THE MELUNGEONS - AMERICANS OF TURKISH ORIGIN
The extraordinary story of Turks being among the first settlers to come to America from Europe, centuries ago, is a tragic human story.
WrItten by Bülent Pakman
In history textbooks taught in American schools, it is written that the first colonies to come to America from England began to settle in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Following this, a second colony arrived in 1627 with the Mayflower ship. It is also written in the books that a third colony came to America before these two colonies, but its fate is unknown. This colony, which arrived at Roanoke Island in North Carolina in 1583, is called the "Lost Colony" or the "Roanoke Colony". This colony has a close connection with Turks.
In the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 between the Ottoman navy and the Crusader (Spanish, Venetian, Genoese, Papal, and Maltese) fleets, the Ottoman navy suffered a heavy defeat, with 260 of its 300 ships sunk. Nearly 5,000 Turkish sailors were taken prisoner by the Spanish and made into galley slaves.
According to Irish historian David Beers Quinn, the author of "The Roanoke Voyages," who investigated what the Lost Colony was, the Spanish took these prisoners to their colonies in South America. At that time, English Captain Sir Francis Drake, who was fighting in South America, took some of these Turkish prisoners from the Spanish and transferred them to his own ship. Among the prisoners were also South Americans and Portuguese. Drake’s intention was to use these prisoners against the Spanish in the Caribbean and then settle them in a colony he would establish in Cuba. However, when Captain Drake was caught in a storm in 1585, he had to abandon his route to Cuba, turned towards the American coast, and anchored at Roanoke Island in what is now the state of North Carolina. There, the colony of the famous explorer Walter Raleigh, who was appointed by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a colony in the New World, was also there with the English who had arrived in America in 1583. The settlers were waiting for a ship to return home due to conflicts with the natives and the outbreak of the war between England and Spain. As a result, Admiral Drake unloaded about 100 (some say 400) of the Turkish prisoners from his ship to make room for the English and left for England with his large ships, leaving his boats on the island.
The English governor on the island also returned to England to obtain supplies.
Those who remained on Roanoke Island boarded the English boats left behind and landed on the mainland.
Due to the expectation of war with Spain, the English governor was only able to return to Roanoke in 1590 and found a colony that had disappeared without a trace.
A map drawn by English explorer John White in 1580 and protected by the British Museum in 1866 gives us clues as to where the colony went. The Lost Colony settlers must have moved westward from the island, as shown on the map, and crossed Albemarle Sound. They may have turned to one of the North Chowan or Roanoke rivers at the western end of the sound. According to historian James Horn, "Their goal was to establish a settlement. The symbols on the map show us where they wanted to put their settlements." It is clear that the two additions on the map were made using the paper and ink that White used. One was used to correct the drawing of the settlers around Pamlico River. The other contains a faint castle symbol. It is thought that these additions on the map marked the way to Jamestown. After many unsuccessful colony attempts, Jamestown was established in 1607.
Michael Zatarga, historian and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site ranger, tells us that in 1585, Captain Ralph Lane left with a 108-person colony from there as the governor. About a year later, they had ruined everything related to the Native Americans. Relations were destroyed. Meanwhile, Francis Drake came from the south and offered to take Lane home, but he needed to make room on his ship. There were also Ottoman janissaries saved from Spanish ships, as well as Native Americans and African slaves from Mexico and Peru on board. What happened to these people? This is the starting point for many assumptions. Towards the end of June, Drake offered Lane to return to England. Three days later, he returned, and there was much more room on his ship. He did not have as many servants and slaves as before. What happened to them? Did he leave them on Okracoke Island and other islands and lose them? Or did he tie stones to their feet and throw them into the sea? We do not know. But there is one good news that came from some Turkish prisoners, as nothing happened to them. These people were not lost. At this time, the English were trying to get closer to the Ottomans and establish an alliance. These Turkish prisoners also proved to be a useful tool for the English to gain favor with the Ottomans.
According to English archives, apart from those who remained in America, Drake released some of the sailors he had taken in South America in Cartagena or Santo Domingo in Colombia, and only about 100 of those who came to America were returned to Ottoman territory in 1586-87. While the reason for sending the prisoners to the Ottomans is said to be the English’s desire to establish good relations with the Ottomans, money could also be a factor as the Ottoman Sultan paid the English more than enough to cover the cost of returning the sailors.
It is believed that during the 1585-1604 war between Spain and England, which followed Spain’s colonization of North America in St. Augustine, Florida in 1565, other Turkish prisoners captured by the English from Spanish ships were also taken to English colonies in America in a similar way.
The first settlement areas of the Melungeons were the Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina states. They mixed with Portuguese who had lived in Virginia and Carolina in the 16th century and had intermarried with Native American tribes such as Cherokee, Creek, Shawnee, Powhatan, Wyandot, and Chickasaw, as well as African slaves and European indentured servants who arrived in Jamestown Virginia and Chesapeake regions from 1607 onwards. Over time, the descendants of these mixed unions, including Turks, Armenians, and native inhabitants, emerged with Turkish blood and later became known as the Melungeons.
Melungeon women
In the 20th century, the name Melungeon was most prevalent in Northeast Tennessee, where they migrated from the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of Virginia and North Carolina. Today, the most well-known Melungeon settlement is Hancock County in Tennessee, particularly in Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater (or Vardy) Valley. Other places where Melungeon communities or family groups are found are the neighboring Hawkins County and Lee, Scott, and Wise counties in Virginia. Melungeons who migrated from these areas lived in communities in southeastern Kentucky, middle and southeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, southern West Virginia, and as far as northeastern Ohio.
