Now when The Truth does slip past, since they have no real facts to back up their own claims with, the powerful Turk-haters' main defense is "Turkish lies," "Turkish Denialism," "Turkish Revisionism," and "The Turkish government says..."; since we are still in a pre-1967 stage and just a little past the "John Wayne" stage, the Turks are still seen as bloodthirsty savages, and these defenses are still effective. Woe to those dishonorable or gullible parties.... all the non-Armenian professors in Armenians' clothing, the politicians, writers and "intellectuals" who sign Armenian proclamations: the day will come when your support will reveal you to be either bigots or ignorants (if not deliberate liars). Your integrity will suffer, just like Charles Lindbergh today has a heavy black stain on his otherwise impeccable and heroic reputation, thanks to his one-time support for the views of Nazis. Ultimately, we will all be judged on our integrity. If a human being does not have honor, what else can he or she be judged by?

 

The Melungeons

The subject of where the Melungeons came from is still a matter of debate. They may not even be "Indian" in the traditional sense (classified "as having indeterminate origin, or as a mixture of white, Indian, and Negro heritage" at first, recent evidence indicates the "first Melungeon claims to Portuguese [6] and Turkish ancestry has merit – only later did Melungeons mix with Indians, and perhaps some Negroes."), although in the picture below, they appear to be dressed like Native Americans of old. Regardless, many of the details below are just plain fascinating.   An excerpt from "The Melungeons: An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America," By Brent Kennedy, appearing in the Nov/Dec 1994 issue of Islamic Horizons magazine:   In 1586, English pirate, Sir Francis Drake, commanding thirty English ships, made a daring raid against his Spanish and Portuguese enemies on coast of Brazil. During this raid, Drake liberated some 400 Portuguese and Spanish held prisoners, including an estimated 300 Moorish and Turkish galley slaves Muslims captured in Mediterranean sea battles as well as several dozen South American Indians, a smaller number of West African Muslims, and a few Portuguese soldiers. Drake had planned to arm and release (the) Turks and Africans on Cuba, to serve as a stronghold against Spanish but heavy storms force him to continue up the coast of North Carolina. There on Roanoke Island he was sieged by stranded English settlers pleading for a ride home to England. The English colony of Ralph B Lane had enough of the New World and wanted to go home. To fulfill their wish, Drake had to make room for them on his already crowded ships. According to English records, only 100 Turks were taken back to England where they were ransomed to the Turkish Dominions," There's no further mention of the remaining 200 Moors, Turks, West Africans, Portuguese Soldiers or the South American Indians by Drake, and records show that Sir Walter Raleigh who visited the Island two weeks later found no trace of them. Where did they go? Research indicates that Drake left them behind, assuring that he or someone would be back for them. But that was no guarantee of safety from the pursuing Spanish of Portuguese. On Roanoke Island they were little more than sitting ducks. There is little doubt they made their way the short distance e to the mainland, probably utilizing the small boats left behind by the English, and then traveled steadily inland. Along the way too intermarried with Native Americans, mostly Powhatan, Pamunkey, Nansemond and Hatters. Within the next decade or so they encountered the remanent of the Santa Elena colony, many of whom shared their Muslim heritage. And there thousands of miles away from their homelands, these two surviving groups became on people. Christians, Jews and Muslims — literally the people of the book — living and worshipping the God of Abraham together. In 1654, the English explorers learned from southeastern Indians of a colony of bearded people wearing european clothing, living in cabins smelting silver and dropping to their knees to pray many times daily, wherever they might be. A people who did not speak English, but claimed to "Portyghee" In the mid 1600'so there were people living among the Powhatans and related tribes of eastern Virginia and North Carolina who were described as dark like Indians, but called "Portugals" Well, that's enough of that. I figure the web site this was taken from scanned this article, and there were a good number of errors. Regardless, it's all very interesting. I had no idea Turkish sailors captured from battles would have been used as slaves by the Spanish and Portugese. (Why, that sort of thing seems like it would be against the Geneva Convention..!) Do Armenians send hate mail to the Turks Islands? Now I have a better idea as to how the Turks and Caicos Islands, in the Caribbean and as far removed from Turkey as can be, might have gotten its name. Evidently, these islands have a history of being a refuge for slaves. The original Indian inhabitants, who seem to have settled there for 600 years, were called the Lucayans. Ponce de Leon stopped by in what would be the capital, Grand Turk, in 1512, and eight years later all the Lucayans were "dead." Could it have been.... "genocide"?

