drawn mostly during the past couple of "Holstonia" to mean Greater Holstonia. hundred years. The state of Tennessee was admitted to the union in 1796; the present To my knowledge, no Native American limits of Virginia were established only in history of Holstonia has ever been written. 1863, when the amputated West Virginia The nearest thing to such a history has come was admitted to the union. Being political, only in the past twenty-five years. It came these boundaries only by accident, if at all, with the belated, but rather wonderful, reflect the underlying cultural or ecological development of full scale Melungeon studies. unity of a region.1 However, although by definition those studies include an examination of Linked by the Holston and Clinch rivers, and Melungeons' American Indian heritage, sharing the mountain and ridge ecosystem of Indians are not the objective of those studies. the Appalachian chain, Northeast Tennessee Furthermore, Melungeon studies are and Southwest Virginia form a region of overwhelmingly focussed on the years post cultural, geographic, and ecological unity. 1850. They also share a common history. I have named that region "Holstonia."2 It is the purpose of this article to examine and survey our present knowledge of the Because it was where my research started in Americans Indians of Holstonia across the 2003, I originally defined the core region of eight centuries from 1200 AD to the present Holstonia quite precisely; it is shown and day. The specific objective is to describe defined in Figure 1 (page 39). As my what Indians lived in Holstonia and what life research developed, and especially as my styles they had. The method of the catalog of archeological artifacts from the examination will be primarily through a region expanded, the region of shared consideration of the scholarly literature, culture and history bridging the supplemented by the author's personal Tennessee-Virginia state line became investigations, and with judicious use of the apparent, though its boundary remains secondary, online literature. The approach somewhat fuzzy. I call that bridging region adopted has been to review the relevant Greater Holstonia; it is shown and described literature, describe some of the most useful in Figure 2 (page 39). Readers of the references, and suggest lines of research. The Redbone Chronicles familiar with the 20 literature reviewed has been very broad. compete with the South Carolinians for the However, the reference list included here is Cherokee deer skin trade, Richard Pearis selective rather than exhaustive. began operating on Long Island as early as 1750.5 By a little more than a century later, The eight centuries from 1200 AD to the Holstonia had become the busiest route in present day will be divided for convenience America as the pioneers flooded west via into four periods: Daniel Boone's Wilderness Trail through the Period 1. 1200-1567 AD. Ancient Hol- Cumberland Gap. Today, the role of trade in stonia and the conquistadors. Holstonia is readily apparent to anyone who travels the busy and congested Interstate 81 Period 2. 1567-1740 AD. The forgot- corridor. ten centuries. One of the themes developed in this article is Period 3. 1740-1838 AD. The arrival that the historic mobility of people through of the English and Indian removal. the region makes it difficult to discern its Period 4. 1839-2008 AD. Melungeons permanent residents. and modern Indians. The orientation map shown below in Figure Period 1. From 1200-1567 AD: 3 (page 40) gives the approximate locations Ancient Holstonia and the and some rivers and places mentioned in this Conquistadors article. Holstonia is now, and has long been, a The principal evidence describing this period trading center and a cross roads. Prehistoric comes from archeology. The period ends American Indians were a highly mobile abruptly with the arrival of conquistadors people and routinely traveled vast distances who left brief and cryptic written accounts. on foot. The importance of Indian trails in Virginia professional archeologists place the the Southeast has long been recognized and interval 1200-1567 AD in the "Late Holstonia is crossed by many of them.3 Woodland Period." Tennessee professional The prehistoric American Indians conducted archeologists and most others who specialize continent-wide trade or exchange. Copper, in the US Southeast place the interval their only significant metallic resource, came 1200-1567 AD in the "Mississippian Period." from the upper Great Lakes; the shells of The distinction is confusing for the lay marine mollusks such as whelks and conchs person, but there it is. came from the Florida and Gulf coasts.4 The archeology of American Indians in Everywhere in Indian America, copper and Holstonia has been poorly studied and even shell were among the most valued prestige more poorly described. In broad-coverage materials. Salt, another important trade item, books about Native American life in the was available in abundance at Saltville in pre-contact Southeast, Holstonia is a step Holstonia. The Long Island of the Holston at child. It is either simply left unlabeled on modern day Kingsport was a traditional regional maps, or, if labeled, is trading center for Indians, even into the misinterpreted. historic period. For example, Volume 15 of the authoritative The Long Island was also the first site of Handbook of North American Ind- Virginia trading posts in the interior. To ians6 devoted to Native Americans of the

21 Northeast shows a map (page ix) that locates arrows and blowguns. They hunted deer, Holstonia at the edge of a region labeled bear, and many smaller animals, and they "Poorly known tribes of the Ohio Valley and grew crops such as corn, beans, and squash. interior." The more recently published Animal skins served for clothing and sinew; Volume 14 of the same Handbook of North gourds and turtle shells became containers. American Indians,7 devoted to Native They fashioned tools and weapons out of Americans of the Northeast shows a map stone and bone, and made pottery from clay. (page ix) that leaves Holstonia unlabeled. Baskets and other utilitarian items were Likewise, a superbly prepared regional map made from the abundant cane that grew in (page 13) in a recent, important "art" book8 giant brakes along the rivers. Trees were about Native America shows Holstonia killed by girdling (cutting off large rings of devoid of any culture, stranded in a gap their lower bark) to provide wood for fuel between the Ohio Valley culture to the north and clearings for planting. Tobacco was an and the Southern Appalachian culture to the important part of their ritual life; they made south. smoking pipes from stone and pottery for both utilitarian and ceremonial use. They had Particularly disappointing, from the point of contacts with other Indian cultures across a view of Holstonia, is the ambitious attempt, wide region, and engaged in the trade or in a work of regional archeological synthesis, exchange of salt, marine shell and copper. to summarize cultural boundaries in the entire eastern half of the United States The second work of fiction is called 9 Conversations with the High Priest of during this period. For Holstonia, the 11 detailed shaded and annotated maps Coosa. It tells about the intellectual, illustrating the cultural affiliations for three cultural, and religious life in 1560 of Indians separate time frames (AD 1400-1450, AD in a place about 200 miles southeast of 1500-1550, and AD 1600-1650) are Holstonia. Its author, the now-retired, ambiguous and confusing, and the under- prominent southern anthropologist Charles lying river system displayed bears little Hudson, was a lifelong student of the Native resemblance to the actual watersheds of the Americans of the Southeast. In this book, region. published after his long career at the University of Georgia, he wrote with great So where does a non-specialist, interested in respect for the known facts, and produced a the peoples of Holstonia before the vivid account of the Indians' social, athletic, Europeans arrived, turn? To two works of and ceremonial life. He also recounted their fiction. cosmology and told their stories of the The first work of fiction is a little book natural world. Events such as Hudson called Kentuckians Before Boone.10 It described surely occurred along the banks of describes Indian life in the year 1585, in a the Holston, and stories similar to the ones place perhaps 150 miles northwest of he recounts were surely told there. Holstonia, as imagined by a skilled The professional archeological literature of professional archeologist writing for a Holstonia, with a single, significant popular audience. Extrapolating to Hols- exception, divides between Holstonia in tonia, people there lived in settled villages Tennessee and Holstonia in Virginia. That along the river bottoms. The rivers provided exception is a relatively recent paper by fish and shellfish. They used bows and Richard W. Jefferies which centers on the