MEANING OF MELUNGEON
These forgotten people who were taken captive and forced to live in unfamiliar lands, and who were subsequently forgotten by their captors, called themselves "Melun can," meaning "cursed person," believing that God had cursed them. Thus, the term "Melungeon" was born. Those who do not like the Turkish origin theory propose that it may be a corruption of the French word "mélange," which means "mixed." In English, Melungeon does not have any meaning in linguistics. It also has no equivalent in French, as "mélangeon" does not exist. It could be argued that the term was somehow adapted from the French, but it is disproven by the fact that the French, who colonized America from 1608 and lost to the English in 1763, were far from the places where the Melungeons lived during their failed colonization attempts. The most reasonable explanation is that Melungeon means "black, dark" in Greek and "mariner" in African Portuguese.
HOW WERE THEY RECOGNIZED AS MELUNGEONS?
The name Melungeon first appeared in Virginia history books in 1813.
Brent Kennedy’s childhood and his mother Nancy
Dr. Brent Kennedy, who lived in the city of Wise in Virginia, where a large population of Melungeons resided, had a Ph.D. in public relations and was the Vice President of Clinch Valley College. In 1988, while he was in Atlanta, he fell seriously ill and was taken to the hospital with complaints of paralysis, blurred vision, and joint pain. Tests revealed that he had genetic diseases found only in people living in the Mediterranean region and Turkey, such as sarcoidosis and hereditary Mediterranean fever. Surprised by this revelation and curious about his ancestry, Kennedy decided to research his roots, as he had always assumed that his family was of Irish or English descent based on his surname.
Brent Kennedy showing a picture of his uncle Will
He resigned from his job in Atlanta and moved to Wise to investigate his ancestry. DNA tests revealed that he had genes from Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, India, East Africa, and Native Americans. Kennedy had asked his mother as a child, "How is it that my brother has a darker complexion, and some of my relatives look more like Easterners than Irish or English?" In some of the 177 Melungeons tested, Kennedy found genetic markers for hereditary sarcoidosis, thalassemia, and Behçet’s disease, which are commonly found in the Mediterranean region. After ten years of research and ten trips to Turkey, he identified himself as a Turkish-American and took pride in his heritage.
Kennedy went on to establish the Melungeon Foundation, became their leader and spokesperson, and adorned his hospital room with Turkish flags, carpets, and newspaper clippings about his trips to Turkey. He worked tirelessly to help his people forget their past struggles and to reveal their identity and roots to the world. In 1997, he wrote a book called "The Resurrection of a Proud People: The Melungeons. An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America," which aimed to reveal the untold story of ethnic cleansing in America.
Kennedy also spent $350,000 of his own money to produce a non-commercial documentary film titled "Forgotten People: The Melungeons," to introduce themselves and their identity to the world. The Van Der Kloot Film and Television company, which won six Emmy Awards and produced the promotional film for the Atlanta Olympics, directed the film.
In July 1997, over 600 Melungeons gathered for the first time in the small town of Wise, Virginia, under the slogan "First Encounter." Brent Kennedy wrote another book titled "From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue" in 2003.
Brent Kennedy wrote another book, "From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue", "From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue" in 2003.
RETURN TO THE TURKS
When his own resources for research were insufficient, Kennedy turned to Nüzhet Kandemir, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington in May 1994, to request financial and academic assistance in filming the Turkish roots of the Melungeons and studying the subject academically. The ambassador arranged for Barış Manço to interview Kennedy, which aired on the program "7 to 77" and drew significant interest. Mehmet Topçak, owner of Abatur Travel Agency, who was interested in the subject, obtained Kennedy’s contact information from the embassy and asked him what kind of help he needed. Kennedy stated that he wanted to come to Turkey to film his ancestors and conduct scientific research on the subject. When Topçak’s application to the Ministry of Tourism was approved, the ministry covered the travel and accommodation expenses of the film crew and Kennedy. Filming took place in Istanbul at Topkapı and Dolmabahçe Palaces, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, museums, Bosphorus, streets and alleys, and in Izmir, at the ancient city of Ephesus, and in Denizli, at Pamukkale and Çeşme Dalyan. The filming in Çeşme focused on filming people’s faces, profiles, and bodies to prove that the Melungeons were descendants of Ottoman Janissaries from coastal areas of Anatolia. The similarities in skin and eye color between the two peoples were also revealed. Scientific research was also initiated by establishing contacts with the History Departments of Marmara and Istanbul Universities, Ottoman State Archives, and Naval Museum.
After news about the subject began to circulate in the 1990s, the Melungeon Heritage Society applied to the Assembly of Turkish American Associations and became a member. This was followed by the development of new relationships at the institutional level. Brent Kennedy gave a speech at the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Turkish Associations Assembly.
Güler Köknar, the Administrative Director of the Society, recounts: "At first, we were surprised, then we were extremely excited. There is no clear connection. But we are supporters of him. Who are we to say ‘We don‘t want you’?"
The city of Wise, located in the Virginia state where the Melungeons lived, became a sister city with Cesme, where the Battle of Cheshme took place. A main street in Cesme was renamed "Wise" and in 1996, a hill with a sea view in Cesme was named "Melungeon Mountain". When around 30 Melungeons visited the area, their names were written on small metal plates and hammered onto trees on the cliffs.
In 1998, Virginia University in Wise and Istanbul University became sister universities through an agreement. Academic exchange programs were also implemented between Virginia University and Dumlupinar University. This effort to get to know each other mutually also received a response from the people. In 1998, the Melungeons visited Ataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara. They also attended the 7th Turkish Kurultay with Native Americans in Denizli from July 2-4, 1999. Similarly, trips were organized from Turkey to the Appalachian regions where the Melungeons had been living in the United States. After the 1999 earthquakes in Turkey, the Melungeons offered to help and even proposed adopting Turkish children who were left orphaned and homeless. With the support of West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd, the Appalachian-Turkish Trade Project was established. The Melungeons also defended Turkey against Armenian genocide allegations in America.
