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Hello all,
My name is Ken. I have sampled the forum threads and would really like to join the discussions. I have read some native boards and been very disappointed by the lack of harmony……. this site seems quite the opposite……. I think I have found a new home LOL
I attend powwows hosted by John Blackfeather. He calls me Tobaccoman since I often provide him with tobacco. To anyone who was at Pleasant Grove a couple of weeks ago, I am the old man who proposed after we closed the drum.
My father’s father’s people are from Carroll Co, Va. They are scots/irish. My father’s mother was raised on Buffalo Mt. Family tradition says she was indian but nobody has tried to find out anything about her family. Her name was Larma (Larmie on marriage record) Simpkins. She is listed as white on 1900 Floyd Co census. The format of the site I got that info from did not indicate who her parents were as it listed names individually….. perhaps the same census in a more orriginal form might give better clues. I am just starting my search in earnest and this appears to be the place to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
peace
Welcome Ken,
The surname Simpkins doesn’t ring any bells for me but you are certainly in the right location to fit right in with everybody on the forum. Weekends are fairly quiet on the board but folks will return.
Brenda
Welcome aboard, Ken. I haven’t heard that name either. 1900 is very recent when it comes to Indian heritage in VA, since the tribes were unhinged in the 1700’s for the most part. Have you tried doing any genealogy work on this line, yet?
Thank you for the welcomes. As I said, I am just beginning to search and I’m brand new to geneology. Someone in my father’s family has done some research on the Dalton branch (my father’s father) but none has been done on my grandmother that I am aware of.
What I have is family pictures, the memory of my grandmother’s smiling face, my father’s pride in his native blood, his sister’s adament denial of this blood….. and final grudging admission after my grandfather’s sister made the following statement at a family get together …. (rough quote) (talking to my father’s sister) “Your daddy shouldn’t have even been messin’ with those squaws on the Buffalo, much less marryin’ one. That’s what turned his family against him and why he bought that farm in Indian Valley near her people”
From Floyd Co Va gen site, I found my grandmother listed as child in 1900 census and her marriage to my grandfather, Hosea Dalton. That is as far as I’ve gotten so far.
I would like to find info on the native population of Floyd co at the turn of century…… I know they were living on individual farms same as the irish and being called mulatto or white. I live in southern Person co NC with the Bass’, Hayes, Dayes, Epps, Martins, Johnson’s …….. I understand black, white and “yellow” since there were no “indians” in this part of country after the successful removal. Person co’s indians were “Cuban” and there were some Portugese right up the road LOL
Thanks for any imput or suggestions.
peace
I thought from what I have read that the Person’s Co. Indians were a mixed -blood group that also took in Saponi’s. I have never heard them referred to as “Cuban”. I know somebody will correct me if I am wrong.
Brenda
THE INDIANS OF PERSON COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA
HISTORY OF A PROUD AND HANDSOME TRIBE OF INDIANS NEAR ROXBORO MAY BE CONNECTED WITH LOST COLONY MYSTERY; ABOUT 70 FAMILIES LIVE IN EXTENDED FARMING COMMUNITY
By Tom MacCaughelty Taken from:
Durham Morning Herald, March 21, 1948
Straddling the North Carolina border in the secluded hills east of U.S. Highway 501 is a community of American Indians whose history has remained as much a mystery as the fate of the Lost Colony.
Commonly termed a “mixed-blood” group, these proud people are probably the product of marriages long ago of whites and Indians, and, in fact, have a tradition among themselves which says they are remnants of the Lost Colony.
In color they vary between blondes and even red-heads with grey or blue-gray eyes to tawny and sometimes swarthy brunettes with hazel, brown, or black eyes. Some have the straight black hair associated with pure Indian, while others have differing shades of brown hair, either straight or wavy.
In general appearance they are well- dressed and clean. They are a handsome people.
Their history is mysterious. As Indians, they never have been positively identified. Can they be, as their tradition holds, the longsought descendants of the friendly Indians who received the colonists of John White?
Strangely enough, among the approximately 350 people in the scattered farming community, only six family names are represented: Johnson, Martin, Coleman, Epps, Stewart (also spelled Stuart), and Shepherd. Stranger still, three of these names correspond closely with those among the list of Lost Colonists: Johnson, Colman, and Martyn. But theirs are common English names long familiar in North Carolina, and intermarriage with the proximity to whites would be expected to extend such names among them. (A seventh prominent name among this group is Tally.)
As far back as anyone knows, these people have displayed the manners and customs of white settlers, but in this they don’t differ from identified Indians.
