NATIVEAMERICAN-DELMARVA-L Archives
Archiver > NATIVEAMERICAN-DELMARVA > 2000-03 > 0953091985
From: <>
Subject: Re: Wesorts; Nanticokes;WICOMOCO (This is my final ANSWER)!!!!!
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 22:46:25 EST
In a message dated 03/14/2000 9:12:32 PM Eastern Standard Time,
(on the List)
writes:
<< BTW, I am also distantly related to Floyd Handsor who I believe was once
a member of this list. I don't know if he still is. >>
Hi,
Floyd is a member of the Mitsawokett list. Don't know whether he is on this
one now. His e-mail is
Paul Heinegg and Ned Heite disagree 'somewhat' about the disappearance of
Indians from Delmarva (go to the Heite links at
http://www.mitsawokett.com/FamilyHistories/Index.html/#Family%20History%20Repo
rts or directly at http://home.dmv.com/~eheite/index.html).
Thomas Brown seems to side with the Heinegg camp. Tom's recent communication
on this list, "They (the Piscataway) do not have a continuous history of
Indian bloodlines. The contemporary group traces back to people who
identified as white, black, or mulatto. There is not a single data point
identifying any of their colonial ancestors as Indian," says it all. When
data points are in, the Piscataway are out.
The same can be said for the Nanticoke and Lenni Lenape of Delaware.
But what is "continuous history?" We presume Mssrs. Heinegg and Brown mean
it is one which can be found in the official documents of government and in
books, logs, journals and papers left by contemporaries which either detail
the lives of the important personages of the age of study or which permit
construction of interpretive accounts of an individual's life.
C.A. Weslager, 1980, in an address at the Bridgeton Indian Center, Bridgeton,
New Jersey (see http://www.mitsawokett.com/MainMenu.html --scroll down a
little more than half-way and click on "Notes from Interviews": "I should
say that many of these so called Moors were aware of Indian ancestry, even
though they were vague about Tribal affiliations. My own conclusion after
very careful study, was that practically all of them had Indian antecedents.
Of course, none of them were full blood Indians: some of them were descended
from the Lenape or Delawares while others had Nanticoke Indian background,
their parents or other relatives having moved to Cheswold from the Nanticoke
Indian community in Indian River Hundred in Sussex County."
Of course most professional historians will pooh-pooh this just as Brown put
down Frank Speck, who worked with Weslager for awhile. From a historian's
point of view, yes, there is no paper trail to back-up claims of Indian
descent. It is sadly amusing to consider that the white man, hundreds of
years ago, caused the aborigines to have little to no recorded history.
They scared the bejesus out of them by expelling individuals who insisted on
being called 'Indian' and then kept the quiescent ones from becoming members
of the ruling body politic. Today it seems scholars want to continue this
'grand' tradition by ignoring family lore and concentrating on a rigid code
developed to track the histories of the 'haves' of society. We understand
the historians' problem--there must be standards by which events of the past
can be understood. But, give us a break--please!! We are seeking out the
lives of people who have very little recorded history, just as the have-nots
in most all societies.
The Delaware Genealogical Society is working on the Delaware Families Project
to document all families in Delaware 1787-1800. Ned Heite says, "The
Society's latest project is the Delaware Families 1787-1800 directory, which
will eventually be a compendium of the state's population at the time of the
Constitution. The team compiling the directory is anxious to publish only the
most thoroughly documented entries. The only way the project will be fully
comprehensive is if everyone contributes." Their standards for inclusion are
similar to those Heinegg and Brown ask for. We have not been able to meet
those standards. The records don't exist or have not yet been found. There
is no provision to allow oral history.
A member of the Mitsawokett List, who identity is known only by his screen
name, had the following observation:
From: Rarihokwats Rarihokwats <>
Greetings. While everyone wants genealogy to be as accurate as possible,
there needs to be equity when we have a historical situation where one people
controlled the historical record and basically excluded another people from
it. For the State Society at this point to insist upon everyone meeting
standards which tend to favour the established order
and discriminate against others who have been historically excluded, serves
only to perpetuate the exclusion. I would suggest that you all who are close
to the scene negotiate with the State Society some kind of "Scrutiny
Committee", and if four or five of the most expert of you agree upon the
facts that have been preserved through oral and community
history, the State Society should accept it as much as they do the scrawling
of a clerk two hundred years ago.
Linda, you asked, "My questions is simple, "Who is correct?"
The answer is--no one. The work is ongoing. Rick Gildemeister authored a
piece on tri-racial isolates which we have included on our web site
(http://www.mitsawokett.com/MoorsOfDelaware/trirace2.html). He says of this
disagreement, "As far as Ned and Paul are concerned, at this early stage in
research, there are few absolute givens, so it's good that there be these
polar opposites, so that synthesizers can tease out what seems reasonable and
attempt to further understanding."
Hope we can be successful at our mutual undertaking!
- -----------------------------------------
Family History page www.mitsawokett.com
Betty & Ray Terry
11505 Montgomery Rd.
Beltsville, MD 20705
301-937-1766
Every time I get the urge to exercise, I lie down till the feeling passes.
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