WILL COLLINS BRENT KENNEDY’S GREAT-UNCLE
On June 2, 2007, Brent Kennedy and his brother Richard Kennedy, former US Consul General in Istanbul David L. Arnett, film director Julie Dixon, Melungeon Association President S. J. Arthur, and a total of 20 Melungeons from Virginia attended the "Melungeons with Us" event held in New York. In the 45-minute program, samples of Melungeon music were also presented.
In
July 2010, Turkish film producers Tolga Çelikkanat and Ibrahim Ada
visited Wise, Virginia, where the Melungeons lived, to conduct
interviews and film footage for a documentary about a possible
relationship between the Melungeons and 17th century lost Turkish
sailors. The producers met with Richard Kennedy, who was conducting
research on Melungeons and working as a lawyer in Wise in place of
his brother Brent, who had been ill for several years. They were not
well received on the streets of Wise and were warned not to film the
people they asked questions to. However, they were happy to hear news
that there were many communities claiming to be of Melungeon descent
in Newman’s Ridge, Cocke County, Tennessee, and decided to visit
there in the future.
They met with a Turkish professor who researched these subjects at the American-Turkish Association in Washington, and later left the region to conduct research on the connections between Melungeons and Cherokees in New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
DISTINCTIVE TURKISH CHARACTERISTICS
The first Melungeons were Muslim. One of the things remembered is that they used to perform certain movements by squatting and standing up facing a certain direction five times a day. Later, they became Christians but not staunch ones. There are similarities between the motifs of the kilims and blankets woven by the Melungeons and Turkish motifs. They make various dishes with bulgur, an unbeatable and unknown grain in America, and call it ‘bulcur.’ They say ‘şuş’ instead of ‘sus’ to mean ‘be quiet.’ They call ‘gam’ ‘gami-gaumy' to express that they are full. They used to say ‘cık’ by raising their heads instead of saying ‘no.’ I saw this tradition years ago among the residents of the town of Cefalu in Sicily, Italy.
Shrugging and raising shoulders used to be common. They eat lamb and sheep meat, which are not very popular in America, and cook their dishes with onions, tomato paste, and spices like the Turks. They believe in the evil eye and to protect against it, they hit a board and pull their ears and read coffee grounds like the Turks. They make their coffee with grounds like the Turks. They used to circumcise their men, and when they made their first sale, they would rub the money on their beards. Americans do not hug or embrace people they meet, they only shake hands, but the Melungeon tradition of hugging each other and patting each other’s backs with their hands has been passed down through families for years. Men kissing each other, a custom unseen in America, is also present among them. There are Turkish dance figures in Appalachian folk dances. They have saz instruments like the kanun and kemençe. Their family ties are strong, like those of the Turks. Women used to walk behind men. They have physical features very similar to the Turks. They have a habit of walking with one hand in their pocket. Melungeons have given their children names such as Didima, Alania, and Mahala.
CHEROKEE CHIEF SEKUOYA IN TURBAN
In the Cherokee Native American tribe, which is related to the Melungeons, the mother is referred to as "ana-ta" and the father is called "atta," similar to the words "ata" in Azeri, Bashkir, Uzbek, Uyghur, Tatar, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz dialects.
The Cherokees say "saats" instead of "watch" for time. Cherokee chief Sequoya’s (1775-1843) turbaned attire resembles the clothing of 16th-century Ottoman sailors.
Krik native American costume
It seems like the text is discussing a Native American tribe called the Creeks, who are also known as the Krikler. They refer to their turban as "Haco." There is also mention of a region called "Pamunkey" in West Point, Virginia, which is known for its fertile land used for cotton farming by Native Americans.
Railing and old Turkish tombstone in Meluncan tombs
MELUNGEON SARCOPHAGI
There are sarcophagi on some of their graves, and there are bars with Ottoman tombstone patterns around the sarcophagi.
ETHNICITY
Meluncan DNA published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy in April 2012 with the title "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population"
MIGRATIONS FROM MESOPOTAMIA, ANATOLIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
HAPLOGROUP RATIOS:
R1b (38 people) 47.5%, E1b1a (27 people) 33.75%, R1a (6 people) 7.5%, I1 (3 people) 3.75%, A (2 people) 2.5%, E1b1b1 (2 people) 2.5%, Q1a3a1 ( 1 person) 1.25%, I2 (1 person) 1.25%
The text also notes that some Melungeon graves have fences around them with Ottoman-style tombstones, and some have coffins with similar designs.
R1B
It is known as the most common Turkic haplogroup. It originated in South Siberia and is found in significant percentages in regions such as Bashkortostan and the Ural region (50%), Turkmenistan (35%), and among the Hazara people (Turkic descendants) in Afghanistan (35%). It is also abundant among the Kipchak steppes, Idel-Ural Tatars, Uyghurs, and Anatolian populations. R1b constitutes over 80% of the population in Ireland and the Basque region. This widespread distribution is due to migrations from Anatolia.
R1A
It originated around southern Siberia and is a common haplogroup in Eastern Europe and Asia. Currently, one in ten R1a carriers are of Ural-Altaic origin, while the rest speak Indo-European languages. It is also common among Turkic populations, following R1b.
E1B1A AND E1B1B
They originated from North and South Africa and indicate the ancestry of Ottoman Navy sailors from North Africa and the Berber people south of the Sahara.
Since the mid-16th century, Turkish pirates, known as the "Barbary Corsairs," controlled the Mediterranean and the trade routes on behalf of the Ottoman Empire in North Africa, which was nominally independent. Their strategy was simple but effective: they sailed with small, fast vessels and captured trade ships with superior speed and maneuverability, balancing their lack of firepower. They seized the captured ships and their cargo, taking the crew hostage. The crew was held captive until their country paid a ransom to secure their release. If the ransom was not paid, they were sold as slaves. These states, known as the "Western Provinces" or "Gharb Provinces," were required to join the Ottoman navy during wartime. The Gharb Provinces were administered differently than other provinces and were given to Turkish soldiers who were left behind for security purposes after conquests. In addition, those who fled their homes on the western Anatolian coast and Aegean Islands, including troublemakers, murderers, bullies, and adventurers, ran away to the Gharb Provinces and joined the pirates. Some of the ancestors of the Melungeons were Turkish, North African Berber, Arab, Jewish sailors of the Ottoman Empire, which partially explains their dark skin.