22 Cumberland Gap and was published as part flooded when the upper Clinch became the of a collection of essays prepared as a site of the first TVA dam (constructed in the first-ever effort to treat the archeology of the 1930s). Tribes that Slumber: Indians of the Appalachian highlands as a geographic unit, Tennessee Region is an extremely popular that is a work deliberately ignoring state and readable book about Tennessee boundaries. Down stream from Holstonia, archeology that has been in print for fifty immense archeological knowledge has been years.17 It was written by the authors of gathered along the Tennessee River between many of the professional reports cited in this Knoxville and Chattanooga in consequence paragraph. However, in common with those of Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) same authors' professional writings, the book dambuilding activities.12 In contrast, as says little about Holstonia. Jefferies says of upriver regions such as More recent general works about eastern Holstonia: Tennessee archeology that describe the "…we know much less about Dallas culture people who lived 100-200 the Mississippian groups that miles down river from Holstonia include two inhabited the rugged upland parts of the northern Southeast, related books by Jefferson Chapman. One is where river valleys are often a book published in connection with a 1982 narrow, areas of level arable exhibition mounted at the McClung Museum soil are limited and widely in Knoxville.18 The other summar- izes the scattered, and wet areas needed to support large archeology of sites in the Little Tennessee populations of fish and River Valley, salvage excavated before their waterfowl are minimal or inundation by Tellico Lake around nonexistent."13 1980.19 Also worth examining is a book Unfortunately, even in this article, Holstonia published in 2000 which describes the gets little coverage. Of the thirty-nine sites Mississippian Period archeology from Jefferies discusses (see his map on page Knoxville southwest to Alabama and Geor- 207), only three lie along the Holston River gia and discusses the kingdom of Coosa – with farthest upriver of those being Cobb which was contiguous with much of the Island, which is about fifty miles northeast of homeland of people of the Dallas 20 Knoxville, near the most southwesterly edge culture. At its northeastern end, the of Holstonia. kingdom of Coosa abutted Holstonia. The Archeology of Holstonia in Tennessee The books mentioned in the preceding paragraph were selected because they Holstonia in Tennessee was called the Upper describe the Mississippian Period Dallas Valley in the earlier archeological literature. culture of the lower Tennessee Valley in Older studies that touch on the Upper Valley eastern Tennessee. Although the connection 14 include the articles by Kneberg and has not yet been made in the professional 15 Whiteford. Older studies of the archeology literature, it turns out that artifacts of the of the Norris basin in the upper Clinch river Dallas culture (particularly the marine shell (excluding the Holston drainage) are ornaments called gorgets) are abundant in 16 described in the edited, 1995 reissue of a Holstonia, and occur in substantially the collection of many separate reports prepared same Dallas art styles, see Figures 4 and 5. 50 years earlier but never published. Many of From the technical, professional arche- these reports are by analogy relevant to ological literature of Dallas culture we note studies of Holstonia. The Norris basin was 23 the fine work of synthesis describing state-sponsored book about Virginia Indians specifically the excavation of the Toqua site provides a brief description of Holstonia in on the Little Tennessee River before the site Virginia. Concerning the time period here was flooded, but describing much more considered, the authors' remarked: generally the nature of the Dallas The Late Woodland people achieved a 21 culture. The map of east Tennessee Dallas richness of culture that was unmatched to culture sites in this work (Figure 13.5 on date. They created a wide range of pottery page 1249 of volume 2) speaks eloquently to forms and ceremonial and symbolic the fact that Tennessee archeology objects of stone, copper, and shell. Symbolic designs reflected an extensive essentially stops fifty miles northeast of mythology and belief system that included Knoxville, before it reaches Holstonia. natural and supernatural figures. Sophisticated burial customs reflected the To conclude this subsection on a positive people's view of the world as a timeless and optimistic note, we record that within cycle, as a continuous, unchanging the past year preliminary results have procession of death and rebirth.24 become available from an unprecedented Two now somewhat dated surveys of the professional investigation22 at the Holliston archeology of Holstonia in Virginia in the Mills site along the Holston River in professional literature are the paper from Hawkins County, Tennessee, a few miles 1989 by Howard MacCord synthesizing the west of Kingsport and only a few miles south then known cultural aspects of the of the Virginia line. This site is a fortified region,25 and a complementary survey by town that has been radiocarbon dated to the Keith Egloff from 1992 which reported some period 1400-1600 AD. Preliminary studies of additional sites.26 Together, these two papers pottery and over 660 burials at the site raise cover essentially all the Late Woodland the distinct possibility that the occupants of Period sites that have been described in the the site were an as-yet-unidentified ethnic literature. Unfortunately, most of the group not ancestral to the Cherokee. Virginia Holstonia sites from this period, and Preliminary analysis of the archeological all of the most significant ones – many of evidence suggests that these prehistoric which lie along the Holston North Fork, people were possibly Yuchi. A small marine have never been professionally studied or shell gorget with a rattlesnake design was reported, including up to the present day. excavated at this Holliston Mills site. The link between Holstonia in Virginia and The Archeology of Holstonia in Virginia the well-known Mississippian mound culture There is only one book dedicated to the centers to the south and southeast (Etowah, archeology of Southwest Virginia, and that is Moundville, Ocmulgee, Hiwassee Island, the excellent survey carried out by C. G. etc.) was described in a 2002 paper by 27 Holland in the 1960s on behalf of the Maureen Meyers. She takes the position Smithsonian Institution and published in that there were mound building cultures 1970.23 Unfortunately, as its name implies, it present in Holstonia. However, her position is just a survey, and it is now almost forty has not received much professional support, years old. Notwithstanding, Holland tells of and at least one archeologist remains politely 28 many sites along the three forks of the skeptical. Leaving the matter of mounds Holston River (Figures 1 and 3) in Virginia aside, there is plenty of other evidence, such that are even today mentioned nowhere else as the evidence from the similarities of the in the archeological literature. A artistic styles of gorgets and other recovered 24 artifacts, that strong cultural links to the detachment from the Juan Pardo entrada south and southeast do indeed exist. entered Holstonia and burned Indian towns there. During the past year, I have begun to publish the results of my investigations into cultural In the standard scholarly work on the artifacts from Holstonia. The exceedingly Spanish documents of the de Soto entrada, rich cultural heritage of the region has now fewer than ten of its almost eight hundred been unequivocally demonstrated. Many of pages of translations say anything related to the artifacts are in New Jersey.29 I have also Holstonia.33 Less than a hundred miles begun to write about and document the southeast of Holstonia, de Soto and his party modern-day culture of archeological site of 800 men rested at Chiaha for most of looting that has been so characteristic of the June, 1540.34 Chiaha was a large and region.30 Many more artifacts remain hidden prosperous Indian town at the northern end in the private collections of relic enthusiasts. of Zimmerman's Island in Jefferson County. However, I have seen, photographed, and It now lies under Lake Douglas in Jefferson documented a significant fraction of them. County. Although it is hard to believe, no They will all be reported and recorded in archeological studies were carried out on future publications. I presented a progress Zimmerman's Island before its inundation. report on my studies to a group of There is, however, perhaps one arche- professional archeologists in June 2007. 31 ological remnant of de Soto's presence. A hundred years ago, a rusty steel sword-blade, Two examples of shell gorgets from found at the side of a human skeleton, was Holstonia are pictured below. Even in the excavated, at the Brakebill Indian mound at absence of formal excavations, the mere the junction of the Holston and French existence of these objects is sufficient to Broad Rivers.35 The mound is five miles east establish the presence of an important culture of present day Knoxville and about ten miles there. Saltville style gorgets (Figure 5) are west of the Douglas Lake Dam. probably the most important single category of artifacts that define the Mississippian In 1567, a detachment from the Pardo culture of Holstonia. With the exception of entrada under the command of Hernando some specimens that were found at and near Moyano traversed Holstonia in a quest for Saratown, NC, the geographic range of gold. The party left death and mayhem in its Saltville style gorgets is restricted to wake. Moyano attacked two Indian towns, Holstonia. probably at Elizabethton, Tennessee, and Saltville Virginia. The standard scholarly The Arrival of the Conquistadors work on the Spanish documents of the Pardo Holstonian Indian culture was abruptly and entrada is that of Charles Hudson, with brutally changed in the mid sixteenth century translations provided by Paul Hoffman.36 by the arrival of two separate parties of Partly as a result of the pre-1990 research for Spanish conquistadors. that book, archeological field work was The written history of Holstonia begins when undertaken in western North Carolina to the de Soto entrada 32 arrived in the region in seek sites where the Pardo entrada had 1540 and passed along its southern edge. encamped. That field work revealed that the The documents that tell the story are in the Berry site near Morganton, NC, had been Spanish archives, which further record that occupied by Spaniards for about a year. It twenty-seven years later, in 1567, a was from this base at Morganton that 25 Moyano marched into Holstonia. The base occurred. Our lack of detailed knowledge was called Fort San Juan by the Spanish and notwithstanding, this period irrevocably the nearby Indian village was Joara. transformed the Southeast. The Berry site has yielded unequivocal proof The Spanish entradas were brutal events and of a sixteenth century Spanish occupancy of in their wake terrible changes occurred in the region. The finding of the Berry site was southeastern American Indian societies. The first reported in the professional arch- disintegrating cultures that resulted have eological literature in 1997.37 been aptly called "societies in eclipse."45 In Holstonia, as elsewhere, the story of the Convincing insight into Moyano's violent forgotten centuries was disease,46 displace- breach of Holstonia is achieved when the ment, and change. After the Spanish went archaeological conclusions reached at the away, native societies underwent population Berry site are combined with the collapse, population relocation, and tribal documentary evidence of the Pardo entrada. consolidation. Some estimates tell that more This writer summarized that combination of that 95% of all American Indians in the evidence in an article written from a Southest died within a few years of the Holstonian perspective in 2004.38 Spanish leaving.47 Alfred Crosby wrote "The Archeologists excavated at Berry for over a annals of early Spanish empire are filled with decade and the team issued a compre- complaints about the catastrophic decline in hensive, professional report of their work in the number of native people."48 Amy Turner late 2006.39 The