More on the Melungeons

Regardless of how they arrived, traces of the descendants of Ottoman subjects who arrived in America during the 16th-18th centuries can still be seen today. For example, the "Turks" of Sumter County, South Carolina claim descent from Joseph Benenhaly (Yusuf Ben Ali), an Arab from Northern Africa (then part of the Ottoman Empire), who came to America circa 1780. And, recent research done in the 1990s has brought to light indications that some of the ancestors of the Melungeons may have been Turkish.

THE MELUNGEONS

The Melungeons are a mixed-ethnic population located primarily in eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and southern West Virginia. No one really knows when the Melungeons were first discovered, or even when they first came to America, but the first documented encounter of Melungeons by the Anglo-Saxon settlers from Europe was by Tennessee governor John Sevier in 1774. Although Melungeons themselves claimed they were of Portuguese or Turkish origin, for many years they were listed either as having indeterminate origin, or as a mixture of white, Indian, and Negro heritage. Because of their darker skin color, American census takers refused to categorize Melungeons as white, and instead recorded them as “free persons of color” or mulatto.

The use of the term “free persons of color” to categorize Melungeons had more consequences than issues of identity and origin: legally only whites were allowed to vote, attend public education, and own land — colored people were not. Thus, many Melungeon families had their lands taken away from them, and their children barred from attending "white" schools. Many also shared the fate of deported Indian tribes: many Melungeon families were forced to move to Oklahoma with the Cherokee Indians in 1834 during a forced relocation that has since come to be known as the "Trail of Tears." Although during the Civil War some Melungeons fought back by forming what came to be known as the "Melungeon Marauders," an armed band that exacted revenge on those who had taken their land, such actions only lead to even greater prejudices against them after the war. Such discriminatory practices continued into the 20th century, only diminishing with the success of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, which legally ended the United States’ skin-color based discriminatory practices.

To avoid being categorized incorrectly as “colored,” Melungeons avoided census takers and tried to conceal their true origins as much as possible. Parents would dress their children in long-sleeve clothes, even in the heat of summer, to prevent their skin from turning black. Photos and family records were burned and past mistreatment was denied to conceal Melungeon ancestry and avoid being look down upon by white Americans. As a result, the true number of Americans with Melungeon ancestry is unknown. Indeed, some Americans may not even be aware of their true roots, and believe themselves to be Anglo-Saxon.

Increasingly, however, Melungeons have been researching their roots, genealogy, and family history. The theory that had been advanced by the establishment for so long — the mixed white, Indian, and Negro heritage of Melungeons — is being shattered by the bulk of evidence that has come forth indicating that the very first Melungeon claims to Portuguese [6] and Turkish ancestry has merit – only later did Melungeons mix with Indians, and perhaps some Negroes.

Aside from the historical evidence that indicates that some Ottomans came to the Americas, there is also a significant amount of linguistic, cultural, medical, and genetic evidence that points to a Mediterranean and Ottoman connection to Melungeons. Examples of similar linguistic and cultural attributes are too numerous to list in its entirely here, but a few examples follow:


Allegheny, a mountain range in the eastern United States, may have come from "Allah genis", meaning "God's vastness";

Alabama, a southern state in the United States, may have come from "Allah bamya", meaning "God's graveyard";

Arkansas, a southern state in the United States, may have come from "Ar Kan Sah", meaning "where shamed blood lives";

Choctow, the name of an Indian tribe, may have come from "Çok Dal" meaning "many descendants";

Kentucky, a mid-west US state, may have come from "Kan Tok", meaning "filled with blood";

Niagara, a waterfall along the US-Canadian border, may have come from "Ne Yaygara" meaning "huge noise";

Pamunkey, the name of an Indian tribe, may have come from "Pamuk Iyi", meaning "Good Cotton,” a description that makes even more sense if you consider that the Pamunkey Indians lived in an area know for its cotton farms.

The word "melungeon" itself may have Turkish or Arabic origins. "Melun can" in Turkish and "melun jinn" in Arabic both mean "damned or cursed soul." Furthermore, some Melungeons have names which are clearly Anglicized versions of Turkish names or of places in Anatolia. For example, Danize (from Deniz), Vardeman (from Var Duman), Ollie (from Ali) and Adana (a city in southern Turkey). That many Melungeons have Anglican or Irish last names does not refute the Turkish connection: at that time Turks did not carry last names, and considering the discriminatory practices prevalent during those times, any Melungeon would want to appear as white or Anglican as possible by adopting English or Western European last names. Finally, Melungeons and Turks also share a common mannerism: tossing the head back with a slight vocal clicking to indicate "No" (çik).