According to Brent Kennedy, in addition to the Turks who were brought from Cesme to America by boarding ships and transported with the roads described above, there were also craftsmen and iron workers from the Caucasus and Karachay Turks that the Spaniards brought to Mexico and then to America in the 1500s. Turks and Armenians also joined the Portuguese families who lived in Virginia and Carolina in the 16th century, along with those brought by the English. Their names can be seen in colony records, such as Sayyan Turk, Mehmet The Turk, Joseph The Armenian, and so on.
R1a Haplogroup_ Distribution in Europe and Anatolia. Source: Eupedia
After the diagnosis of his illness, DNA tests conducted on Kennedy revealed genes from Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, India, East Africa, and Native Americans. Tests on Melungeons showed genetic relationships with the people living in the Ottoman territories of the Eastern Mediterranean, Levant coasts (between Iskenderun and the Suez Canal), Cyprus, and Malta. Some had inherited sarcoidosis, thalassemia, and Behcet’s disease seen in Mediterranean populations. In a 2002 study, the origins were found to be 5% Native American, 5% African, 83% from North to South of the entire European continent, and 7% from Turkey, Syria, and Northern India. A 2010 study indicated a genetic mix of white, Native American, and Saharan South.
Our opinion on this subject, along with other data related to Melungeons, can be found at the end of our article.
THEY HAVE SUFFERED GREATLY.
The Melungeons started claiming that they were of Portuguese origin in the 1700s due to ethnic discrimination. This eventually became synonymous with being Melungeon, and in the 1800s, they began claiming to be Black Dutch, Black German, and French.
Back then, the American people were divided into four categories: black, white, Native American, and mixed. The Melungeons were not given a different social status in the United States' independence (1783). Scottish-Irish immigrants who came to America had their eyes on the Melungeons' land. In 1790, the Scots and the Irish changed the existing racial law and defined Melungeons as "free persons of color" outside of the aforementioned four categories, as dark-skinned free people. In the American census, Melungeons were recorded in this way. Due to the color of their skin, they were excluded and denigrated like black people. Their fertile lands were taken away, they were not admitted to white schools, they did not send their children to black schools, and their homes and schools were burned and destroyed by racists. They could not find work, could not start their own businesses, could not defend themselves in courts, and had no voting rights. When they migrated to Tennessee, where voting rights were free, their voting rights were also restricted. In a 1891 magazine called Arena, they were accused of being "very dirty" and described as follows: "They are frauds, born cheaters, closed, suspicious, inhospitable, liars, cowardly and sly in expressing themselves. They are similar to black people in many ways. Although they delay in perceiving the insult to them and wait to be spat on, they are still unforgivable people."
Another example of their humiliation: Parents in the town of Wise used to scare their children by saying, "If you don‘t behave, I’ll give you to the Melungeons."
As a result, they were forced to retreat to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia. Later, they hid their roots and even wanted to forget them so that their children would be accepted as white. They changed their religion under Anglo-Saxon English pressure. Since Turks did not have surnames in the past, they took Western surnames. They tried to present themselves as of Scottish-Irish origin. They protected themselves from the sun to look less dark and wore closed clothes.
Floyd and Maggie Benneth Nash, their child Beau Nash, (1905)
There are about 75,000 Melungeons in America, most of whom are concentrated in southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. About 250,000 know they are Melungeons but do not want to know more. It is believed that theoretically there are millions of people who are unaware that their ancestors were Melungeons. The surnames, primarily Mullins, Goins, Collins, and Roberson, can provide clues to Melungeon origins, but only in areas where Melungeons are concentrated. These surnames can be found all over America.
ONCE THEY WERE NAMED NINE, IT CAN’T BE EIGHT ANYMORE(WORD FOR WORD TRANSLATION OF A FAMOUS TURKISH IDIOM)
Historian Heather Andolina explains: “It all started when we learned that my grandmother had a rare blood disease. Maxine Partin was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, which causes the body to produce too many red blood cells so that clots can form easily. The family worried that the disease was hereditary. It turned out not to be, but out of curiosity, most of the family members had DNA tests done. The results came as a surprise to the family, who thought they were white. My grandmother had mocha skin and always said she had Native American blood in her family tree. His teacher used to tell him that he was ugly because the color of his skin made him look dirty.”
DNA experiments from Andolina’s family revealed Native American and other lineages, as expected. Evidence of African, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian as well as European ancestry has been found. This result reminded Andolina that her mother and cousin were talking about hybrid mountain people. It was on that occasion that he heard the word Meluncan for the first time.
Heather Andolina is currently filming a documentary with her two siblings titled "Infamous Characters, Notorious Villains - Melungeons, The People Who Disappeared." The documentary is about the origins of the Melungeons. The name of the documentary has an interesting story. In 1805, a Melungeon went to court in Robeson County, North Carolina, and demanded that Captain William Odom be punished for calling Melungeons "infamous characters and notorious villains" due to their skin color. In a rare move during the racist justice system of America’s early years, Odom was found guilty.
As we mentioned before, some surnames indicate Melungeon origins, such as Gibson. Andolina’s great-great-great grandfather Jesse’s last name was also Gibson. Andolina traced her ancestors back to Claiborne County, Tennessee, in the 1830s and Vardy Valley in Hancock County in the early 1850s.
Andolina explains: "In the early 1800s, two white men named Vardemon Collins and Shepard Gibson settled in this valley. Vardy Valley took its name from Vardemon."