team also published a Bushnell said bluntly "Southern history retrospective analysis of their work's begins with an act of ethnic cleansing."49 significance as an afterword to the unrevised, The faintest historical glimpse of Holstonia reprinted edition of Hudson's pioneering from this period comes from a single brief book on the Pardo entrada.40 account (it's about five transcribed pages) of Incidentally, the accounts of sixteenth the exploits in the region of a party of two century Spanish activities in the region are Englishmen (James Needham and Gabriel naturally of considerable interest to Arthur), eight "Appomattock" Indians, and Melungeon writers.41 Among them, Manual four horses. The party was sent out from Mira in particular has written extensively Petersburg, Virginia, in May 1673 by the about a possible Portuguese connection.42 trader Abraham Wood on a mission prin- cipally intended to explore possible trade After 1567 the curtain descended on with Indians.50 Wood reported in a letter to Holstonia. England that Needham was killed, while Period 2. From 1567-1740 AD: The Gabriel set out on wide ranging, long 51 Forgotten Centuries distance excursions with Indians. Gabriel almost certainly traveled to the South This period has been well named the Carolina coast, perhaps even to New "forgotten centuries."43 Neither archeology Orleans. During these perambulations he nor history offer much illumination of the probably crossed Holstonian territory. period. No Europeans were present to write Unfortunately, Woods' letter provides only a a historical record and the archeological glimpse. record44 is a rather blunt instrument for So what can we actually say about the probing the massive social upheavals that Holstonian Indians during the forgotten 26 centuries? Not much, beyond the fact that plummeted: from an estimated 38,000 in most of them disappeared 1685 to only 7,000 in 1765 following three small pox epidemics, and two "scorched Of course, it is eminently plausible that earth" military campaigns. By then, the isolated, remnant Indian groups remained, traditional Cherokee independent lifestyle especially in the high mountains of counties had been replaced by a largely dependent such as Hancock and Johnson in Tennessee one, and the Cherokees had become a small, or Scott and Washington in Virginia. A deer-hunting cog in a big European consistent element of the history of the economic system.52 region is the survival of isolated, upland groups of people. Unfortunately, it is quite Because of its remoteness, until about 1740 unlikely that direct evidence, in these or Holstonia remained cut off from the life of other nearby counties, will ever be found to colonial, tidewater Virginia. Long hunters, establish a cultural continuity between adventurers of the forest such as Charles Indians of the sixteenth century and the Sinclair and Stephen Holston, and Indian earliest Melungeon arrivals that can be traders such as "Vaughn" of Amelia County documented to the late eighteenth or early were definitely there by 1740 – possibly a nineteenth century. decade earlier.53 After 1740, prospective profits from land sales and Indian trading Period 3. From 1740-1839 AD: The lured ever increasing numbers of English Arrival of the English to Indian speakers to Holstonia. Removal Holstonia in 1740 was French territory. However, when war broke out between the In this section we will examine the role the French and the British in 1744,54 Virginia Cherokee played in stimulating English authorities ceased to be squeamish about activity in Holstonia. claiming and staking out French territory. On October 10, 1746, the Virginia Council made The Cherokee were one of the strongest of James Patton a "Great Grant" of 100,000 the tribes at the beginning of this period and acres of land to be taken up piecemeal in the were broadly divided into three sub groups, territory stretching from modern day depending on where they located their Montgomery County, Virginia, to Hawkins towns. The Lower Towns were in the County, Tennessee – along today's I-81 northwest corner of South Carolina; the corridor.55 With this grant, Holstonia was Middle and Valley Towns were in western open for legal English settlement. North Carolina; and the Overhill Towns lay in Tennessee along the Hiwassee and Little In April 1748, seventeen months after Tennessee rivers. It took only a few decades obtaining his grant, Patton and others after the 1670 English settling at Charleston, explored the Holston Valleys. They went SC, to establish substantial, and highly perhaps as far as the future state of profitable (for the English), trade between Tennessee and the Cumberland Gap and the mountains and the coastal plain. Deer surveyed and selected a number of tracts of skins came out, in exchange for metal goods, land in Holstonia. The first well-documented cloth, guns and gunpowder, etc., that went account of a visit to the region came two in. Between 1700 and 1760 an average of years later. In 1750 Dr. Thomas Walker kept 75,000 skins reached Charleston every year. Meanwhile, the Cherokee population 27 a journal while he and others inspected and The Cherokee wanted competitors for the selected land.56 South Carolinians and the better prices competition would bring. The Virginians Walker frequently mentions Indians in his wanted a piece of the deer skin action journal. They are the first descriptions of Holstonian Indians since those of the Spanish Perhaps the earliest Virginia Cherokee trader documents, written 180 years earlier. Here in Holstonia was Richard Pearis, who been are some quotations from Walker: "We … born in Ireland in 1725. His trading post on discover'd the tracks of about 20 Indians" the Long Island may have opened as early as (March 30th). "In the Fork between the 1750,57 and its presence led to a "vicious Holstons and the North River, are five Indian rivalry between the Carolina and Virginia Houses built with loggs and covered with traders" for Cherokee business.58 It is certain bark, and there were abundance of Bones, that in 1754 Pearis petitioned Virginia some whole Pots and pans some broken, and Governor Dinwiddie for a grant of land on many pieces of mats and Cloth. On the west Long Island.59 Dinwiddie was very interested side of the North River, is four Indian Houses in recruiting Cherokees warriors to join the … four miles below [on the opposite bank is] ongoing British incursions into the Ohio a large Indian Fort" (March 18th). "…we country,60 and Pearis served (ineffectively) as came on a fresh track of 7 or 8 Indians but a recruiting agent for the Overhill Cherokees could not overtake them" (April 24th). who lived 150-odd miles downstream from "[Here] are the remains of several Indian the Long Island. Apparently, few if any Cabbins amongst them a round Hill made by Indian warriors lived at this time near the Art about 20 feet high and 60 over the Top" ( Long Island. April 27th). "…Indians have lived about this Transits through Holstonia by English Ford some years ago" (April 18th). "[Here] an speakers accelerated when Governor Indian Camp, that had been built this Spring" Dinwiddie, ordered Virginia frontiersman (May 3rd). "There is a great sign of Indians Major Andrew Lewis to build the "Virginia on this Creek" (June 6th). "This Creek took Fort" at Chota, an important Overhill its name from an Indian, called John Cherokee town. Dinwiddie's principal Anthony, that frequently hunts in these purpose was to ingratiate the Cherokees with Woods. There are some inhabitants of the trading goods and "presents" and bring their Branches of Green Bryer, but we missed their warriors to the British cause. However, Plantations" (July 6th). "The [settlers] here through incompetence, once built the fort are very Hospitable and would be better able was never named or manned.61 In contrast, to support Travellers was it not for the great Fort Loudoun, built nearby soon after by the number of Indian Warriers that frequently South Carolinians was manned, and briefly take what they want from them, much to their served to promote the Carolina trade. prejudice" (July 8th). In summary, Walker's journal tells that Relations between colonial Americans and Indians were assuredly present in Holstonia the Cherokee American Indians collapsed in in 1750 and possibly resident there. 1759. The collapse lead directly to the outbreak of the Cherokee War of 1760.62 Indian trade between Virginians the Cherokees began soon after Patton's land This war irreversibly opened Holstonia to grant. The route through Holstonia from settlement. To fight the war, the British Virginia to the Overhills Cherokee Towns planned a two-pronged strategy, with the offered a back door to the deer skin trade. Middle and Lower Cherokee Towns to be 28 attacked from South Carolina and the west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1770, Overhill Cherokee Towns to be attacked via in the treaty of Lochaber, SC, the Cherokee the back door down the Holston River nation ceded a triangle of land bounded routeby Virginia forces. The Cherokee roughly by modern day Kingsport, TN, weathered the first summer of the war in Huntington, WV, and Rocky Mount, VA. In 1760, and even captured Fort Loudoun. 1775 came the Henderson Purchase, in which However, in summer 1761, the Middle the Cherokee ceded large tracts of land in Towns were devastated by British regulars central and western Kentucky, Southwest under Colonel James Grant. Meanwhile, that Virginia, and north and northeastern same summer, Major Andrew Lewis and 200 Tennessee.65 With the ink scarcely dry on the men hacked out a road through the Henderson Purchase, Daniel Boone and his wilderness from Fort Chiswell in Wythe axmen chopped out the wilderness trail from County, Virginia, past Chilhowie, to the the Long Island into Kentucky territory.66 A Long Island. Grant's success forced a peace second Cherokee war was fought at Long treaty on the Carolina front and peace on the Island in 1776, while the Wataugan settlers at Virginia front quickly followed. On the same time hung on to their wilderness November 20, 1761, the Treaty of Long foothold near Sycamore Shoals.67 In 1781 the Island was signed there by Colonel Adam "overmountain" men, the settlers of Hols- Stephen and Cherokee leaders.63 Though it tonia, marched back over the mountains and involved no actual fighting, the Virginians' won the Battle of King's Mountain, a pivotal campaign had significantly opened a military fight in the Revolutionary War. After the road into Holstonia. That road was shortly to Revolution in 1796 the state of Tennessee become the great American highway to the entered the union. By 1810 the route down West, to be traveled by tens of thousands of the Holston Valley, and thence west to the English speaking pioneers headed for Cumberland Gap, had become the most Kentucky and far beyond. traveled highway in America as settlers streamed through Smyth County, across At the conclusion of the French and Indian Holstonia and onward to populate western War the British and the defeated French Tennessee and Kentucky. That rush of settled the immediate fate of North America well-documented history records little or at the Treaty of Paris in 1763. There nothing of resident Holstonian Indians. immediately followed a brief moment when it seemed that by proclamation of King Strife between the Indians and settlers George III, Holstonia and all the land west of continued. In Holstonia, the Cherokee, and the eastern continental divide might be far-ranging Indians such as the Shawnee from reserved for the Indians.64 However, the the Ohio country and Creeks and Choctaws forces driving American westward expansion from the deep south, pressed attacks on the were far too strong to be resisted, and anyway settlers who streamed into and through the the coming Revolution was already in the air. region.68 Between 1775 and 1795 over 30 King George was ignored and the land was defensive forts were built and manned by the up for grabs. Holston Militia.69 During all of this time, and on into the early decades of the nineteenth We now enter the time of well-documented century, resident Holstonian Indians are history. Events in East Tennessee moved invisible. swiftly and the Indians we read about being there are the Cherokee, who at the time laid In the early nineteenth century relationships claim and hunting rights to a huge land area on the frontier stabilized and to many whites