Additionally, Turks and Melungeons share other cultural similarities: Typical Melungeon meals are similar to old Ottoman meals; Melungeon quilts include tulip designs which were common in Ottoman kilims and carpets; patterns of Cherokee quilt designs were similar to those Ottomans incorporated in the wooden lids of backgammon boards; Turkish folk dances share similar steps to Melungeon dances; the garb of Cherokee Chief Sequoya is similar to that worn by 16th century Ottoman seamen, and included the wear of a turban; and the Creek Indians actually wore a fez, a type of headgear that was characteristic of the Ottomans during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Medical, genetic and physiological similarities also exist. Melungeons have come down with sarcoidosis, Behçet's Syndrome and Machado-Joseph Disease, which are also common to peoples of the Mediterranean Sea region. Melungeons also sport a bump on the back of the head that is common to peoples from Central Asia, and have drooping eye folds that are also common to Asians. Finally, a 1990 gene study [7] comparing the genes of Melungeons with those of other world populations show similarities between Melungeons and peoples in Spain, Portugal, North Africa, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon - countries of which many had been part of the Ottoman Empire - a result consistent with the Portuguese/Turkish ancestry theory of Melungeons.

We will probably never know for certain what happened specifically to the Ottomans who came to America in the 16th - 18th centuries. Perhaps some of them perished in the harshness of the American wilderness. But there are good indications that many of them in fact lived, and unable to return to their families in the Ottoman Empire, mixed with other similarly stranded or disadvantaged populations that came to America. Thus, the Melungeons include not just Spanish, Portuguese, Indians and Africans, but also Turks, Arabs, Berbers, Slavs, Greeks, and other ethnic groups from the Ottoman Empire. It is this mosaic which comprises the true ancestry of Melungeons [8].

Since the first public presentation of the possible Turkish ancestry of Melungeons in the early 1990s, research efforts have led to a new closeness and relationship between Melungeons and modern day Turks. The Melungeon Heritage Society has become a member organization of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. The University of Virginia at Wise and Dumlupinar Univeristy in Ankara have established faculty and student exchange programs. The towns of Wise, Virginia and Çesme, Turkey have become sister cities. The main street in Çesme has even been renamed to Wise, in honor the Melungeons [9]. Melungeons have visited Turkey as a group on several occasions [10], and these visits have been reciprocated by Turks visiting the Appalachian regions of America where Melungeons traditionally resided. After the devastating earthquake in 1999, some Melungeon families even offered to adopt Turkish children who were left without family or home by the earthquake [11]. Ties have even extended to economic relations, with Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia supporting an Appalachian-Turkish Trade Project [12], and moral support, with Melungeons being supportive to Turkish efforts with regards to the Armenian Question [13].

Thus, regardless of what is thought of theories concerning Melungeon ancestry, the ties of friendship between Melungeons and Turks is sure to prove valuable for all Turkish-Americans.

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[6] A discussion of the history of the Portuguese aspect of Melungeon history will not be presented in this article, but for a more detailed presentation of the Portuguese and Spanish connection to the Melungeons, see Kennedy, "Melungeons", pp. 108-119.

[7] James L. Guthrie, "Melungeons: Comparisons of Gene Distributions to Those of Worldwide Populations," Tennessee Anthropologist 15/1, Spring 1990 cited in Kennedy, "Melungeons," pp. 147.

[8] It should be noted that some Turkish journalists have referred to Melungeons as the "Melungeon Turks" (Meluncan Türkleri). In fact, such terminology is incorrect, as it implies that Melungeons are some kind of Turkish tribe, like the Kazaks or Kirgiz - which is not the case.

[9] Carol Morello. "Beneath Myth, Melungeons Find Roots of Oppression." Washington Post, May 30, 2000, pp. A10.

[10] "Melungeons Visit Turkey" Office of the Prime Minister, Directorate General of Press and Information, Newspot #5, 1997 and "Meluncan Türkleri Anitkabir'de" Superhaber Online, 12 June, 1998.

[11] "Meluncan Society Wants to Adopt Child Victims of Quake." Anadolu News Agency, 4 September, 1999.

[12] "This Historical Tragedy Hits Closer Than We Think." Bristol Herald Courier, March 27, 2001.

[13] "This Historical Tragedy Hits Closer Than We Think." Bristol Herald Courier, March 27, 2001 and "Soykirim Tartismasi Yine Gündemde." Özgür Politika, March 4, 2000.