Melungeons may have escaped discrimination they faced elsewhere in this remote corner of the Appalachians, but life remained harsh. Andolina says, "Melungeons were not allowed to attend white schools due to their mixed ethnicity." Fortunately, a Presbyterian group came to the valley and built a church in 1897 and a school for Vardy’s children in 1902. The school closed in the 1970s and collapsed in the early 2000s. Andolina and her siblings filmed the remains of the school for their documentary and also filmed interviews with middle-aged Melungeons who attended the school before it closed. Andolina says Troy Williams and DruAnna Williams Overbay, two of them, have fond memories of the organizations that gave them opportunities. In addition to their shoots in Vardy Valley in Tennessee and Newman’s Ridge nearby, the team filmed in Morganton, Virginia, Big Stone Gap, and Beaufort, South Carolina, where the Melungeon Heritage Association holds its annual conferences.
Andolina’s emphasis in the documentary was this: In the 8th century, as the Arabs invaded Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France, their bloodlines entered Europe. During the process that began with the Crusaders in the 11th century, Turks and Arabs brought Middle Eastern and Near Eastern DNA into the genetic melting pot. In the 15th century, with the voyages of Portuguese and Spanish explorers, they encountered and mixed with people from Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. As a result, many "white" Europeans had already become mixed-race long before setting foot on North American soil. With their arrival in the New World, European family trees became mixed with Africans and Native Americans.
LITTLE TOWN, BIG SECRETS – BIG STONE GAP
"Big Stone Gap" is a 2014 film about the love and sorrowful moments experienced by the people living in the small town of Big Stone Gap, located at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, towards the end of the 1970s. The town hosts the strangest people of the state, and there are big secrets among the townspeople that will cause them trouble. 40-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan is the unmarried pharmacist of the town. She inherited the pharmacy from her father. In 1978, Maria, who has been living a happy life with her close friends and many hobbies, realizes that she is not who she thinks she is. Learning the long-hidden family secret sets her on an adventurous journey. The screenplay is based on Trigiani’s novel of the same name. The film features many Melungeon characters, one of whom is Pearl Grimes, a poor young girl who is subjected to the rude remarks of young girls from prominent families. Ave Maria hires her to work in her pharmacy. Starring: Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Jenna Elfman, Whoopi Goldberg, John Benjamin Hickey, Anthony LaPaglia, Jane Krakowski, Jasmine Guy.
MELUNGEONS TELLING THEIR OWN STORY.
Connie Clark, President of the Melungeon Heritage Association, and a high school teacher at Wise who teaches her students about Melungeon connections, says: "This is a movement. Some people don’t accept or tolerate differences. Our duty is to show the world that we are all one people. Those of us who are mixed-race are better suited to teach this. Our ancestors suffered oppression. We were raised to believe that we were white. But now we say we are not white. Race doesn’t matter. We are poor Appalachians and we are leading a movement."
Kevin Hayes, a technical manager at IBM Atlanta who discovered his Melungeon ancestry while researching a genealogy site on the internet, says: "All of this could help explain why my mother and I were born with six fingers and why my aunt has a disease more common among Mediterranean people. The African-American community has come to accept that they are not purely African. This country is a melting pot greater than most people imagine. If we are to have any hope of overcoming racism, people of mixed heritage need to know and talk about this truth.
For example, we know that Turkish artisans came to America during the colonial period. There is also another mixed-ethnic group known as the ‘Turks’ in South Carolina.
My father’s side of the family is from Hancock County, Tennessee. This is one of the best-known areas for Melungeons. The people who live in this area have a very close connection to the Melungeons. But in my father’s time, these were not things that could be discussed. He always said his family was Native American. I didn’t hear about the Melungeons until I was 12 years old and was able to discover my own connections. I think being Melungeon today carries less negative connotations. Of course, saying this doesn’t mean that the negative label has disappeared completely. In fact, in areas where Melungeons are most concentrated, there are more negative labels than there are for those who have moved away from these areas. But of course, in the past, people kept their Melungeon ancestry hidden because it was something that their neighbors looked down upon. It was a topic that people didn’t want to talk about, but everyone couldn’t deny it. Because Melungeons have a wide range of skin colors. This wasn’t something they wanted to pass on to their children. They didn’t want to pass on this heritage to their children. In fact, young people in Melungeon areas were encouraged to move to places where no one had ever heard the word Melungeon and wouldn’t question them."
April Mullins, Melungeon researcher and anthropologist, says: "Can you see this photo of my father (showing the photo)? He’s very handsome. Doesn’t he look like a movie star? Arch Goins and his family, Graysville, Tennessee Melungeons, 1920s."
Arch Goins and his family, Graysville, Tennessee Melungeons 1920s
His name was William Harpey Mullins. He passed away in 1986, and I can assure you that he had never even heard the word "Melungeon."
We know that there were silk workers in Jamestown at the beginning of the 1600s in that region of Virginia, Williamsburg, Jamestown. They were very close to each other. Therefore, there were definitely Turks in this region.
What those interested in Melungeons need to know is that being a Melungeon was not something people would proudly declare by jumping in the air and saying "I am a Melungeon." This is a very recent development; people researching their ancestry. These people were socially marginalized.
I don’t know if you want me to talk about Plecker and his blacklist, the Racial Integrity Act, but he worked hard to prevent people from identifying themselves as white and even created a "Blacklist" of surnames, and Mullins was one of those surnames. These people were hiding in the mountains as if they were fugitives. They didn’t talk about their origins and couldn’t pass them down to future generations.
As I told you before, I came across something else that confirms my ancestry. It was fate, really. My dentist asked me what I was up to, saying, "What are you doing, April?" because I'm involved in many things. So, I told him about this Melungeon research, and he asked me, "Where are these people from?" I said, "Around Turkey, the Aegean, maybe some fugitive Greeks, because it was the Ottoman Empire at that time." He said to me, "Do you have a tooth with a Carabelli cusp? Let me take a look." This is something that people who didn’t study dentistry may not understand; it means that one of the molars has a specific shape. This feature is a genetic determinant found in people from the Mediterranean region. Then I asked, "Do Native Americans have this feature? Is it common among them?" He said to me, "No, it’s something specific to the Mediterranean region."
