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I have happened upon this link before, but never put it together…
http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/Chapter1_The_Colonial_Period.htm
Excerpt:
Possibly because of the inability to posses communal lands, or most likely because of acculturation, it is apparent that the eastern Siouan remnants began to live as individual landowners during the 1730 to 1740 period. It is also during this period that land deeds begin appearing under the names of such “Other Free Persons” surnames as Scott, Chavis, Goings, Bunch, Collins, and Gibson. With each new land patents by a concentration of these families, a report of eastern Siouan people would be generated. For example, after William Chavis, Thomas Parker, Gideon Gibson, and Henry Bunch recorded their land grants on the Eno River in Orange County, North Carolina adjoining the lands of William Eaton, a report from the Colonial Records of NC identifies a group of 30 to 40 Saponi had settled on the lands of William Eaton. The Siouan identity of these persons is further bolstered by reports such as one originating in Orange County in 1742 regarding some Saponi Indians accused of hog stealing:
“Alexander Macharton, John Bowling, Manicassa, Captain Tom, Isaac, Harry, Blind Tom, Foolish Jack, Charles Griffin, John Collins, Little Jack, Indians, giving security for good behaviour.”
Governor Clarence Gooch of Virginia reported to the Colonial Office for the years 1743 to 1747 that the “Saponies and other petty nations associated with them…are retired out of Virginia to the Cattawbas.” This time period corresponds to the appearance of such English surnames as Harris, Stephens, Scott, Brown, and Canty among the Catawba.
A 1761 report counted 20 Saponi warriors in the area of Granville County, NC and this corresponds to the “Mulatto, Mustee or Indian” taxation in Granville of such families as Anderson, Jeffries, Davis, Chavis, Going, Bass, Harris, Brewer, Bunch, Griffin, Pettiford, Evans, and others in the 1760’s.
Found another similar link…
http://www.ibiblio.org/dig/html/data/content/files/text/report.txt
Excerpt:
By 1754, at least one group of 30-40 Saponi had traveled to North Carolina and settled on the lands of William Eaton, where they were enumerated in the Colonial Records of North Carolina (Saunders 1968). These Saponi have allegedly been ancestral to several Indian groups presently living in North Carolina, although since none of their names are given, it is difficult to make the claim with any degree of certainty. However, it is known from oral tradition that an Indian named Sam Parker moved to the Texas community from the Vance-Granville county area prior to the Civil War. In 1752, a Thomas Parker was granted land on Tabb’s Creek adjoining lands of William Eaton and William Chavis, another individual who seems to have been of partial Indian ancestry. There are still Parkers of Indian descent living in that area near the town of Kittrell. It is also noteworthy that William Chavis, who owned the land near the Saponi settlement in old Granville County, also owned land in what is now Alamance County. The Orange County deed books show that on August 27, 1768, William Chavis “of the County of Granville” sold to Joseph Pritchit some 320 acres on both sides of the Haw River, “it being part of a tract of land granted to the said Wm. Chavis by deed from Wm. Kinchen bearing the date the __ day of December 1751” (Orange County Register of Deeds 1790). It may have been entirely coincidental that Chavis owned land near where the Saponi would resettle 20 years later, or perhaps there were Indian families living on or near Chavis’s land in Alamance County as well as in Granville County. The Chavis name is still predominant among the Meherrin Indians of Hertford County and the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County.
At the same time these Saponi were living in North Carolina, there was at least one other group living in Virginia. In 1757, the Virginia governor at Williamsburg received a delegation of Indians including “King Blunt and the thirty-three Tuscaroras, seven Meherrins, two Saponies and thirteen Nottoways” (Hillman 1966). This indicates that not only were the Saponi still in existence, but that they were still a distinct enough group to send delegates to a conference with the governor. Unfortunately for our purposes, the writer does not record where the Saponi were living at the time. It seems likely that they were still in the Brunswick-Greensville county area of Virginia. It was about this time that certain individuals who were ancestral to families in the Texas community began to receive patents of land, primarily in the area around Emporia, Virginia. Joseph Haltcock was one of these early grantees, receiving 200 acres in 1732. Other landowners near him bore names such as Jeffries, Whitmore, Burnette, and Stewart, which figure in the history of the Texas families.
At this point, it should be noted that there is some evidence that the area of Alamance and Orange counties may still have had a few settlements of Indians who never left the region, and who consolidated with the Saponi to form the Texas settlement after the Revolutionary War. Various tax lists for Orange County in the 1750s include several families of so-called mulattos bearing the surnames Bunch, Gibson, and Collins. Jeramiah and Henry Bunch received land grants in the area, near the Eno River. The term “mulatto” had a somewhat different meaning in the 1700s; rather than defining simply a black-white mixture, the term was used to classify a wide variety of mixed-blood peoples, so the Bunches and others could easily have been mixed-blood Indians and not Africans (Forbes 1988). It is obvious that when Southern Indians ceased living in what the local non-Indians perceived to be an “Indian” manner, they were relegated to the larger “free colored” class. The situation of the Nottoway and Ginkaskin in Virginia, or the Machapunga in North Carolina, are clear examples of what happened to these remnant Saponi-Occaneechi and other groups like the Meherrin and Chickahominy. This is not to say, however, that the Indians ceased to think of themselves as Indians, or that all the traditional ways were lost. It was simply the perception of their neighbors that changed. Some of the Gibsons later moved to Macon County in western North Carolina where their descendants had the reputation of being of Indian ancestry. Macon County settlement will be discussed at greater length later. Other Bunches, Gibsons, and Collinses appear to have moved west, arriving in eastern Tennessee by way of Ashe County, North Carolina, and formed the nucleus for the so-called Melungeon settlement in the vicinity of Hancock County, Tennessee (Price 1950:130).
