MELUNGEONS AND OTHER MESTEE GROUPS by Mike McGlothlen 
http://www.hypertext.com/blackirish/melungeons.html

"Melungeons (from melange) are an ethnic group indigenous to the mountains of
northeastern Tennessee, racially a mixture of black, white and American Indian.
Founded by free mulattos and mestees (Indian-black mix with or without white)
From North Carolina, they were in Hancock County before whites arrived there.
>From the time and location of their origin, the Indian element is probably
Saponi and Tutelo, but is usually incorrectly thought to be Cherokee by the
Melungeons. Designated 'free people of color' in the Tennessee constitution,
they have been described as a 'tri-racial isolate' by anthropologists and as an
'old mixed race group' by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. They were recognized as
American Indian by the Tennessee department of education during the days of
school segregation and had separate schools from both white and black. Rejected
as Indians by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, they are legally black under
Tennessee law as they are known to have some black African ancestry. Culturally,
they are Appalachian....

Melungeons would not send their children to black schools and they were not
allowed in the white schools, so the Tennessee Department of Education had
"lndian" schools for them. This led to almost total illiteracy among Melungeons
as they would not have black teachers and white teachers would not teach in
their schools, so they had to depend on the few Melungeons who had learned to
read at the Vardy Mission School when it would still take Melungeons. None of
their teachers had been to high school. In Tennessee until the 1950's and 60's,
Melungeons were usually classified as black for marriage, white for voting and
Indian for education.

There is a Welsh legend of a Prince Madoc who came to America and founded a
Welsh colony in late Pre-Columbian times. The site of his landing has been set
as Mobile Bay (a very long ways from Wales for small, open, skin boats) and the
three Pre-Columbian stone wall sites in the Southeast (Old Stone Fort in
Tennessee, Fort Mountain in Georgia and the Welsh Caves at Desoto Falls in
Alabama, all within 100 miles of Chattanooga) are all traditionally attributed
to these Welsh. This is proven because Indians couldn't possibly pile up loose
rock to make a wall. The Welsh were supposed to have survived as any Indians who
showed light color in hair or skin or eyes (blue eyes were instant proof of
descent from the Welsh, who almost all have black hair and eyes), with the
Mandan tribe of Siouan Indians and the Melungeons usually being the named
groups. The Melungeon's own explanation of their origin is that they descended
From Portuguese sailors shipwrecked on the Carolina coast who made their way
inland and married Cherokee women. Newman's Ridge, on the Tenessee-Virginia
border, is a long way from any coast and a very peculiar location for any
seagoing people, be they Portuguese, Welsh or Carthaginian...."

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