29 the tribes became increasingly "civilized." Melungeon literature, which has exploded in Nonetheless, the demand for land was the past 20-30 years. However, it too has insatiable, and in 1830 the US Congress yielded little of value. The one productive passed the Indian Removal Act: the Indians area of investigation has been the very recent of the Southeast were to go to Oklahoma on line documentation of the resurgent, territory, removed there by force if modern Indian tribes of Tennessee, about necessary. With removal, the few Holstonian whom very little has appeared in the Indians who remained withdrew farther into traditional literature. The appearance of their their mountain refuges. on line and physical presence, also over the past 20-30 years, has been a fascinating and The Melungeons entered the historical significant development. record about this time, with the first written use of a form of the word Melungeon Sources That Fail to Provide Evidence for appearing in the minutes of the Stony Creek Holstonian Indians Baptist Church.70 This subsection reports that an examination In summary, at the beginning of the period of the diverse, formal literature that one 1740-1839 it is likely that there was a small might expect to produce information about population of resident Indians in Holstonia. American Indian groups in northeastern However, for much of the period it was the Tennessee or southwestern Virginia yields Cherokee who were prominent through their none. warfare and treaty making. The period What is much to be desired, but what will be closed with the Indians mostly gone after very difficult to achieve, is a book such as walking the so-called "Trail of Tears" or the two written respectively about the death march to Oklahoma. twentieth century history of American Indians in eastern Virginia and in eastern Period 4. 1839-2008 AD. North Carolina. Both of these books cover Melungeons and Modern Indians the topics of interest in the relevant period of interest, but not our region of interest. In "Finding much record of Indians in Pocahontas's People,72 Helen Rountree tells Tennessee post 1830s will be very daunting the remarkable story of the remnant as the politics of that era required one to Powahatan tribes of the Virginia Tidewater hide it or be deported to Oklahoma." That and their revival from almost total was a recent remark made to the writer by an annihilation. Her narrative concludes with 71 American Indian historian of Tennessee. the years 1980-1990, a noteworthy decade Just so. Indeed, finding documentary records that saw the formation of a state-sanctioned of Indian residents in either Holstonia in Virginia Council on Indians and the Tennessee or Holstonia in Virginia for this unprecedented formal recognition by the period has proved almost impossible. state of no fewer than eight Indian tribes, This section begins with a description of the two of which (the Mattaponi and the traditional academic books and articles that Pamunkey) have minuscule reservations on have been examined. They have failed to the banks of their eponymous rivers. yield any information of value. An Unfortunately, Rountree's excellent book information source I once thought would barely mentions even the Monacans of offer good prospects is the now extensive central Virginia, who while closer to Holstonia than the Indians of Tidewater, are 30 still over 200 miles away. A parallel situation widely quoted in the rising tide of exists with Christopher Arris Oakley's also Melungeon studies. In 1947, William Gilbert excellent book Keeping the Circle73 about the published a survey of the larger mixed-blood Indians of eastern North Carolina. His map racial islands of the Eastern United of North Carolina tribes (page 11) shows the States.77 He followed with wider-ranging, locations of the one federally recognized ground breaking report for the Federal tribe, the Eastern Cherokee of Swain and Government.78 Also ground breaking was the Jackson Counties near the Little Tennessee 1950 Ph.D. Thesis of Edward Price,79 which River (Figure 3), and the seven North devoted sixty-one pages to the "Melungeons Carolina State recognized tribes in the north of Eastern Tennessee" and touched else- central, northeast, and southeast regions of where on topics such as the classification of the state. The two closest of these tribes are mixed blood groups and the genetics of situated about 150 miles from Holstonia. racial mixture. Calvin Beale, contributed a 1957 analysis of triracial isolates using Discussion of Indians in Holstonia is also census data and examined genetically absent from the two published collections of transmitted diseases.80 Beale returned fifteen scholarly essays that describe southeastern years later to provide an overview mixed Indians during the period we are considering racial isolates in the US.81 The first published in this section. The first of these, the 1979 book on about these groups, written by volume Southeastern Indians Since the Brewton Berry, appeared in 1963.82 A very Removal Era,74 edited by Walter L. Williams, recent review of this field was published here contains twelve essays including ones about in the Redbone Chronicles by Wayne such tribes as the Lumbees, Tunica, Houma, Winkler.83 Catawba, Alabama Creek, Choctaws, Seminoles, etc. Almost no mention is made An extensive, pre-1979 bibliography of of Tennessee, except tangentially in an essay mixed racial isolates in the formal academic on the Eastern Cherokee. The second essay literature is one essay in Williams' edited collection, the 1992 volume Indians of the collection.84 This bibliography includes a Southeastern United States in the Late 20th long section titled "Sources about Indians Century,75 edited by J. Anthony Paredes, Remaining in the Southeast since 1840." contains nine essays including ones about However, while that section provides many North and South Carolina and Louisiana references to Cherokee Indians, and a tribes, the Waccamaw Sioux, Miccosukees, handful to the Indians of Eastern Virginia, it and Poarch Creek Indians. Again, in these is sadly devoid of references to Tennessee essays, no mention is made of the Indians in Indians or the Indians of western Virginia. whom we are interested. Are there then no formal references to Discussion of Indians in Holstonia is also Indians in this period in Holstonia? Probably absent from the literature of the people none. However, there is one statement by the called variously "remnant Indian groups," prominent Indian student John Swanton "Racial Islands," "tri-racial isolates," or published in 1922 that unambiguously places "ethnically complex populations."76 Yuchi Indians in Tennessee at that time.85 According to his footnote, Swanton's Serious study of such groups did not begin informant was the prominent ethnologist until after World War II, and the results of Truman Michelson. Efforts to follow up those studies attracted very little attention Michelson and locate the source of his until the past 20-30 years, when they became 31 information have been unsuccessful. The accompanied by remnant members of the precise location these Yuchi in Tennessee Monacan and Powhatan tribes, and initially remains unknown – but no doubt in the settled around Fort Blackmore in Scott eastern part of the state. All that remains to County, Virginia, near the junction of Stony be said in this section is that absence of Creek of the Clinch River a dozen or so miles evidence is not necessarily evidence of north of Kingsport, Tennessee. Winkler absence. Holstonia is full of mountain writes: "The family groups of the refuges. Melungeons who settled in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee may not The Melungeon Literature have been merely affiliated with these tribal The Melungeon literature tells a good deal groups, but instead were all that remained of about American Indians but not much about those groups." those Indians indigenous to, or resident in, My working hypothesis, based on the Holstonia – precisely those who we are foregoing, is that the Indian-ness of the interested in. It does tell that the American Melungeons derives from eastern Virginia, Indian component of the Melungeon triracial and not from long-term, locally resident mix seems to have been brought into Holstonian Indians. Holstonia by immigrants. A Digression About How and Why Rather than list all the sources unproductively examined in this study, a A brief digression is appropriate here to brief description of available Melungeon address the questions of how and why the bibliographies will be provided. So doing is situation being described, so inimical to not to say that every one of the cited Indians, came to be. references in each of the bibliographies has In 1839 the US Army was hunting down been examined. They have not. Nonetheless, Indians in North Carolina, Tennessee, and significant numbers of them have been seen the other southeastern states, for and reviewed. Five such bibliographies are: transportation to Oklahoma. In northeastern An anthropologically oriented bibliography Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, as for Tennessee with Melungeon coverage elsewhere, white Americans in general had prepared by an archeologist was published in 86 grown intolerant of even the mere presence 1977. Three readily available on line of Indians. The situation so remained for a bibliographies are the one in Melungeons 87 long time. Indeed, many years later, in and Other Mestee Groups, the one Virginia, that intolerance was published in connection with Melungeon 88 institutionalized in the form of the so-named health issues, and the one published at the Racial Integrity Law. Melungeon web site,89 which very helpfully includes on line, full-text, searchable Out west on the Plains, from 1836-1890, versions of many of the key Melungeon there was intermittent warfare between the papers. A recent, comprehensive US army, usually the cavalry, and many bibliography can be found in Wayne different Indian tribes: the Commanche Winkler's book about the Melungeons.90 campaigns, the Colorado War, the Black Hills War, the Red River War, the Battle of Winkler suggests in the "conclusions and the Little Bighorn, the Cheyenne War, the speculations" section of his just-cited book Wounded Knee Massacre, and many others. (page 245) that the Melungeons arrived in The popular white American view of Indians Holstonia at the end of the eighteenth century at this time was that they were ruthless 32 savages. That view is exemplified by the title reviewer "A really absurd and useless of a popular 1899 book Indian Horrors or book."96 Massacres by the Red Men: Being a thrilling narrative of bloody wars with merciless and In this ongoing hostile environment is it any revengeful savages.91 wonder that for 120 years the remnant Indians of Holstonia hid, and if they didn't Today, reasonable people perhaps wonder hide they assimilated? exactly who was perpetrating the "Horrors or Massacres." However, at the time, Indians In the 1920s, assimilation of Indians everywhere were getting little sympathy everywhere was the official policy of the from most white Americans. Unites States federal government. Today, that policy and the spirit of arrogant In Virginia in the 1920s, in the name of a paternalism behind it are difficult to bastardized and corrupt notion of eugenics recapture, except perhaps by direct deeply flavored with racism, Indians were quotation. Here's the Commissioner of erased in Virginia by the legislative expedient Indian Affairs writing in 1923 in the forward of requiring racial identity identifications on to a book published by the Institute of Social birth certificates be either black or white. and Religious Research: That was Virginia's 1924 Racial Integrity 92 This volume … is refreshingly free from Law. The law's require- ments denied and the pessimistic, dramatic, sentimental, and bureaucratically assassinated Virginia satirical sketchings of Indian life…. The Indians. present policy of assimilating the Indian with the general population and citizenship The immediate perpetrator of this policy was of the country is treated thoughtfully and the Virginia Registrar of Births, Walter … the chief requisites to that end are Plecker,93 but of course the responsibility education, sympathetic understanding, patience, and fellowship. … It is this policy belonged to Virginia government authority of sympathy, patience, and humanity, and the dominant culture in general. To which for thirty years has encountered no understand the depth of the attack on Indian hostile Indian uprisings such as marked heritage in Virginia, Plecker's own words are every previous decade for three centuries, that is preserving and reconstructing the worth reading in a 1925 article published in Red Race. It is this process of spiritual the American Journal of Public Health that understanding and fellowship to which the can be read on line.94 Only very recently have virtues of a dependent but valorous people Virginia authorities recanted. It was 2002 … can effectively cooperate. … when Governor Mark Warner announced: Government … efforts … have … taught [Indian] men the dignity of hard work and "Today, I offer the Commonwealth's sincere self-reliance, brought sympathy and apology for Virginia's participation in understanding to Indian mothers and eugenics."95 health to their babies, put hygiene into housekeeping, encouraged practical and The only direct reference to possible sanitary clothing, purified marriage rites, Holstonian Indians in the 1920s seems to be revealed the principles of Christian living, in a book written in the anti-Indian spirit of and steadily increased the Indian population. Plecker called Mongrel Virginians, which comments obliquely on the Indians of The Indian's spirituality is nourished by traditions as ancient as his racial infancy. southwestern Virginia as Melungeons. Many of these are as beautiful and as Thankfully, even at the time of its worthy of historic preservation as the finest publication, this work was called by a fancies of classic mythology. Many may be retained and cherished in the Indian's 33 cultural progress, but many are benighted While this set of data is self-selected, and of and sometimes degrading, and to lead the doubtful reliability, it does provide estimated Indian away from debasing conceptions which the loom of time has interwoven counts of American Indians in Holstonia. with his sacredest aspirations is a labor of Counts from the 1990 census are faith, of patience, of philanthropy that summarized for the relevant counties100 in knows no discouragement although the Table 1. The 1990 total American Indian ends aimed at may seem far away. census count in Tennessee was 10,191; the Out of this humane regard for the mind, 996 persons in the Tennessee counties the body, the character of the American Indian, has developed the most shown in Table 1 thus amount to 9.8% of the sympathetic and the profoundest service Tennessee total. The 1990 total American of the Indian Bureau, a service which Indian census count in Virginia was 15,792; cannot be done hurriedly or harshly but the 143 persons in the Virginia counties must grow out of kindly and persuasive shown in Table 1 thus amount to 0.9% of the methods, and must not be deterred by short-sighted criticism.97 Virginia total. Enough said. Table 1 1990 American Indian Census Modern Holstonian Indians: From 1975 Counts in Holstonia101 to 2008 Tennessee Virginia Counties After all of the preceding discussion about Counties Count in Holstonia Count the unhappy period from 1839-1975, and of in Holstonia the dearth of information sources for the Carter 92 Russell 14 period, it is a relief to finally turn to recent Cocke 78 Scott 17 events and to new kinds of sources. Greene 89 Smyth 34 Incidentally, the year 1975 in the heading Hamblen 85 Tazewell 48 above is the year in which the Virginia Hancock 18 Washington 30 General Assembly repealed the remaining Hawkins 78 portion of the Racial Integrity Act not Johnson 14 previously held unconstitutional by the Sullivan 374 Supreme Court.98 Even so, it was Unicoi 11 twenty-two more years, until 1997, before Washington 157 Virginia Governor George Allen signed a bill Total TN 996 Total VA 143 that included appropriate bureaucratic As has been previously recounted, in procedures to enable Virginia Indians to Virginia the year 1980 initiated a decade of correct their birth records. 