Note: the first post I made said, For example, after William Chavis, Thomas Parker, Gideon Gibson, and Henry Bunch recorded their land grants on the Eno River in Orange County, North Carolina adjoining the lands of William Eaton, a report from the Colonial Records of NC identifies a group of 30 to 40 Saponi had settled on the lands of William Eaton.
This would make sense, as the Chavis’s and Gibson’s were family.
Great information!
My wish is that there was something more set in stone to say “hey, they are Saponi and documented on this day as…..” But the more I research things, the more frustration I have over the fact that no one, not state, nor fed recognized over all, who accept someone’s claims that far back. The idea that people have to prove lineage from a roll which was made more recently, makes it damn difficult to prove in “their” eyes as well as any government agency to be issued a CDIB card.
Personally, I could care less about a “monthly check” or free college…I know in my heart who and what I am and don’t need to prove to anyone, But at times, it hurts to the core, when I go to a function or powwow and get looked or spoken down to because I don’t have a known blood quantum or a card to flash.
I have always been respectful of the ways of all the tribes I have encountered over the years and the traditions we ourselves adhere to, but the pain from the lashings from vile tongues still sting….
~suthainn
It is rather ironic that the original Americans are the only ones who need to prove who they are. I live on the exact same land that my people have occupied for 10,000 years and my families have kept the knowledge of our ndn roots proudly and quietly close to heart. I don’t need to prove to anyone who I am… not the govt…. not the res tribes….. not the general public. I am what I am and it is what it is. When you can develop that attitude, nothing said by the ignorant will bother you… maybe get a bit of a grin from you 😉
Your job is to educate them with the truth…… but only if they are ready for the truth….. otherwise see “grin” above 😉
There are 2 articles that are must reading for anyone wishing to understand the truth about VA/NC mixed-bloods. They come from 2 differing camps….. by studying both, hopefully you will see that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=robert_thomas
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gowenrf/malangu.htm
Thank you. I shall learn to smile more. It is wonderful to be with people who don’t hold me under a microscope…
~suthainn
This is a good resource also, full of surnames and locations of tribes and mixed-blood communities in the eastern U.S.
“Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States,” pages 407-438 in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution 1948”
This is a full text version, easy to search using Cntrl+F
archive.org/stream/annualreportofbo1948smit/annualreportofbo1948smit_djvu.txt
The Bunches are documented here as “Brass-Ankles” of S.C.
APPENDIX III. FAMILY NAMES OF EASTERN INDIAN GROUPS
2. Brass Ankles, etc. (South Carolina): Boone. Braveboy. Bunch. Chavis. Criel. Driggers. Coins. Harmon. Russell. Sammons. Scott. Shavis. Swett. Williams.
The report then links the Brass-Ankles to other Siouan and Saponi groups in southeast.
Four major geographical groups may be distinguished, namely, (1) Ca- tawba, on northern border, (2) Croa- tans, also on northern border, (3) Red Legs and allied groups about the capital, and (4) Brass Ankles in coastal areas. Altogether these groups may total over 10,000 persons. In general they are similar to each other in manner of living and social status. They have lost almost everything that would distinguish them as Indians except the physical inheritance. The latter is of course greatly modified by mixture with white and Negro blood, yet these people are recognized locally as being distinct from both whites and Negroes, They have their own mixed-blood schools (locally classified as white), churches, and lodges. The chief family names among these mixed bloods are Boone, Braveboy, Bunch, Chavis, Creek, Driggers. Coins, Harmon, Russell, Scott, Swett, and Williams. Formerly isolated by geographical factors they have, in recent years, been increasingly brought into contact with the world about them. They are hunters, fishers, and tenant farmers.
Mixed-blood groups which have lost
most of the Indian cultural heritage
yet continue a caste-like habit of in-
breeding, are characterized by certain
fixed sets of family names. Most of
the groups average anywhere from 10
to 14 characteristic family names.
Curiously enough a number of these
families are found in more than one
group and this would point to a
possibility of some degree of inter-
marriage between them at various
times in the past. The Croatans, for
example, share names with the Cubans,
Issues, Melungeons, Brass Ankles,
Cajans, and Nanticokes. Not only do
such nearby groups as the Nanticokes
and Moors share names but we find
such sharing by groups rather remote
from each other, as for example, the
Cajans and Moors, Brass Ankles and
Nanticokes, or Melungeons and Brass
Ankles.”
Have you seen “Pleckers hit list”?
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