Some academic research has been done by a cultural geographer named Edward Price. He overlooked the fact that small houses (coffins) were built over their graves, which is a common feature seen among the Melungeons. These grave houses were documented by Donald Ball in 1977. Ball did not link these grave houses to the Ottoman Empire or any cultural roots, but rather suggested that they could be a derivative of English church doors or Scottish house tombs. Communities do not abandon funeral traditions unless they are conquered by another power. Even when they are conquered, these traditions remain one of the last things they give up. My theory is that when the Turks came to America, the Native Americans welcomed them and they assimilated with different tribes. They wanted to have some traces of Native American culture. They did this by blending Ottoman balcony designs with the Melungeons. I found one very well-preserved example from 1830 in Mount Comfort Cemetery. I even brought this photo with me on my trip to Turkey in 2001. This picture is of an Ottoman tombstone from the Tire district of Turkey. As you can see, it bears a striking resemblance to the balcony design.
My grandmother used to read fortunes from coffee grounds. Then when I went to Turkey and saw people reading fortunes from coffee grounds, I thought, ‘My God, this is incredible.’ A couple of times, after people had read my fortune, I said, ‘I think I could do this too.’ Then, as I told you before, when you called me, I said, 'I'll make you some coffee and read your fortune.'
Russell G. Townsend, Preservation Officer for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, says, "And as you know, they have been seen as different from the other people living around them, and various claims have been made about their ancestors. Some associate the Melungeons with the Portuguese, while others associate them with the Ottomans. Various kinship relationships have been claimed for the Melungeons. I think the historical documents about this will be limited because the Melungeons probably looked very similar in terms of skin color and other features to the Cherokee, Creeks, and Shawnees, among other indigenous tribes living in the same region. Of course, having that kind of skin color wasn’t a good thing back then. It put you in a different social class. That’s why most Melungeons, if they could, said they were of European descent, calling themselves Black Dutch, Portuguese, or something similar. Finding out exactly where these people came from may be difficult to determine through historical documents. But it is an undeniable fact that the Melungeon people came to South America and settled around the Cumberland Plateau in the northeastern part of Tennessee.
They not only interacted with the European-American population but also had the opportunity to mingle with the Cherokee, Shawnee, and possibly the Wando, Chickasaw, and Creek Native American tribes.
What’s interesting is that you only find turbans in Southeast America. Although there are many different types of hats from one end of the Northeast region to the other, we only see turbans in regions where Melungeons are concentrated. This is an interesting connection that needs to be explored further.
Wayne Winkler, a radio station manager who is Jewish and Cherokee, explains, "Researching my roots all the way back to the Melungeons gave me a sense of belonging. I was Jewish in the Native American camp and Native American in the Jewish school. With Melungeons, I'm like a shoe that finally fits."
Darlene Wilson, a Melungeon sociologist, explains, "The Appalachians are a place where you can never be white enough, but you spend an incredible amount of time trying to be. You can’t be middle class without being lower class. Appalachia needs Melungeons as much as America needs Appalachia."
Bill Fields, the publisher of the Melungeon newsletter "Under One Sky," says, "Academics don’t like it, but we’re telling our own story. We’re talking about what happened in this part of the country before."
Indeed, American academics view the Turkish theory with skepticism, citing insufficient evidence.
Chester DePratter, an archaeologist at the University of South Carolina, a consultant for the Melungeon Heritage Association, and director of excavations at the Santa Elena site, explains, "It’s possible at least. There is evidence in some areas, and caution is needed in interpreting others."
Jeff Lester, editor of The Coalfield Progress newspaper, explains, "I remember very clearly when I was little, on the bus to elementary school, we would come to a place and see houses, and someone would say, ‘Those kids are Melungeons.’ It was said in a negative way. So it was seen as a bad thing."
David Arnett, former US Consul General in Istanbul (1996-2005) says: "Knowing that 25% of my DNA comes from my father’s side is Turkish makes me very happy. Knowing that there is Turkish blood in my veins because I spent many years in Turkey also makes me very happy."
Jimmy Adkins, businessman: "Knowing that there is a Turkish trace in my DNA honors me."
Waynor Smith, former mayor of Wise, tells: "I saw a lot of people while I was in Turkey, I met many people and the biggest thing that warmed my heart was that people were sincere. They were very sincere and genuine. They were the best people I have ever known in my life, a warm nation.
I definitely think there is a kinship. I have no doubt that the people living in Wise County and Southwest Virginia are descended from the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. I have no doubt that there is such a connection."
Brent Kennedy says: "I was luckier than my mother and siblings because I had fair skin and blue eyes. In America at that time, this was an advantage. But throughout my life, I always wondered why my family, which was supposed to be a mixture of English, Irish and Scottish, was so dark-skinned. There were also legends in the family that we were Portuguese, Jewish or Turkish, even though it shouldn’t have been that way. For a long time, I went without finding any answers outside of the legends. Then, when I turned 36, I decided to take this seriously. What I found was this. I was a Melungeon from all four of my grandmothers. This changed everything. The beginning of my adventure was a disease called sarcoidosis. I became seriously ill. I was bedridden for months. I used crutches. I thought I would die in six months. I said goodbye to my family. What got me on the road was sarcoidosis, but it wasn’t the only thing. I also have hereditary Mediterranean fever."