99 political progress for Virginia Indians; in In this section much of our information Tennessee, similar progress began at about comes from the World Wide Web. The the same time. A sign of the changing times picture we will develop will lack the in Tennessee came when an anthropologist traditional scholarly and academic writing about Melungeons remarked it had underpinning of the preceding sections. become "… somewhat fashionable in However, what the section lacks in formality Tennessee these days to have a Cherokee in is more than balanced by its sources' one's family tree… ."102 freshness, vitality, and even boisterousness. In 1977, Tennessee's constitutional barrier to In the modern era, US census data has interracial marriage was repealed.103 In 1978, included enumeration by racial category. Governor Ray Blanton proclaimed state 34 recognition of the Etowah Cherokee Nation, and active American Indian group with the first time any Indian tribe in Tennessee which the writer is personally familiar is the had been so recognized.104 However, a few Remnant Yuchi Tribe. This tribe is based in years later, the then Attorney General Kingsport, however, as noted previously, concluded that the Governor lacked the Holstonia is a cultural not political concept, statutory authority to make such recognition, and Remnant Yuchis live in both Virginia thereby effectively rescinding the Governor's and Tennessee. decision.105 The current Tennessee Attorney Today, Indian affairs in both Tennessee and General's office has recently issued an Virginia, and hence those in Holstonia, are opinion that tribal recognition is legal, if highly politicized. properly legislated.106 Proposed legislation to do exactly that may shortly be introduced to In Virginia, the Virginia Council of Indians the Tennessee legislature.107 operates under the aegis of the Governor's office and is very much part of the Virginia In 1983 the Native American Indian establishment, as demonstrated by its Association of Tennessee (NAIA) was prominent role in planning the events of the formed and that same year the state created Jamestown 2007 celebrations, and its the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs publication and sponsorship of documents (TCIA), with Governor Lamar Alexander such as the "Virginia Indian Heritage signing the enabling legislation on May Trail."112 Unfortunately, the Virginia Council 26th.108 In 1990, the TCIA initiated a of Indians has never had a member from the program to officially and legally recognize western part of the state. Viewed from American Indians, and began to issue Holstonia the Council is irrelevant. recognition certificates to individuals. Indian groups located relatively near Holstonia who In Tennessee, in contrast to the staid came to the attention of the Commission situation in Virginia, modern day Indian around that time were the East Tennessee politics are a rough and tumble business. Indian League, based in Knoxville, and the Elections for seats on the Tennessee United Eastern Lenape Nation of Winfield, in Commission of Indian Affairs are hotly Scott County, Tennessee.109 In 1994, contested and the very existence of the Tennessee adopted a law requiring the fourth Commission is in question.113 Unlike Monday in September to be observed in Virginia, there are no Tennessee state Tennessee as "American Indian Day," and the recognized tribes, a situation which galls following year it required "Native American many members of the Tennessee Indian Indian" as a designation of racial or ethnic community because at its inception one of origin on any official document requesting the objectives of the Tennessee Commission such information to be divulged.110 of Indian Affairs was to establish state tribal recognition criteria that would lead in due One measure of the rebirth of Indian time to tribal recognition itself. Sparing the awareness and culture in Tennessee is an on line list of "Tennessee Native American details, suffice to say that there are various Indian & Related Organizations."111 A recent Tennessee Indian groups, including the check of this list showed 173 organizations Remnant Yuchi of Holstonia, who are ostensibly functioning in Tennessee, heatedly contending to shape the future of although further checking suggests that many Indian affairs in the state. of the listed groups are inactive or were of In summary, for the reasons that have been fleeting existence. In Holstonia, an important made clear in the preceding sections, for 35 Holstonia it is a challenging, and perhaps the chest, whether it is a gorget, copper, impossible, task to link pre-contact and silver, or tattoo. … I do not know anyone who remembers the original clans. I was historic Indians to modern Indians by the told there were four. Then the king in methods of conventional scholarship. Coosa, who was related to the sun but allowed us to live as before under his Other Possible Lines of Inquiry protection as her relation. While archeology, ethnology, and written Then the Spanish came, I think DeSoto. history, have shed some light on the Everything was disrupted and changed, but we remained on what is now Clinch Holstonian Indians, the evidence they bring River. The Yuchi (?) separated from leaves much to be desired. So what other Coosa, I think they were Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni or lines of inquiry are available? The two prime anikutani and greatly feared for their candidates as alternative lines of inquiry are magic. Then the Cherokee came, and oral history and DNA studies. lived by rule of Yuchi magic, and friendly to us, the Koasati, until the Cherokee and Traditional scholarship is extremely reluctant Yuchi fought and the Cherokee won. I think the Cherokee borrowed the four to include the work of the oral historian or colors from us, and of course we were folklorist into its research and speculations. influenced by Coosa and later by the Certainly, such material is less reliable then Yuchi. There was a great fear of the documented history. However, it nonetheless Cherokee for a long time because so many contains genuine historical information and it Yuchi had intermarried with the Koasati in Tali, but none of those practiced kutani is the traditional medium of history among magic. These were difficult times. We indigenous peoples. Oral Indian tradition has were always a white town, or peace town, much to say about the past, sometimes even but we were in between those who fought. about the very deep past.114 Unfortunately, We had caves and underground tunnels as well as our mounds. Then the Cherokee documented oral evidence is extremely pushed the Shawnee back, and at this time difficult to find. However, on the rare more Europeans came. There were many occasions it can be found, it raises wars, the most important being the French fascinating possibilities. Here's one public and English, and the English and example: an American Indian oral history of American. There were numerous alliances, most notably the Creek Confederacy. … East Tennessee posted anonymously to an Many of our village removed to Alabama Internet discussion group: with the Creek, some to Florida with the Seminole, and later Georgia Texas, and When I was a child and sick in my chest, Oklahoma. Some followed the river to my father painted his face and arms, Kentucky. St. Augustine, Florida is where danced around my bed singing insults to some great-uncles were imprisoned and the nothing sickness, broke an arrow and died. It all depended on who one married, made a washing movement with his and clan rules as well as imposed rules by hands. Then my mother took me to the Americans. My other lines are through my hospital. I survived. … I am of two voices, father's father and my mother. They are family and American education. From Blue or Panther clan, Long Hair Clan (or family stories I will answer first. [About the twister), and Deer Clan. I remember once gorget] The cross in the center of the sun that Mamaw talked about the bird clan, but represents the four directions and winds. I do not think she meant Cherokee bird … If the shell gorget is worn on the chest, clan. blue is north, dangerous, cold winds and much trouble; black is west and black In my other voice, the educated voice, I winds bring death; red is east, and red am looking for evidence to support the winds bring success; white is south, as in stories I grew up with about my Collins our home, where there is good wind and family. I do get confused, since my father always peace. The sun is always worn on 36 and his father were Cherokee and had permanent Indian inhabitants of Holstonia 115 their own stories and ways. during most of the past eight centuries. It has The above narrative is fascinating and been demonstrated here that the potentially thought provoking. It is especially so relevant academic literature is more notable because many American Indians today for what it does not say than for what it decline to share their intimate cultural does. A partial explanation for this situation heritage and object even to its discussion, let is that the historic mobility of people through alone publication. That aversion means that the region across all periods has obscured oral history also carries limitations to what it the permanent residents. can reveal. For the period 1200-1567 AD the available DNA evidence is widely recognized as a evidence up until the moment of European modern, powerful investigative technique to contact comes entirely from archeology. This assess the relations among living people and archeological evidence convincingly shows probe their origins. DNA studies have been the presence of large pre-contact populations increasingly applied to Melungeons.116 A of Indians who had achieved a recent, amusing, informal discussion of DNA well-developed culture. Spanish documents and the author's Melungeon heritage can be provide brief written accounts of Holstonia found in the concluding chapter of Lisa in 1540 (the de Soto entrada) and 1567 (the Alther's book.117 Pardo entrada). To apply DNA studies to the question "who For the period 1567-1740 AD the available were and are the Holstonians?" requires a evidence comes entirely by analogy with subject group. The obvious subject group is generalized archeological and historical the Yuchi people. Under the name Chiscas, interpretations that have been made about the Yuchi were the people encountered by regions to the south and east. A single the de Soto entrada in Holstonia. The written record from 1673 tells of a fleeting Yuchis were there in the early historic visit by a pioneering English expedition. period.118 After much traveling, and suffering During this period, in common with Indians removal, a substantial population of Yuchi throughout the Southest, natives in the lives today in Oklahoma as part of the Creek region suffered disease, death, and departure. Nation. The Oklahoma Yuchi are deeply We will never know exactly what happened. suspicious of "white man's science" and have For the period 1740-1838 AD there is much refused to participate in it. They do not want available evidence from the historical record. their DNA analyzed. Yuchi scholar Richard The principal Indians described in that record Grounds (Yuchi) says reasons for their are the Cherokee from down the Holston refusal include issues such as the ownership River, to the southwest. The Cherokee of data and the potential for "extremely during this time claimed northeastern lucrative profiteering."119 For the present, Tennessee and southwestern Virginia as part Yuchi DNA studies will definitely not take of their hunting territory. Unfortunately, the place, and so the DNA line of inquiry is available evidence says almost nothing about unavailable. the Indian residents of Holstonia. This Conclusions obscurity is no doubt a consequence of the many high-visibility epochal events that The principal overall conclusion of this occurred in the region during this time: article is that it is hard to say much about the Cherokee wars, the French and Indian War, 37 the Revolution, the formation of the state of Acknowledgments Tennessee, the opening of pioneer trails through the region, and finally Indian The many people in Holstonia who have removal. encouraged and supported the author's studies of their region and culture. The many For the period 1839-2008 AD the evidence professional archeologists who have assisted, available is abundant with respect to the several of who have traveled with the author Melungeons. However, the Indian heritage in Holstonia; the author, not they, is described by Melungeon history seems not to responsible for any errors here. The relic have been local to the region. Cherokee dealers and collectors who have assisted in history is also abundant. However, Cherokee the hunt for Holstonian cultural artifacts and history tells little about the people of allowed them to be photographed and Holstonia. Reliable information about documented. Chief Lee Vest and the Indians in Holstonia in the period from members of the Remnant Yuchi Tribe. The 1839-1975 is extremely scarce and formal Interlibrary loan office (ILLIAD) staff at studies are absent. Holstonian Indian history Newman library at Virginia Tech. Don was reborn after 1975 and its story comes Marler for encouragement. For helpful principally from Internet sources. discussions and conversations: David Much further research is needed. Oral history Hackett, Jay Vest, and Wayne Winkler. As and the implementation of DNA studies offer always, Deena Flinchum for support, potential alternative avenues of research. discussions, and editorial advice.

