While I'm on a rip ;)

[urocyon]

Related to the last post: Jason Adams' Self-Determination on the Paleface Reservation.

The first national census, taken in 1790 reclassified all the unique Indian, Metis and other non-black, non-white peoples as "Free Persons of Color" (FPC), effectively stripping them of their culture (Kennedy, 1997, p. 13).

At the same time that this reclassification took place, people described generically as "Indians" – who were living at the site of the first people known to be labeled "Melungeon" (Everett, 1999, p. 360) - successfully fought off an emerging coal industry’s attempt to steal over 55,000 acres of their land. French speculator Pierre-Francois Tubeuf had aquired "rights" to fifty-five thousand acres of coal lands in southern Appalachia in 1791. When he arrived that same year to secure his paper claim to the already inhabited lands, he encountered a cleverly planned guerilla resistance from mixed-blood "Mountain Indians", likely Melungeons. Having a variably Indian, white or other physical appearance (not to mention knowledge) afforded them the ability to carry out a creative resistance: they could dress and act as painted indigenous warriors and threatening, mystical snake-handlers or as friendly "Mountain Indian" traders and common White hunters. This chameleon-like power, unique to those of mixed-ancestry, was used to gain information about Tubeuf in order to secure their centuries old claim to the lands (Wilson, 1998, p. 66). Tired of what he called "black tricks", in 1793 Tubeuf enlisted the violence of Virginia’s militia to clear out his claim of "inhabitants." It is unclear how succesful he was, but by the year 1795 Tubeuf lie mortally wounded, killed by two men who were variably described as Indian, French or unknown by witnesses (Wilson, 1998, p. 57-59). The variation as to the ethnicity of these men, and the presence of a long standing indigenous resistance suggests that they were probably mixed-bloods, and given the location, Melungeon.

This was but one of many examples of creative indigenous resistance to land theft.

IOW, this crap has been going on for a long time. The clowning there? Priceless. *g*