"America has been multicultural from day one, but it was never talked about. I didn’t believe we had English origins. This was normal because the dominant country was England. Even today, that’s why we speak English. History is written this way. From those early years after Columbus until the end of the 1600s, many races came here. Portuguese, Spaniards, Ottomans. For example, we remember that Francis Drake left about 200-300 sailors on the shores of North Carolina in 1586. In fact, according to Francis Drake’s notes, they returned 100 of these people and gave them back to the Sultan for a certain amount of money. But the rest were left behind. Historical documents are clear. We are one big family. I have been to Turkey 10 times and every time I go, I say Turkey is not just a country on the map. I have relatives there. I know there are people who suffer in earthquakes.
It is a very beautiful but also a painful place. 200 years ago, people from different races came to these valleys and settled here, but they were then pushed towards the mountains. Many went to the west, towards Kentucky. All these places are lands where the Melungeons live. Melungeon is an old word and we do not know its origins exactly. It may come from Turkish and Arabic. But it may also come from the French word 'melange', which means mixed.
There are hundreds of words that are the same in Turkish and Native American tribes. Some of these are also the same in Melungeons. I don‘t know if it’s a coincidence. For example, the word Kentucky. It may come from the Turkish word ’kan tok’, which means blood-saturated soil. In Appalachia, there is a transparent drink called ‘rakkat', which is really a drink that shakes one’s stomach and throat. We call it ’rakkat’ here. When spoken quickly, it sounds like ‘rakı', and it has the same effect as a drink. In Cherokee language, the word for mother is ‘ana', and there is a word called 'anata', which means infinite flowing. It means the same thing as 'ta', which means infinite in Turkish. The word 'ata’ also means father. The Cherokee chief is called ‘ata kula ku'. They call the holy man ‘haco', which is very similar to the Arabic word 'haji’ and the Turkish word 'hacı'. The list goes on and on. Hundreds of words.
Now, by explaining ourselves, we are betraying our ancestors, but we are also freeing them."
https://www.belgeseltarih.com/amerikada-turk-kokenliler-meluncanlar/
Many Melungeons are left bewildered by convoluted, intricate family histories and rare illnesses, which make these explanations even more meaningful.
For many Melungeons, the debate about their roots is as much about class as it is about race. This is a message to the non-Melungeon community and to the world at large in Appalachia: "The days of judging us are over. Now, we judge ourselves."
FAMOUS MELUNGEONS
Famous Melungeons include Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, Ava Gardner, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, George C. Scott, Cher, Heather Locklear, Lauren Hutton, Jimmy Martin, Loretta Lynn, Gary Francis Powers, Lisa Alther, and others.
Abraham Lincoln, one of the most important presidents of the United States who unified the North and South after the Civil War and abolished slavery, was born to parents from Virginia. His Melungeon ancestry comes from his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who hailed from the Tennessee and Kentucky regions of Appalachia. Nancy was orphaned at the age of nine. Abraham Lincoln and his mother Nancy were dark-skinned, had thick, black hair, and gray eyes. Lincoln, who was an opponent of slavery, was given the nickname "Africanus the First" by pro-slavery advocates.
Tom Hanks is Abraham Lincoln’s fourth cousin three times removed through his connection to Nancy Hanks Lincoln. This has been confirmed by traditional genealogists. According to Tom, their family relationship is quite distant.
Elvis Presley’s mother’s family migrated from North Carolina in the early 1800s. Brent Kennedy provides detailed genealogical information about Elvis’s maternal and paternal ancestry in his book "The Melungeons." Elvis’s great-great-great-great-grandmother’s name was Morning Dove White, a Cherokee Native American from Tennessee. As a result, Elvis had Native American ancestry. Elvis and Abraham are two famous Melungeon relatives. Elvis is descended from Isaiah Harrison, Abraham Lincoln’s second great-grandfather. Isaiah Harrison was born in England in 1666, came to America in 1687, and died in 1738. The family trees of Lincoln and Presley have "rooted" in this manner.
Brent Kennedy explains, "Abraham Lincoln is most likely Melungeon, as are Elvis Presley and Ava Gardner. Due to being one of America’s most respected and revered presidents, many people have put forth various ideas about Abraham Lincoln. These claims range from his roots being from European nobility to him being Melungeon. He definitely resembled Melungeons physically. His skin and hair were dark in color, and he was a native of a region where Melungeons might have settled. I know that Brent Kennedy examined Lincoln’s family tree and discovered this possibility. Elvis Presley’s mother’s family also came from this region of America. Some members of his family definitely had connections to Melungeons. Of course, the question of whether this kinship was through marriage or blood is an issue of definition, so if you take a broad perspective on who is and isn’t Melungeon, Elvis Presley could fit into that category as well."
Tom Hanks is related to the Hanks family, and Abraham Lincoln’s mother was a Hanks. Therefore, if they are Melungeon, it is natural for Tom Hanks to be Melungeon as well. Bluegrass musician Jimmy Martin is known to be Melungeon because he is my father’s cousin, and everyone in Hancock County knows him and his family. Gary Francis Powers, who piloted the famous U2 incident of 1960, was shot down over Russia. He was quite famous at the time. Ava Gardner and other people like her.
"My DNA test, which I had done, showed that my ancestors came from the Middle East and past Ottoman territories."
Lincoln ve Elvis
Former Consul General of the United States in Istanbul, David Arnett (1996-2005), tells us: "I've even heard that former US President Andrew Jackson and American folk leader Daniel Boone could possibly be Melungeons, but I can say for certain that one of the famous Melungeons living today is Lisa Alther, one of the greatest American writers of our time."
Ava Gardner, who is estimated to have Melungeon ancestry based on her birthplace and hair and skin color, was the daughter of a poor tobacco-cotton farmer in Johnston, North Carolina.
