http://www.colorado.edu/iec/FALL299RW/can.html
Hundreds of years ago, there were tales of a
tri-racial people different from others. This tri-racial group of
people was simply called mysterious. In eighteenth century Virginia
this mysterious group was pushed and forced further west, higher up in
the mountains as Scotch, Irish, English and other settlers moved into
the area where the mysterious people had been living for centuries.
Only one, yes, only one word.
One awful word, a dark word, a lonely word, a
mysterious but a powerful word continued over the centuries in
confusion, derision but pride.
MELUNGEON!
Racial, social, and cultural differences over
three hundred years made them second class citizens in the regions
where this people was named Melungeons.
A little mention is made of these enigmatic
Melungeons throughout history as a mysterious and lost people. Nobody
seemed to know for sure who these people were or where they came from.
They spoke an earlier form of English but with dark skin did not look
white European.
The loss of rights and land caused many Melungeons
to leave the areas where they lived for centuries and to start over in
new areas where no one knew them. These people made themselves friendly
with the Indians and lived in a peaceful Utopia of their own creations.
Afterwards, they married the local Indians, and also subsequently their
descendants married the local Negroes and the whites, thus this mixture
was going to become the formation of the present day Melungeons.
Current popular theory suggests that the Melungeons were descendants of abandoned Portuguese and Spanish settlers.
The English word Melungeon has both Arabic and
Turkish roots, meaning "cursed soul." Also in Portuguese, "Melungo"
means shipmate. In the Turkish language Melungeons are called
Melun-can, "Melun" being a borrowed word from Arabic meaning one that
carries bad luck and ill omen. And "can," which is Turkish, means soul.
Meluncan then means a person whose soul is a born loser (Melungeons'
Home Page). This term was in common usage among sixteenth-century
Ottoman Turks, Arabs, and Muslim converts to Christianity in Spain and
Portugal, and is still understood by modern Turks as a self-deprecating
term by a Muslim who feels abandoned by God.
Traditionally, Melungeons have been darker skinned
people and, as a result, have frequently been discriminated against by
their Anglo-Saxon neighbors. Many Melungeons have hidden their
heritage, and until recently, history has not revealed where they came
from or even how long they have lived on the American Continent. During
the struggles for land, when the white settlers arrived to the
territory of the copper-skinned Melungeons, the whites declared that
they were "free persons of color." In many cases this legal designation
stripped the Melungeons of their many rights, including the right to
vote, to own their own land, educate or send their children to schools,
to defend themselves in courts of law, and also to intermarry with
anyone who was not also Melungeon. Kennedy, a Melungeon researcher,
says that "Melungeons had always been precluded to get all those rights
until 1942." This designation led to the taking of Melungeon land by
the new white settlers.
Thus, Melungeons are a small group of people of
uncertain origin who have lived for years in the mountains of the East
Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina. The
Melungeons are copper-skinned, dark eyed, and dark haired, but they
mostly had English names and were commonly speaking Elizabethan
English. Some historians claim that Europeans encountered the Melungeon
settlers in the region of Carolina and Virginia. Also the Melungeons
mixed with remnants of Indian tribes, but the Melungeons called
themselves "Portygee," which means "Portuguese" (Melungeons' Home page).
They over time were generally pigeonholed into one
of the four permissible (and inflexible) American racial
classifications: white (northern European), black (African), Indian, or
mulatto (a mix of the first three, or anyone of questionable racial
background). And thus an entire layer of early American ethnic and
cultural fusion was effectively "erased." By the time the first U.S.
census was conducted, the mixing and cultural fusion had been underway
for 200 years, ensuring that the story would remain buried and
certainly never be told via standard census records. Around one
thousand Melungeon descendants now live in the United States, but
Melungeon researcher Kennedy claims that "the number more than doubles
that, and included, to the consternation of some family members, his
own lineage" (Melungeons' Home page).
The Melungeons are most likely the descendants of
the late sixteenth century Turks and Portuguese stranded on the
Carolina shores when the Spanish force abandoned the settlement of
Santa Elena and Carolina. They may have also been survivors of several
hundred Turkish sailor slaves who were left on Roanoke Island by Sir
Francis Drake in 1586. A large part of the Turkish fleet was destroyed
by the Crusaders in the Inebahtin war in 1570 and several hundred
Turkish sailors were captured by Sir Francis Drake in the same war.