38 Figures

Figure 1. Core Holstonia (shown shaded) is the watersheds of the three forks of the Holston River in Virginia. They lie principally in Smyth, Washington, and Scott Counties, and edge into Bland and Wythe Counties at their headwaters.

Figure 2. Greater Holstonia, shown shaded, is a loosely bounded region encompassing about 15 counties along the border of Tennessee and Virginia. It lies principally, but not exclusively, in the Holston River watershed.

39 Figure 3. An orientation map showing some rivers and places mentioned in this article.

In the northeast, Holstonia begins at the head waters of the forks of the Holston River in Virginia. Holstonia ends in the vicinity of Chiaha (modern day Lake Douglas).

American Indian sites along the Clinch River often show strong cultural affinity to those in Holstonia.

Note: This map is not drawn to a strict scale and the twentieth century dams, and the lakes they created, are omitted.

40 Figure 4: A marine shell gorget in the Citico style. It represents a highly stylized rattlesnake. Such gorgets have long been considered diagnostic for the Dallas culture. Many have come from sites along the Hiwassee river. Recent studies, place thirty-six examples in Holstonia, with twelve of those alone coming from the Chilhowie High School site in Smyth County, Virginia. This 5" diameter specimen is on display at the Space Farms Zoo and Museum in New Jersey.

41 Figure 5. A marine shell gorget in the Saltville style. Like the one in Figure 4, it too represents a highly stylized rattlesnake. Saltville style gorgets are found in Holstonia but not in the traditional homeland of the Dallas culture. At the time of this writing, forty-three specimens in this style have been documented – most from Holstonia in Virginia, some from North Carolina and Tennessee. This 2½" diameter specimen is in a private collection.

42 Endnotes G. Trigger. "Preface." Pp. xiii-xvi in William C. Sturtevant, General Editor, Bruce G. Trigger Volume 1. Writing of the title ("The Tennessee Editor. Handbook of North Area") of her 1952 essay for an American Indians. Volume 15 important collective work of "Northeast." Washington: Smithson- archeology (see citation below), ian Institution, 1978. Madeline Kneberg, professor of 7. Sturtevant, William C., and anthropology at the University of Raymond D. Fogelson. "Preface." Tennessee, said "The political, Pp. xiii-xvi in William C. Sturtevant, economic, and academic imperial- General Editor, Raymond D. ism of states' rights is responsible for Fogelson Volume Editor, Jason this utterly incongruous title, as if Baird Jackson Associate Volume culture could be discussed in terms Editor. Handbook of North of state areas rather than natural American Indians. Volume 14 provinces. Like the dachshund that "Southeast." Washington: is a dog and a half long and half a Smithsonian Institu- tion, 2004. dog high, the state of Tennessee has peculiar proportions." 8. Townsend, Richard F., General Editor, Robert V. Sharp, Editor. 2. Glanville, Jim. Unknown Holstonia: Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: Southwest Virginia Before the American Indian Art of the Ancient Settling of Jamestown. Paper Midwest and South. Chicago: Art presented at the Virginia History Institute of Chicago, 2004. Forum, Library of Virginia, Richmond. Saturday April 14, 2007. 9. Milner, George R., David G. Anderson, and Marvin T. Smith. 3. Myer, William M. Indian Trails of "The Distribution of Eastern the Southeast. Washington DC: Woodlands Peoples at the Bureau of American Ethnology and Prehistoric and Historic Interface." the US Government Printing Office, Pp. 9-18 in Societies in Eclipse, 1925. Reprinted, Nashville: Blue and Eastern North America at the Dawn Gray Press, 1971. of History, edited by David S. 4. It may not be just a coincidence that Brose, C. Wesley Cowan, and Holstonia is geographically about Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. Washington, halfway between the Upper Great DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, Lakes and their copper and the 2001. The maps in question are Florida and Gulf coasts and their Figures 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3, on pages shell. 11-13. 5. Johnson, Patricia Givens. General 10. Henderson, A. Gwynn. Kentuckians Andrew Lewis of Roanoke and Before Boone. Lexington: Univ- Greenbrier. Second revised edition. ersity Press of Kentucky, 1992. Blacksburg, Virginia: Walpa Pub- Modestly priced copies of this book lishing, 1994. Pages 44-48. were available from standard online 6. Sturtevant, William C., and Bruce 43 sources when a check was made Tennessee, Lynne P. Sullivan, editor during the preparation of this article. and compiler. 2 vols. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1995. 11. Hudson, Charles, M. Conversations with the High Priest of Coosa. 17. Lewis, Thomas M. N., and Madeline Chapel Hill: University of North Kneberg. Tribes that Slumber: Carolina Press, 2003. Modestly Indians of the Tennessee Region. priced copies of this book were Knoxville: The University of available from standard online Tennessee Press, 1958. Modestly sources when a check was made priced copies of this book were during the preparation of this article. available from standard online sources when a check was made 12. Lyon, Edwin A. A New Deal for during the preparation of this article. Southeastern Archaeology. Tusca- loosa: University of Alabama Press, 18. Chapman, Jefferson. The American 1996. Lyon argues that TVA and Indian in Tennessee: An related projects transformed arche- Archaeological Perspective. Knox- ology in the Southeast in the 1930s ville: McClung Museum of the and 40s and laid the foundations of University of Tennessee, 1982. the modern discipline. 19. Chapman, Jefferson. Tellico Arch- 13. Jefferies, Richard W. "Living on the aeology: Twelve Thousand Years of Edge: Mississippian Settlement in Native American History. Revised the Cumberland Gap Vicinity." Pp. edition. Knoxville: Univ- ersity of 198-221 in Archaeology of the Tennessee Press, 1995. Modestly Appalachian Highlands. Lynne P., priced copies of this book were Sullivan and Susan C. Prezzano, available from standard online editors. Knoxville: The University of sources when a check was made Tennessee Press, 2001. during the preparation of this article. 14. Kneberg, Madeline. "The Tennessee 20. Smith, Marvin T. Coosa: The Rise Area." Pp. 190-199 and figures and Fall of a Southeastern 102-111 in Archeology of the Mississippian Chiefdom. Gaines- Eastern United States, edited by ville: University Press of Florida, James B. Griffin. Chicago: 2000. University of Chicago Press, 1952. 21. Polhemus, Richard R. The Toqua 15. Whiteford, Andrew H. "A Frame of Site, 40MR6, a late Mississippian, Reference for the Archaeology of Dallas Phase Town, two volumes. Eastern Tennessee." Pp. 207-225, in Knoxville: University Tennessee Archeology of the Eastern United Department of Anthropology, 1987. States, edited by James B. Griffin. 22. Price, Beth and Jay D. Franklin. University of Chicago Press, "Mortuary Practices At The Chicago, 1952. Holliston Mills Site, A Missis- 16. Lewis, Thomas M. N., and Madeline sippian Town In Upper East D. Kneberg-Lewis. The Prehistory Tennessee." Abstract of a paper of the Chickamauga Basin in presented at the meeting of the

