ODD THINGS ABOUT
INDIANS
Atlanta Constitution
July 21, 1901
Excerpt;
North Carolina's Croatans, who claim to be descendants pf Raleigh's
lost colony are not the only peculiar people among the red inhabitants
of theseUnited States. The claim is not new it has been more or less
exploited these thirty years, along with that of the still more curious
Melungeons of East Tennessee. Their name, said to come from the
French melange, a mixture, must be pre-eminently fit, since they show
racial characteristics of the Cherokees, the negroes, the Portugese,
and the plain, ordinary poor whites.
Their language is
as mixed as their blood, and their civilization is in somewhat the same
condition.
Over against them set their
neighbors, the Eastern Cherokees, who live in Qualla boundary in
western North Carolina, and are so up-to-date they have formed
themselves into a regular corporation, so as to share in the government
benefits which were in danger ot monopoly by the, rich and out-reaching
western Cherokee nation.