Jessica Meadows Hammett, the director of the Ava Gardner Museum, says: "I think anything is possible, especially since a DNA test has not been done. If you go back far enough, you can see that she may have come from many different origins. I may have different origins too, but I don’t know because no one in my family has done a DNA test. Ava had dark skin and dark hair, which brought up the claim that she was Melungeon because of her exotic appearance. There are also Native American tribes in the Johnston area, mostly the Tuscarora tribe. The population of African Americans living in this area was also quite high. But when we talked to her family and looked at her genealogy, there was no evidence of different races in her ancestry. Her mother’s side was of Scottish and Irish descent, and her father’s side was largely Anglo-Saxon. They mostly came from the British Isles. She still has relatives living here in Johnston County. Her niece Mary Rdna and her great-nephew David are on the board of the Ava Gardner Museum. No one in Ava’s family has had a DNA test done."
FINAL WORDS
It is a shallow view to say that Melungeons did not turn out to be Turks just by looking at DNA data. No race is an Aryan race anymore. DNA test results also show diversity for almost everyone. Therefore, people can only understand where they come from first by looking at stories/narratives/observations from the past. For example, someone in Turkey who says "My lineage is Oghuz Turks" must have understood this by examining his/her genealogy and the story of his/her ancestors' settlement in Anatolia, their language-accent, customs, and traditions, not by DNA analysis. What about the origin of his/her ancestors before coming to Anatolia? How will he/she understand that? If he/she can combine the pieces by looking at DNA test results and stories, etc., he/she will be lucky.
Before DNA tests, it is important to have the story of the Melungeons' ancestors' arrival in America. The ethnicity of the Ottoman Empire, which spread over a vast geography, generally constitutes the initial origins of Melungeons. It is clear that Melungeons, with their dark skin, high cheekbones, black hair, and physique, were eventually mixed with Native Americans and later immigrated Afro-Americans, Celts, and other European ethnicities in America, partly Berbers (originated from North and South Africa), the Mediterranean, Caucasus, the Middle East, and Central Asia. DNA test results show this as well. Melungeons confirm this by saying, "We are now a mixture of many people, and our strength comes from here."
SOURCES
✧ From Anatolia to Appalachia, Admin TOA, Türk of America dergisi, September 15, 2004
http://www.turkofamerica.com/index.php/others/life-style/item/2760-from-anatolia-to-appalachia
✧ Beneath Myth, Melungeons Find Roots of Oppression, Carol Morello. The Washington Post May 30, 2000.
✧ Melungeon DNA Project Wikipedia
https://en.0wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon_DNA_Project
✧ 2002 and 2010 DNA studies. Melungeon Heritage Association. October 17, 2016
http://melungeon.org/category/resourcesforresearch/
✧ Frequently Asked Questions. Melungeon Heritage Association
http://melungeon.org/frequently-asked-questions-about-melungeons/
✧ Roanoke Island. Wikipedia
https://en.0wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Island
✧ David Beers Quinni Wikipedia
https://en.0wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beers_Quinn
✧ Turks, Moors, Blacks and Others in Drake’s West Indian Voyage A chapter from Explorers and Colonies, America 1500-1625, by David B. Quinn.
http://turkishimage.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html
✧ Turkish filmmakers come in search of Melungeons. JEFF LESTER News Editor The Coalfield Progress Jul 22, 2010
✧ Elvis Presley’s “Melungeon” Ancestry
http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/2010/01/elvis-presleys-melungeon-ancestry.html
✧ The Melungeon Story: Part 3i Al Hunter. January 24, 2013
http://weeklyview.net/2013/01/24/the-melungeon-story-part-3/
✧ Revealed: How Tom Hanks is related to Abraham Lincoln through president’s mother… but actor admits his family are the ‘poor relations’. Paul Thompson. MailOnline. 23 September 2012
✧ New Documentary Will Showcase Untold Story of Melungeon People From infamy to diversity. Pat Moran. Creative Loafing Charlotte. July 18, 2018
✧ Meluncanlar Belgeseli. TRT Haber.
✧ ABD’de unutulmuş Türkler: Meluncanlar. 15 Nisan 2018. Vatan Kitap
http://vatankitap.gazetevatan.com/haber/abdde_unutulmus_turkler_meluncanlar/1/25134
✧ Meluncanlar (Melungeons) Kimdir? 30 Nisan 2011
https://insanveevren.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/meluncanlar-kimdir/
✧ Osmanlı Yönetiminde Kuzey Afrika: Garp Ocakları Seydi Vakkas Toprak Türkiyat Mecmuası, C. 22/Bahar, 2012.
http://dergipark.gov.tr/download/article-file/173062
✧ Ilk Türklerin Tarihi. Bülent Pakman. Mart 2016.
✧ Birinci Berberi Savaşı. Vikipedi.
http://www.wikizeroo.net/index.php?q=aHR…..
✧ Meluncanlar Türkler’le buluşuyor. Turkish Journal 30 Ekim 2011
http://www.turkishjournal.com/i.php?newsid=963
✧ Türk Tarihi Perspektifinden Kamu Diplomasisi Olgusu. Prof. Dr. Yusuf Devran
✧ Meluncan. Vikipedi
https://tr.0wikipedia.org/wiki/Meluncan
✧ Amerika’daki Türklerin Tarihi / Sevgi Ertan
https://www.tarihtarih.com/?Syf=26&Syz=359021&/Amerikadaki-T%C3%BCrklerin-Tarihi-/-Sevgi-Ertan-
✧ Kayıp Koloni’nin izleri 425 yıllık haritada. NTV 05.05.2012
https://www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/kayip-koloninin-izleri-425-yillik-haritada,QWIPa3G5xEy31TUKBADYvA
✧ Amerikalı Türkler M. Necati Özfatura 14.07.1999 Türkiye Gazetesi
http://www.turkiyegazetesi.com.tr/yazarlar/m-necati-ozfatura/12002.aspx
Article: Bülent Pakman / Kasım 2018
Source Link:
https://bpakman.wordpress.com/turk-dunyasi/gunumuz-turkleri-turk-devletleri/meluncanlar/
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https://www.belgeseltarih.com/amerikada-turk-kokenliler-meluncanlar/