Notes on Grandmother Lillian Mae's Heritage

Grandmother Lillian Mae Weaver/Somers

Grandmother Lillian Mae Weaver/Somers told me as a child our ancestry was "Black Welsh" and "Blackfoot Indian."  I remember asking her what is a "Black Welsh"? And Grandma replied that it simply meant we had dark hair and dark eyes.

Here are my notes regarding Grandma's family surnames and their origin:

Weaver - English origin. (Father's surname)

Wright (Mother's surname) - English or Scottish origin.

Casteal or Casteel (paternal Grandmother) - Dutch or Spanish origin.

Jones (maternal Grandmother) - Welsh origin.

Burdett (paternal Great Grandmother) - French or English origin.

The Jones name certainly points to our Welsh ancestry, but what does "Black Welsh" mean?  Wikipedia has a stub article which says:

Black Welsh people are inhabitants of Wales who have an African or a Caribbean background. Wales is home to one of the United Kingdom's oldest Afro communities, and Tiger Bay in Cardiff has housed a large Somalian population from the municipality's inception. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Welsh_people)

I also wonder if it could have been used as a racial term to hide our native American heritage. My cousin Janet, (daughter of Mamie Somers Sheppard), remembers her mother saying she was Dutch and Blackfoot Indian. "Black Dutch"* was an identity term used by some natives seeking to  assimilate into the changing culture during the forced removal of the Eastern Tribes:

So who or what are the Black Dutch? There is more than one answer to the question. The term "Black Dutch" and sometimes "Black Irish" was adopted by Native Americans of the Southeast, particularly the Cherokee, to disguise Native heritage, following the removal of Indians from Native lands in the 1830s. It was dangerous during those times to be known as Indian, and discrimination was rampant, socially and legally. As census records show, many declared their race as "white," especially those who married white. "Full bloods claimed to be Black Irish or Black Dutch," (Wikipedia) to account for their darker skin... Originating in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, many Black Dutch families migrated south to Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma. (Source: http://www.genealogytoday.com/articles/reader.mv?ID=3568)

As far as the "Blackfoot Indian" ancestry, I believe it might be the Saponi Tribe which was sometimes referred to as the Eastern Blackfoot. Access Genealogy has an article about Saponi history which says:

Saponi Indians. One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in North Carolina and Virginia, but now extinct. The tribal name was occasionally applied to the whole group of Ft Christanna tribes, also occasionally included under Tutelo. That this tribe belonged to the Siouan stock has been placed beyond doubt by the investigations of Hale and Mooney. Their language appears to have been the same as the Tutelo to the extent that the people of the two tribes could readily understand each other. Mooney has shown that the few Saponi words recorded are Siouan. 

Lederer mentions a war in which the Saponi seem to have been engaged with the Virginia settlers as early as 1654-56, the time of the attack by the Cherokee, probably in alliance with them. The first positive notice is by Lederer (1670), who informs us that he stopped a few days at Sapon, a town of the Tutelo confederacy, situated on a tributary of the upper Roanoke. This village was apparently on Otter river, southwest of Lynchburg, Virginia. Pintahae is mentioned also as another of their villages near by. It is evident that the Saponi and Tutelo were living at that time in close and apparently confederated relation. In 1671 they were visited by Thomas Batts and others accompanied by two Indian guides. After traveling nearly due west from the mouth of the Appomattox about 140 miles, they came to Sapong, or Saponys, town. Having been harassed by the Iroquois in this locality, the Saponi and Tutelo at a later date removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they settled near the Occaneechi, each tribe occupying an island in the Roanoke in what is now Mecklenburg County, Virginia. ... (Source: https://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/saponi-tribe.htm)

The Saponi Nation of Ohio website gives more history, including a list of surnames which includes "Jones":

The Saponi people who lived in the region adjoining the Ohio River Valley near Pennsylvania under the rule of the Six Nations of the Iroquois were called Mingoes.

In 1770, a group of Mingoes (Saponies) fled from white settlers and moved into Chillicothe, Ohio. This group splintered again as white civilization forced them onto the reservation. Some of the people who refused reservation life fled west to Missouri Indian Territory. By 1780, the Saponies were driven out of Virginia by whites from the east and Iroquois from the north. Some were found living in Mount Airy, North Carolina in 1780.

1800's NEW IDENTITY

Saponi Indians of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania referred to themselves as Catawba or Blackfoot of the Saponi Nation. About 1870, a small number of Saponi known as the Catawba Indians, settled on the Saponi Reservation in Greenville County, Virginia.

