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Welcome! Native American Records Relating to South Carolina |
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| Queries |
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Welcome! Native American Records Relating to South Carolina |
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| Queries |
This section began with the "Turks" of Sumter County, SC. Steven Pony Hill submitted so many documents inferring that these "Turks" were actually Native Americans, that it made sense to set aside an entire section devoted to this subject.
Steven Pony Hill's Book on Apalachicola Cheraw Descendants in northwest Florida. This book contains records on Native American Families with roots in Sumter County, SC, prior to their moving down to SC
Below is an interesting letter written in the late 1800's by an elderly historian of Marlboro Co. SC ( a place where many of the Louisiana mixed-bloods migrated from)...this letter was written less than one generation after the founders of the Louisiana "RedBones" (I once again apologize for using the term) had headed west.
Also below are several articles written which quote elders of these communities, which, I believe if you read them, will give you a pretty good feel for what our great-grandparents were screaming at the top of their lungs "MY ANCESTORS WERE INDIANS!"...and yet these so-called ethnologists, historians, or whatever would still go back to the office and type is big letters "THE PEOPLE OF MYSTERIOUS ANCESTRY" or some such garbage.
I have heard arguments that our ancestors are tri-racial, that they are of Mediterranean ancestry, that they are a white/Indian mix only, that they are white/negro mulattoes, etc. etc. With all the evidence I have gathered, I believe I can safely say that everyone is wrong.....and everyone is right!
One of the earliest references to the Saponi Indian village refers to "a Portugal" man who was living in the village. It was most unlikely that this individual was the only Portuguese living in a little hut off to himself, and since many of the so called "tri-racial isolates" have been connected to the eastern Siouan Saponi by ethnologists, and also claimed many, many times to be "Portuguese" (note...these cases involved a family or individual who claimed to be a white/Indian mix.. when the persons physical characteristics were challenged i.e. "his hair is bushy, not like an Indians" then the Portuguese claim would spring up to justify the un-white un-Indian features), there can be no doubt that there was a large segment of the population which was of white-Portuguese-Indian ancestry and another segment which was strictly a white-Indian mixture....of course there was also possibly a small segment of white-negro-Indian mixture and even a small segment of white-Indian-Arabic, but not to as large a degree as some researchers would claim.
It is apparent that by the time of the founding of Fort Christana at the NC/VA border, a large segment of the Siouan/Tuscarora/Algonquin Indians which were settled there and put to work as miners, were already mixed with white and Portuguese blood. By the time of the closing of the Fort, and the migrating of these Indian mixed-bloods to the shores of the Pamunkey River at around 1720, many of the families were so mixed and acculturated, that they were no longer legally or socially regarded as "Indian"....of course, they still had a high degree of Indian blood, and a strong Indian identity, but for the most part they went about their lives much like their white neighbors, farming, raising cattle, acquiring and titles, etc.
By the 1750's when these Christian, English-speaking, literate, industrious, mixed-blood families began to spread to southern NC and northern SC, those white colonists didn't know what to do with these people. Usually when they 'toed-the-line' socially, financially, and legally, these is little documentation to distinguish them from their white neighbors... its only when someone crosses the line that their is some legal case, tax dispute, violent confrontation, etc., etc., which of course documents these peoples' ancestry in the darkest possible light.
The single most important point here is this.......it wasn't the "mixed-blood" factor that held these people together as separate communities (there are many families of mixed black/white ancestry or white/Indian ancestry that melted into the larger white or black population) ... it wasn't the Portuguese ancestry that held these people together as separate communities (many of the families did not claim Portuguese ancestry, and the majority did not claim it as their first choice of racial identity)...it was the Indian ancestry that was the identity and motivating factor which caused them to live separately from their white and black neighbors.
I know this discussion may have little effect on the tsunami of "exotic ancestry" theories, message boards, books, articles, etc that are flooding the net, but here it is said with documentary back up.
Steven Pony Hill (some editing by FOC)
We will add to this page as we obtian these records and manuscripts.
Anyone with information on Native American Remnants or any other ethnic groups in this area please contact me.
This page is Copyright ©2005, Dr. Frank O. Clark and Steven Pony Hill, and may not be sold, nor given to anyone who may attempt to derive profit from same. It may be used in your family history or genealogy, for which purpose it was intended.