by Elizabeth Pollard
Those on the net interested in this subject might want to have a look
at Brewton Berry's Almost White, MacMillan, 1963. It is out-of-print,
but a good academic library might have it. Berry reviews the literature
on a number of supposed "triracial (Indian-White-Black) isolates"
in the eastern United States. Recent editions of George Peter Murdock's
Ethnographic Bibliography of North America include a listing
of references on such groups. There were several issues of the American
Anthropologist in the 1970s devoted to studies of them.
What
needs to be kept in mind when reading these books and articles is
that the claim these groups had some degree of Black ancestry may
be more apparent than real. I am reminded that Alfred L. Kroeber noted
that many of the full-blooded Northern Arapaho he did fieldwork among
in the early part of this century had skin pigmentation that was nearly
black, yet the genealogies he collected failed to show any African-American
ancestry. His explanation, and that of more recent researchers, is
that this is the result of inbreeding. Geneticists on this net might
be better able than I to explain this.
In
nearly every case, it is assumed that genes from the African-American
population entered the group before the nineteenth century. Some references
on the absorption of runaway slaves by the Seminole and Miccosukee
in Florida were given in a post on this list (not mine) some months
ago. On the other hand, it is frequently reported that members of
the so-called "triracial isolates" who marry or even regularly associate
with Blacks become outcasts. To recognize them as members would be
to admit the claim of many local Whites that the members of the group
are really mulattos. Some of the groups Berry discusses (e.g., the
Wesorts in Maryland) have apparently been absorbed into the Black
population, while those who can "pass for white" no longer identify
with the group (e.g., such people among the Melungeons in east Tennessee
and southeastern Virginia). Others have since succeeded in gaining
recognition (state and/or federal) as Native American
tribes, or are still seeking it. Most have little or no recognizable
Native American culture and speak no language other than English.
Elizabeth Pollard
Systems Librarian Internet: pollarde@email.uah.edu
University of Alabama in Huntsville Compuserve: 72457,1560
Huntsville, AL 35899 Phone: (205)895-6313
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