44 Tennessee Archaeological Society, Virginia Artifacts." Quarterly Nashville, January 2007. Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Virginia, 62(1): 7-30, 23. Holland, C. G. An Archeological 2007. Survey of Southwest Virginia: Smithsonian Contributions to 30. Glanville, Jim. "Richard G. Slattery Anthropology Number 12. Washing- and the History of Archeology in ton, DC: Smithsonian Institution Southwest Virginia." Quarterly Press, 1970. Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Virginia, 62(2): 86-106, 24. Egloff, Keith and Deborah Wood- 2007. ward. First People: The Early Indians of Virginia, 2nd ed. 31. Glanville, Jim. "Art in Shell of the Charlottesville: University of Ancient Southwest Virginians." Virginia Press in association with the Paper presented at the New River Virginia Department of Historic Symposium, Radford University, Resources, 2006. For Southwest Radford, June 1, 2007. Virginia in this work see pages 32. Entrada literally means entry, 33-40. The quote comes from page beginning, or assault. Applied to the 32. Spanish in the early Americas it 25. MacCord, Howard A., Sr., "The refers to the first expedition into a Intermontane Culture: A Middle region. Appalachian Late Woodland 33. Clayton, Lawrence A., Vernon Manifestation." Archeology of James Knight, Jr., and Edward Eastern North America, 17: 89-108, Moore. The de Soto Chronicles: the 1989. Expedition of Hernando de Soto to 26. Egloff, Keith T. "The Late North America in 1539-1543, two Woodland Period in Southwestern volumes. Tuscaloosa: The Univer- Virginia." Pp. 187-224 in Middle sity of Alabama Press, 1993. and Late Woodland Research in 34. Hudson, Charles. Knights of Spain, Virginia: A Synthesis, edited by T. Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de R. Reinhart and M. E. N. Hodges. Soto and the South's Ancient Special Publication No. 29. Chiefdoms. University of Georgia Richmond: Archeological Society of Press: Athens and London, 1997. Virginia, 1992. Chiaha and its people are described 27. Meyers, Maureen S. "The on pages 199-203. Mississippian Frontier in 35. MacCurdy, George. "Some Mounds Southwestern Virginia." Southeast- of East Tennessee." Pp. 59-74 in ern Archaeology 21(2): 178-191, Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. 2002. Proceedings of the 19th 28. Fuerst, David. Personal communic- International Congress of ation, 2006. Americanists, Washington, DC, 1915. 29. Glanville, Jim. "The Space Farms Museum Collection of Southwest 36. Hudson, Charles M. The Juan Pardo 45 Expeditions: Exploration of the Making of America. Franklin, NC: Carolinas and Tennessee, Portuguese-American Historical 1566-1568. With documents relating Research Foundation, 2001. to the Pardo Expeditions transcribed, translated, and annotated by Paul E. 43. Hudson, Charles and Carmen Hoffman. Tuscaloosa: University of Chaves Tesser, editors. The Alabama Press, 2006. Originally Forgotten Centuries: Indians and published in 1990 by the Europeans in the American South, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1521-1704. Athens: University of Washington, DC. Georgia Press, 1994. 37. Beck Robin A., Jr. "From Joara to 44. Smith, Marvin T. Archaeology of Chiaha: Spanish Exploration of the Aboriginal Culture Change in the Appalachian Summit Area, Interior Southeast. Gainesville: 1540-1568." Southeastern University of Florida Press, 1987. Archaeology 16(2): 162-169, 1997. 45. Brose, David S., C. Wesley an, and 38. Glanville, Jim. "Conquistadors at Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., editors. Saltville in 1567? A Review of the Societies in Eclipse, Eastern North Archeological and Documentary America at the Dawn of History. Evidence." Smithfield Review, (8): Washington, DC: Smithsonian 70-108, 2004. Institution Press, 2001. 39. Beck, Robin A., Jr., David G. 46. Ramenofsky, Ann F., and Patricia Moore, and Christopher B. Rodning. Galloway. "Disease and the Soto "Identifying Fort San Juan: a Entrada." Pp. 259-282 in Patricia Sixteenth-Century Spanish Galloway, editor. The Hernando De Occupation at the Berry Site, North Soto Expedition: History, Carolina." Southeastern Historiography, and "Discovery'' in Archaeology. 25(1): 65-77, 2006. the Southeast. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. 40. Moore, David G., and Robin Beck. "Afterword to the Juan Pardo 47. Smith, Marvin T. "Aboriginal Expeditions." Pp. 343-349 in Depopulation in the Postcontact Charles M. Hudson, The Juan Pardo Southeast." Pp. 257-275 in Charles Expeditions: Exploration of the Hudson and Carmen Chaves, eds. Carolinas and Tennessee, The Forgotten Centuries: Indians 1566-1568. Tuscaloosa: University and Europeans in the American of Alaba Press, 2006. South, 1521-1704. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994. 41. Glanville, Jim. Spaniards in Early Appalachia. Paper presented at the 48. Crosby, Alfred W., Jr. The symposium "Before 1607? Columbian Exchange, Biological Melungeons in the New World." and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Southwest Virginia Museum, Big Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Stone Gap, June 30, 2007. Press, 1972. The cited quote is on page 38. 42. Mira, Manuel. The Portuguese 49. Bushnell, Amy Turner. "The First 46 Southerners: Indians of the Early 56. Hammett, Carole. Consolidated South." In John B. Boles, ed., A electronic edition of Dr. Walker's Companion to the America South. Journal with all footnotes Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. (republished on line at www.tngenweb.org/tnland/squabble 50. Wood, Abraham. "The Travels of /walker.html). This on line James Needham and Gabriel Arthur publication draws on the print through Virginia, North Carolina, versions of Walker's journal by and Beyond, 1673-1674," edited by William Cabell Rives, Early Travels R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. Southern in the Tennessee Country (Watauga Indian Studies 39: 31-55, 1990. The Press Johnson City, Tennessee, account his agents' journey was in a 1928, pp. 165-174) and Lewis letter from Abraham Wood to John Preston Summers, Annals of Richard dated August 22, 1674. Southwest Virginia, 1769-1800 51. Briceland, Alan V. Westward from (Abingdon, Virginia, Self Published, Virginia: The Exploration of the 1929, pp. 8-26) and includes the Virginia Frontier, 1650-1710. footnotes of both these authors Charlottesville: The University of along with her own. Virginia Press, 1987. See 57. Preston, Thomas W. Historical particularly Figure 11 on page 154 Sketches of the Holston Valleys. which shows Needham's conj- Kingsport, TN: Kingsport Press, ectured travels. 1928. Preston (p. 34) states that the 52. Duncan, Barbara R., and Brett H. first land grant in the territory of the Riggs. Cherokee Heritage Trails future state of Tennessee was made Guidebook. Chapel Hill: University in April 1750 to Edmund Pendleton. of North Carolina Press, 2003. 58. Johnson, Patricia Givens. General 53. Wilson, Goodridge A., Jr. Smyth Andrew Lewis of Roanoke and County History and Traditions, Greenbrier. Second revised edition. (Heritage Books, Bowie, Maryland, Blacksburg: Walpa Publishing, 1994. 1998, originally published 1932). The cited quote comes from page Page 6. 46. 54. King George's War (1744-1748). It 59. Williams, Samuel C. "The Father of was a spill over of the War of Sequoyah: Nathaniel Gist." Austrian Succession played out in Chronicles of Oklahoma, 15(1): the American theater, and part of the 3-20, 1937. ongoing eighteenth century contest 60. Well known events in the Ohio between the British and French for country around this time include control of North America to the George Washington's defeat at Fort detriment of the indigenous people. Necessity in 1754, said to have 55. Johnson, Patricia Givens. William precipitated the French and Indian Preston and the Allegheny Patriots. War, and Braddock's utterly Blacksburg, Virginia: Walpa disastrous campaign against Fort Publishing, 1976. Pages 67-71. Duquesne in 1755.