They were rescued from slavery in South America and put on the coast of
Roanoke Island by Francis Drake in the late 1500s The Melungeons later
intermarried with the Powhatan, Pamukey, Chickahominy, and Catawba
Indians, and later the Negroes. After they were abandoned by the
Spanish force, they started to survive in the Appalachians and
intermarried with the Cherokees and afterwards with the northern
European settlers, who were becoming part of the classic American
melting pot (Melungeons' Home page). The resulting mixture created a
unique appearance, which Europeans could not recognize.
The basis for the link between Melungeons and Turks is linguistic, genetic, medical, historical, cultural, etc.
More than 1000 Melungeon and related Native American
terms have been preliminarily linked with Ottoman Turkish and Arabic
words with identical pronunciations and meaning. The old name for
Kentucky was "Kain Tuck" which means dark and also bloody ground in the
local Indians dialect. "Kan Tok" is Turkish for "full of blood." "Kan"
means blood and "Tok" means filled or full. The Turkish word for "huge
noise" is "Ne yaygara," also pronounced identically to "Niagara". The
Turkish term for "good cotton" is "pamukey" (pamuk iyi) similar to
"Pamunkey," an eastern Virginia Native American tribe to which many
Melungeons claim a relationship. The old Appalachian term "gaum," which
means messy or sad, is pronounced identically to the Turkish "gam,"
meaning messy or sad. In the late nineteenth century the Melungeons of
East Tennessee and also Southwest Virginia used to say "Satz" for a
watch or a timepiece which is spelled as "Sotz." The Turkish word for
timepiece or watch is 'Saat." The top tribal administrator for the
Creek Indian was called a "Mico." A Mico held the same position on a
sixteen-century Ottoman galley. Hodja is also the Creek Indian word for
the tribe's wisest and strongest warrior. Hodja is also the Turkish
word for the most respected teacher in the Muslim community
(Melungeons' home page). All of those words are still used and
pronounced incredibly the same as Turkish people today pronounce them.
There is credible historical evidence that Turks
were abandoned in the New World. The Ottoman archival confirmations
prove that the Ottoman marines had been taken to the Canary Islands in
both early sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Also, a Turkish
journalist discovered archival records of the Ottoman Empire in
Istanbul that report the Portuguese had sold to the British Navy a huge
number of the Ottoman prisoners of war, who were probably taken to the
New World for labor purposes by the British Navy (Nuri Yilnaz).
No trace was found of these people when later
English vessels dropped anchor for re-resupplying. It is possible, if
not likely, that many of them survived and were absorbed into the
surrounding Native American tribes. This is particularly intriguing
when one considers that most sixteenth-century Turkish sailors were
themselves of central Asian heritage, thus making them literal cousins
to the Native Americans they would have encountered, if the purported
Bering Strait-migration thesis is to be believed. Furthermore, there is
documented evidence of the importation of Karachai and Kavkaz Turkish
textile workers, artisans, and servants by both the English and the
Spanish into sixteenth-century Virginia, the Caribbean, Brazil, and
Mexico, lending even more support to previous Melungeon claims of a
Turkish origin. All these people survived by blending into the various
Native American, European, and African communities.
Turkish historical archives in Turkey, Eurasia, and
Central Asia include cultural links, medical and genetic data, and
linguistic similarities between Turks and Melungeons. The historical,
cultural, genetic and oral traditions lend very important credence to
the Melungeon-Turkic tie. "Qualified linguists and historians may find
other explanations for the similarities in the language, and also
culture," says Kennedy.
According to the English records only one hundred
Turks were taken back to England where they were ransomed to the
Turkish dominions, but there is no further mention of the other
remaining Turkish sailors. "Perhaps those who returned to Turkey left
statements regarding the others that were apparently left in North
Carolina. History already shows through the archives, for example, that
in the 1500s other Turkish sailors having no connection to Drake were
also left in the Caribbean. The records are there," says Ozdogan.
