A post from a Melungeon page on Facebook was sent to me
I would expect a comment like this from a person new to researching Melungeons and/or DNA but from seasoned researchers it is inexcusable.
Who is determining this 'Native Y DNA' and how are they determining it? Do they totally ignore history or simply haven't bothered to research early history of the Native tribes?
I won't discuss Lucas deAyllon who landed at Winyah bay, stones throw the Melungeons original homeland on the Pee Dee River in 1527 with 600 men, women, children and slaves. I won't mention of those 600 souls and only 150 who returned. But let's talk about deSoto and Pardo.
HERNANDEZ DESOTO
From the de Soto Journals
"In the month of April, of the year 1538, the adelantado (deSoto) delivered the ships over to the captains who were to go in them. He took a new and good sailing ship for himself and gave one to Andre de Vasconcelos, in which the Portuguese went"
They captured a hundred head, among Indian men and women. Of the latter, there, as well as in any other part where forays were made, the captain selected one or two for the governor and the others were divided among themselves and those who went with them.
As soon as the governor had crossed the stream, he found a village called Achese a short distance on. Although the Indians had never heard of Christians they plunged into a river. A few Indians, men and women, were seized.
At the time of his departure, because of the importunity of some who wished more than was proper, he asked the cacique for thirty Indian women as slaves.....The Indians gave the governor thirty Indian women and the necessary tamemes [for DeSoto's men to wed then populate his planned settlement at Mobile Bay].
JUAN PARDO
"In 1566, Pardo was sent with 125 soldiers on his first expedition. His task was to explore the area, to claim its lands for Spain while pacifying local Indians, and to forge an overland road from Santa Elena to the valuable silver mines in Zacatecas, Mexico (p.5) and so he built Fort San Juan at Joara. Fort San Juan was the first European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States (p.2). The relations with the Natives changed after his second expedition, and it eventually led to the complete destruction of the site by May 1568. From the 31 soldiers still garrisoned there, only one survived after escaping and hiding in the woods. Among the several factors that appear to have had a role in the Natives’ decision to destroy the garrisons, two stand out: the Spaniards’ demands for food and their improprieties with Native women"
So for 40 years there were 3 expeditions with EUROPEANS and EUROPEAN DNA mixing with those Native tribes, producing both MALE AND FEMALE children born into those Native tribes almost 100 years, almost FIVE GENERATIONS of mixed Natives before Jamestown.
Do these researchers who claim the Melungeons DO NOT have MALE Native DNA believe all those men with deAyllon, deSoto and Pardo were sterile? Or do they really believe they never had sex with these Native women? If you are going to write about the Melungeons please, please, do some research! Not only were these expeditions ALL on the Pee Dee River, and mixed with the Native women -- there was a SHIPLOAD OF PORTUGUESE!