47 61. Williams, Samuel Cole. Dawn of Carter. The Forts of the Holston Tennessee Valley and Tennessee Militia. Big Stone Gap: Lawrence J. History. Johnson City: The Watauga Fleenor, 2004. Press, 1937. Pages 171-183. 70. Marler, Don C. Redbones of 62. Anderson, Fred. The Crucible of Louisiana. Woodville: Dogwood War: The Seven Years' War and the Press, 2003. Pages 66-67. Fate of Empire in British North 71. Woktela. Personal communication, America, 1754-1766. New York: 2007. Woktela (David Hackett) Vintage Books, 2001. See especially maintains the website at Chapter 47, pp. 457-471. www.yuchi.org. 63. Ward, Harry M. Major General 72. Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas's Adam Stephen and the Cause of People: the Powhatan Indians of American Liberty. Charlottesville: Virginia Through Four Centuries. University Press of Virginia 1989. Norman: University of Oklahoma Pages 73-74. Press, 1990. See especially pages 64. Del Papa, M. Eugene. "The Royal 187-278. Proclamation of 1763: Its Effect 73. Oakley, Christopher Arris. Keeping Upon the Virginia Land the Circle: American Indian Identity Companies." Virginia Magazine of in Eastern North Carolina, History and Biography, 83(4): 1885-2004. Lincoln: University of 406-411, 1975. Nebraska Press, 2005. 65. Perdue, Theda. Native Carolinians: 74. Williams, Walter L., editor. The Indians of North Carolina. Southeastern Indians Since the Raleigh: North Carolina Department Removal Era. Athens: University of of Cultural Resources, 1985. Georgia Press, 1979. 66. Faragher, John Mack. Daniel 75. Paredes, J. Anthony, ed. Indians of Boone: The life and Legend of an the Southeastern United States in the American Pioneer. New York: Late 20th Century. Tuscaloosa: Henry Holt and Company, 1992. University of Alabama Press, 1992. Pages 110-114. 76. There is no convenient label for 67. Dixon, Max. The Wataugans. these groups. Here, I follow Wayne Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Winkler (Redbone Chronicles, 1(2): Press, 1989. Pages 44-51. 81-16, 2007) in listing multiple group labels in an effort to displease 68. Durham, Walter T. Before none of them. Tennessee: The Southwest Territory 1790-1796. Johnson City: The 77. Gilbert, William Harlen, Jr. Overmountain Press, 1990. Much of "Memorandum Concerning the this excellent work deals with the Characteristics of the Larger horrors mutually inflicted by the Mixed-Blood Racial Islands of the Indians and the settlers. Eastern United States." Social Forces 21(4): 438-477, 1946. 69. Fleenor, Lawrence J., and Dale 78. Gilbert, William H., Jr. Synoptic 48 Survey of Data on the Survival of 86. Ball, Donald B. A Bibliography of Indian and Part-Indian Blood in the Tennessee Anthropology, Including Eastern United States by the Library Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Melung- of Congress, Publication 3974, 1947. eon Studies. Knoxville, Tennessee Also published as "Surviving Indian Anthropological Association, 1977. Groups of the Eastern United States," Annual Report of the Board of 87. Nassau, Mike. Melungeons and Regents of the Smithsonian Other Mestee Groups. Gainesville: Institution, 1948, pp. 407-438. Self published, 1994. Also published on line at 79. Price, Edward T. Mixed-Blood www.darkfiber.com/blackirish/mel- Populations of Eastern United States ungeons.html. as to Origins, Localizations and Persistence. Ph.D. Thesis. Berkeley: 88. Morrison, Nancy Sparks. University of California, 1950. Melungeon Printed Resources. Published on line at 80. Beale, Calvin L. "American Triracial www.melungeonhealth.org- Isolates: Their Status and Pertinence to /resources.html. No date, circa Genetic Research." Eugenics 2002. Quarterly, 4(4): 187-196, 1957. 89. References on line at 81. Beale, Calvin L." An Overview of the www.melungeons.org. Phenomenon of Mixed Racial Isolates in the Unites States." American 90. Winkler, Wayne. Walking Toward Anthropologist, 74: 704-710, 1972. the Sunset: the Melungeons of Appalachia 82. Berry, Brewton. Almost White. New . Macon, Georgia: York: Macmillan, 1963. Mercer University Press, 2005. Bibliography on pages 297-304. 83. Winkler, Wayne. "An Overview of the Mixed-Ethnic Groups of the 91. Northrop, Henry Davenport, D. D. Indian Horrors or Massacres by the Southeastern United States. Red Men: Being a thrilling "Redbone Chronicles, 1(2): 8-16, narrative of bloody wars with 2007. merciless and revengeful savages. 84. Williams, Walter L., and Thomas Augusta, Maine: J. F. Hill, 1899. French. "Bibliographic Essay." Pp. 211-244 in Walter L. Williams, ed. 92. Plecker, W. A., M. D. "The New Southeastern Indians Since the Virginia Law To Preserve Racial Virginia Health Bulletin. Removal Era. Athens: University of Integrity." Georgia Press, 1979. Vol. XVI. March 1924. Extra No. 2. On line at www.eugenicsarchive- 85. Swanton, John R. Early History of .org/html/eugenics/static/images- the Creek Indians and Their /436.html. Neighbors. Washington: US Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 93. Fiske, Warren. "The Black & White The Number 73, 1922. States on page World of Walter Plecker." Virginian-Pilot 298 that a few Yuchi were "… still , August 18, 2004. living in Tennessee. See also Helen Rountree's Pocahontas's People (Norman: 49 University of Oklahoma Press, American Academy of Political and 1990). Walter Plecker was a moving Social Science, 126: 165-166, 1926. force in the so-called Anglo-Saxon 97. Burke, Charles H. "Introduction." clubs of Virginia. These clubs had as Pp. v-vii in Lindquist, G. E. E. The one of their objectives the Red Man in the United States: an celebration of the imagined racial intimate study of the social, purity of the Anglo Saxon founders economic and religious life of the of the Jamestown colony. In one of American Indian. New York: those grand ironies of history, recent George H. Doran Co., 1923. DNA evidence shows that the people of the British Isles (those 98. Vest, Jay Hansford C. "Native, Anglo-Saxon founders) are a Aboriginal, Indigenous: Who Counts thoroughly racially mixed population as Indian in Post Apartheid of Vikings, Celts Iberians, Germans, Virginia." Proceedings of the etc. See Stephen Oppenheimer, The Mid-Atlantic Conference on the Origins of the British – A Genetic Scholarship of Diversity. Virginia Detective Story: The surprising Tech, Blacksburg, Va. March 18-19, roots of the English, Irish, Scottish, 2004. This work also contains a and Welsh (New York: Carroll and useful discussion comparing Virginia Graf, 2007). remnant Indian groups with Virginia triracial groups. 94. Plecker, Walter L. "Virginia's Attempt to Adjust to the Color 99. Waugaman, Sandra F., and Danielle Problem." American Journal of Moretti-Langholtz. We're Still Here: Public Health, 15(2): 111-115, Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell 1925. Available online at Their Stories, revised and updated www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov as: edition. Richmond: Palari "Paper read at the joint session of Publishing, 2006. the Public Health Administration and 100. The listing of counties in Table 1 is Vital Statistics Sections of the not intended to be a limiting American Public Health Association definition of Holstonia. For example, at its 53rd Annual Meeting, Detroit, most of Cocke County, Tennessee Michigan, October 23, 1924. probably isn't in Holstonia, while Reprinted in Attachment D, pp. small portions of Grayson and 303-313, in Don C. Marler, Wythe Counties in Virginia probably Redbones of Louisiana. Woodville: are. Dogwood Press, 2003. 101. Downloaded January 2008 from the 95. Warner, Mark. Statement from US Government Centers for Disease Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner Control "WONDER" web site at May 2, 2002. www.cdc.gov. WONDER = Wide 96. Myerson, Abraham. "A Critical ranging Online Data for Epidemio- Review of Mongrel Virginians: The logical Research. Win Tribe by A. H. Estabrook and 102. Cavender, Anthony P. "The Ivan E. McDougle." Annals of the Melungeons of Upper East Tennes-

50 see. Persisting Social Identity. 112. Wood, Karenne, editor. The Persisting Social Identity." Tennes- Virginia Indian Heritage Trail. see Anthropologist, VI(1): 27-36, Richmond: Virginia Foundation for 1981. the Humanities and Public Policy, 2007. To Wood's credit, one of the 103. Michie Company. "Legal Code of twenty "interpretive sites" cataloged the State of Tennessee." On line at in this little book is the Museum of http://michie.lexisnexis.com/tennes- the Middle Appalachians in Saltville. see. Her description of the museum tells 104. Blanton, Ray. Proclamation of the that it has locally collected shell Governor of Tennessee Recognizing gorgets. Such gorgets were not the Cherokee People of the Etowah described in Virginia archeological Cherokee Nation. Math 25, 1978. circles until very recently. Wood, On line at http://cita.chattanoo- incidentally, is a former chair of the ga.org/etowahcherokee1978.html. Virginia Council of Indians. 105. White, John R. Opinion of the 113. Staff. "Today, December 1, 2007, Tennessee Attorney General the Tennessee Commission of Indian Nullifying Governor Blanton's Affairs is meeting in Memphis for Recognition of the Cherokee People what is expected by most to be one of the Etowah Cherokee Nation due of the most controversial meetings to lack of statutory authority. yet." On line at December 5, 1991. On line at http://www.tanasijournal.com. http://cita.chattanooga.org/etowah- 114. Mayor, Adrienne. Fossil Legends of cherokee1978.html. the First Americans. Princeton, NJ: 106. Nathan Vaughn. Personal commun- Princeton University Press, 2005. ication 2007. 115. Anonymous. "Sharing my Heritage: 107. Word came that such legislation has Oral Traditions of an East Tennessee been introduced just as this article American Indian." Excerpt from an was in the final stages of email message to Melinda preparation. StrongHeartWoman from an unidentified cousin. Posted by 108. NAIA. "Legislation Creating the Melinda StrongHeartWoman to the Tennessee Commission of Indian Google group Wolves of Many Affairs." Website at Nations, Monday 6, August 2007. www.naiatn.org. 116. McGowan, Kathleen. "Where Do 109. http://cita.chattanooga.org. We Come From? The Melungeons, who count Elvis Presley and 110. Michie Company. "Legal Code of Abraham Lincoln among their kin, the State of Tennessee." On line at turn to DNA genealogy to resolve a http://michie.lexisnexis.com/tennes- long-standing identity crisis." see. Discover, 24(5): 58-63, 2003. 111. http://cita.chattanooga.org/TNNA- 117. Alther, Lisa. Kinfolks: Falling Off orgs.html.

51 the Family Tree. New York: Arcade, 2007. Pages 230-236. 118. Robinson, W. Stitt. The Southern Colonial Frontier, 1607-1763. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979. The cited map is on page 77. 119. Grounds, Richard A. "The Yuchi Community and the Human Genome Diversity Project: Historic and Contemporary Ironies." Cultural Survival Quarterly. July 31, 1996, issue 20.2. On line at www.cs.org/publications.

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