Plans are also underway for similar cooperative
efforts in general historical data, especially those data relating to
Turkish and Ottoman naval efforts, as well as the transportation of
Ottoman peoples, both captives and employed textile workers, to various
destinations in the New World, generally by the Spanish, Portuguese,
and English. "The Ottomans maintained wonderful records, though usually
in old Turkish script. There may be a wealth of data pertaining to lost
or abandoned Turkish sailors, for example, or the reports of those 100
young Turkish men who we know were documentably returned home by Sir
Francis Drake in 1587," says Ozdogan.
Modern science has added new support to the Turkish theory in the form of DNA, related to disease and appearance.
Recent genetic studies show an undeniable link
between the Melungeon people and the Mediterranean region. A 1990
reanalysis of blood samples taken in 1969 from 177 Melungeon
descendants showed no significant differences between east Tennessee
and southwestern Virginia Melungeons and populations in Portugal,
Canary Islands, North Africa, Malta, Cyprus, and Turkey (the Levant).
Furthermore, significant genetic relationships also appear to be
present between the Melungeons and Virginia and certain populations in
South America and Cuba. Perhaps Sir Francis Drake really did leave
those people on Roanoke Island! Amazing "coincidences," but perfectly
in line with what the first Melungeons had so persistently claimed (The
Melungeons 127).
Modern-day Melungeons have found an intriguing link
between their peculiar diseases and those of eastern Mediterranean.
Diseases identified in the Melungeon population include thallasemia,
Behcet's Syndrome, Machado-Joseph (Azorean) Disease, sarcoidosis, and
Familial Mediterranean Fever.
"Behcet's Syndrome, which is a disease from
the region of Anatolia and Mediterranean, is a relapsing, multi-system
inflammatory disease in which there are oral/genital ulcers. There may
be inflammation of the eyes, joints, blood vessels, central nervous
system and gastrointestinal tract involvement. Attacks last about a
week to a month and recur spontaneously. Onset is usually between
twenty to thirty years of age with symptoms occurring up to several
years after the onset. Twice as many men as women are affected. There
is a genetic predisposition, with autoimmune mechanism and viral
infection which may all play a part" (Morrison).
There are some physiological characteristics, which
are not entirely documented, but seem to be passed on through the lines
of some Melungeon descendants. There is a bump on the back of the head
of some descendants of Melungeons, that is located at mid-line, just
above the juncture with the neck. It is about the size of half a golf
ball or smaller. Some people who live in the Anatolian region of Turkey
also have that Anatolian Bump (Morrison).
The possible Turkish-Melungeon link has created
considerable interest among both groups, leading to the establishment
of sister cities.
The sister cities of Wise, Virginia, and Cesme, Turkey, were selected to receive the Diverse Community Award at the 35th Annual Awards Program of Sister City International's Annual Conference in San Diego, California in 1996.
"The Diverse Community Award "distinguishes sister
city programs that best promote international understanding and
long-term partnerships through community activities which involve
participants that reflect the diversity of the community" (Melungeons'
home page).
Wise and Cesme became sister cities in mid-1995. At
the 1995 Wise Fall Fling, Mustafa Siyahhan, Director of Tourism of the
Turkish Embassy in Washington, visited Wise to commemorate the growing
relationship between Wise and Cesme.
In commemoration of the sister city relationship,
the Town of Wise has erected a sign at its entrance paying tribute to
its "sister" in Turkey. Cesme, in return, has renamed its main street
"Wise Avenue," while the mountain overlooking Cesme has been renamed
"Melungeon Mountain." Cesme, like Wise, lies in a mountainous area.
According to Kennedy, thousands of Americans share
Melungeons heritage, such as, Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, and Eva
Gardner. However, some scholars, according to Virginia Demarse, the
former president of the National Genealogical Society, dismiss the
theories of Kennedy. Kennedy says, "I do not care who we are or were. I
just believe that we need to know who we are or were" (Melungeons' home
page).
The Melungeons have begun to clarify their past and
future. Such clarification is a reminder for academics and policymakers
about possible ramifications of their actions. There are some arguments
at several points against the imposition of new racial categories, like
the Turk-Indian-Negro blend. One too seldom hears from the scholarly
community to point out that "all human beings harbor a racial
diversity, known unknown." Although, differing in details, the story is
one where colonized, oppressed, and forgotten mysterious people are
finally recognized. While interesting in its particulars, the true
importance of the Melungeon story is its universality.
Edited by Hak-Khan