Unfortunately, as far as settling the question goes, not a single Indian word had been passed down to the present group. If their former manner of speech could somehow be resurrected, there would be a good clue to their identity; for then experts could judge with some degree of accuracy whether they indeed originated among the coastal Algonquin language tribes. If so, there would be a good argument for the Lost Colony theory. If their language were Siouan or some other branch of the inland tongues, the score would be against the Lost Colony tradition.
Dr. Douglas LeTell Rights, author of “The American Indian in North Carolina,” (published by Duke University Press in 1947) says that there is a possibility that the people, officially designated as Person County Indians, are descendants of the Saponi, originally a Siouan tribe. He notes that Governor Dobbs reported in 1755 that 14 men and 14 women of the Saponi were in Granville county. Person County was once a part of Granville county. ( Dr. Rights also suggests that these Indians in Person County may be a branch of, or have mixed with, the Indians of Robeson County. The people themeselves deny being a branch of the Robeson County Indian, but say that there have been a few marriages between members of the two groups.)
The Person County Indians, if they are of the Saponi, couldn’t choose a more highly regarded tribe. (Col. William Byrd, in his History of The Dividing Line describes this tribe.)
Whether a remnant of the Lost Colony, or of the proud Saponi, or of some other group, these people have lived in the rolling hills and high plains northeast of Roxboro for countless generations. No one knows how long.
According to E. L. Wehrenberg, for 17 years principal of the community school, it was not until 1920 that they were officially recognized by act of the North Carolina legislature as Person County Indians. Before that, however, they had always insisted upon being treated either as Indians or whites. Back in the days of subscription schools, they hired their own white teachers; and under the present county school system have always had white or Indian teachers.
Wehrenberg estimates that there are about 70 families in the group. and that about two-thirds of the people live in Person County and the rest across the line in Virginia. This proportion has changed from time to time he says.
Was your grandmother’s family connected with the Person County Indians? Where is Buffalo Mountain? I’m getting confused, sorry. Are you related to those people you just mentioned in Person County?
Buffalo Mt is in Va at the headwaters of the Dan river….. she was not a part of the Indians of Person Co NC that I know of.
I live in southern Person Co so the group written about in the quoted article is not the group which surrounds me, though some Epps and Martins are living in this area but their families are in the northern part of county and they powwow at Clarksville Va.
The Bass’, Daye’s, Hayes’ etc are more closely related to the Eno- ocaneechee and used to powwow with John Blackfeather but are not on tribal rolls because it would have hurt the cause for recognition of the Eno… since they do not live in Little Texas (Pleasant Grove) with the rest of the group…… this has led to some hurt feelings…..
My grandmother is not from either of these known groups, she was raised 100 miles north, across the Va border. Viewing a map of the border counties of NC/ Va would help clear confusion, but it’s all in the heart of Saponi country LOL
btw……. the term “Cuban” was used during the early to mid 1900s because they weren’t black and they weren’t white and there weren’t any indians here so they must have been some other swarthy race…… hence, “Cuban” Wasn’t Jim Crow a convoluted mess?? LOL
peace
I’m related by marriage to some Bass’s who left neighboring Granville County in the 1850’s and settled in Vernon County, WI, so this is interesting to me. Tracing your grandmother back should uncover a whole Indian community on that mountain, if your family story is accurate, which I’m sure it is. Sounds like somebody was definitely telling the truth in that hot moment.
Linda writes …… I’m related by marriage to some Bass’s who left neighboring Granville County in the 1850’s
Linda, I am virtually in sight of the Granville co line. If you want info on current Bass’s here, I could probably help. Mrs. Buck Bass is considered the matriarch of the local Bass’s and a personal friend of mine…. any way I can help, let me know.
I’ll get in touch with some of the WI Bass’s and let them know.
Do you know if these Bass’s are related to Joel Bass’s family? Of the Eno Occoneechee?
Linda asks….. Do you know if these Bass’s are related to Joel Bass’s family? Of the Eno Occoneechee?
They are definitely related. According to Mrs Buck Bass, some of the families moved to Pleasant Grove but our Bass’s didn’t wish to sell their farms they have here in Moriah.
Perhaps Bill would search it, since he is searching Moriah for the Meadows thread. The names I can remember off the top of my head are 2 “Buck”s………. “Black Buck” and “White Buck”….. The Mrs Bass I’m talking to is wife of White Buck. He has a brother Jack….. They are in their 70s….. other names are Gaddis and Buss Bass.
Black Buck had sons William and Nello…… Mom thinks Buck’s name is really William.
NOTE TO BILL……. These Bass’s straddle the county line so some will be found in Durham co, north of Little River. William Bass should be Person……. Jack will be Durham…… White Buck’s farm is in both counties.
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