1830 INDIAN REMOVAL

The Indian Removal Act became law. This law made it legal to remove Native Americans from their land in the southeast. Indians were rounded up by soldiers and forced to march long distances to reservations. Many Indians died on these journeys.

Because of the Indian Removal Act, many Native Americans began to refer to themselves as "colored" or "mulatto" to avoid removal. Therefore, the former Saponi were forced to take English names. The descendents of the Ohio River Valley Sioux are now called Blackfoot Band of the Saponi Nation of Ohio, Inc.

Following is a partial listing of family names, which are included in the bylaws of the Saponi Nation of Ohio, Inc. If you or an immediate family member carries one of the following names, the chances are very high that you are descended from Indians who survived removal by merging into the mainstream culture.

CORE FAMILY NAMES: Burnett, Chavis, Chavers, Shavers, Coker, Croker, Craddolph, Dungey, Harris, Howell, Long, Marsh, McKeel, Keel, Keels, Scott, Stewart.

EXTENDED FAMILY NAMES (partial list): Bass, Bolling, Brown, Branham, Byrd, Collins, Corn, Cousins, Dempsey, Dixon, Garland, Gibson, Goings/Goins, Griffin, Guy, Haithcock, Hart, Haskins, Hawk, Hawkins, Henson, Holly, Hughes, James, Jeffries, Jeffreys, Johnson, Jones, Keeton, Liggins, Martin, Mason, Matthews, McDaniel, McKinney, Moss, Newman, Nichols, Parker, Pettiford, Ragland, Rickman, Richardson, Robbins, Robinson, Saunders, Sanders, Shumake, Simmons, Spears, Stills, Valentine, Vaughn, Viney, Watkins, Watson, Whitt, Winborn. (Source: http://www.saponi-ohio.org/8001.html)

Grandmother's family ancestry extends to Virginia and Ohio, as well as Tennessee and Northern Arkansas, which is where Grandmother was born.

People of One Fire author Richard Thornton has written an article titled
MANY SOUTHEASTERN NATIVE AMERICANS WERE NEVER “FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED”and explains more of the Saponi/Eastern Blackfoot history:

Saponi, Tutelo, Oconeechi or Eastern Blackfoot: Perhaps a hundred thousand or more United States citizens have at least some Saponi ancestry . . . maybe many more. It was once a very large, powerful alliance of Siouan and Muskogean remnant tribes in southern Virginia and north-central North Carolina. Oconeechi is a Creek word. They are a favorite target of wannabe rants by western Indians, who don’t realize that there was a very large Blackfoot tribe in the East. In fact, there were originally far more Blackfoot in Virginia and North Carolina than ever lived in the West. They were an entirely different ethnic group, however. 

The Blackfoot never fought a war against the Great Britain or the United States. They signed a few treaties with the Commonwealth of Virgina very early in its history. However, they were decimated by the double whammy of European diseases and catastrophic slave raids by the Rickohockens and Cherokees. The survivors found it wiser to keep a low profile and move to safer locales. Many individual Saponi families ended up on remote farms in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Some Melungeon families trace their heritage to the Eastern Blackfoot. 

Some Saponi descendants still live in their homeland and they are organized into state-recognized tribes. As can be seen above, they are REAL Native Americans and do not deserve the verbal abuse that they receive from federally-recognized tribal members. (Source: https://peopleofonefire.com/many-southeastern-native-americans-were-never-federally-recognized.html)

Family oral tradition is that we come from a solidly Protestant background, which makes me wonder if perhaps our Burdett family line could have a connection to the French Huguenots.

"Huguenot, any of the Protestants in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, many of whom suffered severe persecution for their faith. The origin of the name is uncertain, but it appears to have come from the word aignos, derived from the German Eidgenossen (confederates bound together by oath), which used to describe, between 1520 and 1524, the patriots of Geneva hostile to the duke of Savoy. The spelling Huguenot may have been influenced by the personal name Hugues, “Hugh”; a leader of the Geneva movement was one Besançon Hugues (d. 1532)."(Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Huguenot)

I'm very blessed to share this information with others, and ask those with additional information to please contact me. I would LOVE to know more about my family's heritage. Thank you!

Grandmother Lillian and Grandfather William Henry Somers
 with Great Grandchild Ken Davidson 

* See also:  DNA REMINDER . . . THE SALZBURG PROTESTANTS posted at People Of One Fire.