Dear Seekers: think you will find the following v-e-r-y interesting, to say the least. A couple other surnames besides COLLINS appear. Original can be found at: http://www.jandmcont.com/genealogy/saponi.html Main website for above is: http://www.jandmcont.com ====================================================== Saponi Letter Page 1 of 6 The following is re-typed text (from the internet) of: http://www.jandmcont.com/genealogy/saponi.html The following are our scanned images of the Saponi Letter as provided by Kerri Conley. Quote: Dear Mary, This letter was originally given to my Father-in-law, Wallace Conley, by a friend he went to school with. I found it to be very informative and quite interesting. As I said, my mother was a Collins and her father and one of her brothers has the Collins look. If you find out any more information, please E-mail me. I will do the same for you. Thank you, Kerri Conley Unquote. above is ‘printing-writing’. --------------------------------------------- the following typed letter is ‘true to form' (as is) - I have ‘space lined’ /separated the paragraphs for ease in reading. Page 2 of 6 Letter to Betty June Ratloff P.O. Box 220 Coeburn, VA 24230 Phone: 540-345-2918 [could be 315] August 12, 1980 Dear Mrs. Stallard: I am writing to you to thank you and your husband for your kindness to me when I was in Coeburn last month. I am now finished with my survey of Indian groups in the southern Appalachian area and am back in Michigan. Since you seemed interested in the history of the Collins family in your area, I will pass along to you what I know of their history. As far as I can determine, all the Collins of northeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and eastern Kentucky are descendants of one household of Collins who resided in Orange County, North Carolina in 1760: a family of Saponi Indians. I know that is must be “mind-boggling” to image that the thousands of Collinses in your area are all descended from just one household, but such is the case. Further, this is not so amazing as it sounds. It is common among pre-Revolutionary American families. For instance, all the Carters in the South are descended from three brothers who came to Virginia in the late 1600’s. Let me start at the beginning, with the Saponi Indians. The Saponi were an advanced tribe who originally lived on the Roanoke River about where it crosses over into North Carolina from Virginia. In the late 1660’s, they moved further west to the area of modern Clarksville, Virginia. Here they allied with the neighboring Tutelo and Occanuki Indians. All of these tribes spoke similar languages, a variety of language akin to modern Sioux of the Dakotas. In the 1670’s, they got into a war with Virginia whites, the Page 3 of 6 so-called Bacon Rebellion, and moved west to the Yadkin Valley around modern Winston Salem. In the early 1700’s, the Saponi started migrating east, returning to their original homeland. In 1714, Governor Spotswood of Virginia established Ft. Christiana near modern Lawrenceville, Virginia, and convinced the Saponi, Occanuki, and Tutelo to settle there. In about 1722, the Tutelo left and joined the Iroquois in New York, and during the Revolution, fled to Canada where they now live on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. The Occanuki were absorbed by the Saponi in this period. About 1728, the Saponi became involved in a war with the Tuscawara and Nottowa Indians who lived further east. They fled from Ft. Christiana, and went to live with the Catawba in South Carolina. In the early 1740’s, the Saponi left the Catawba country and started north. By 1740, Collins and Bowling (Scien, Bolling, etc.) were common family names among the Saponi. One band of Saponi headed north to the Iroquois area and were adopted by the Cayuga and Seneca. There are descendants of the Saponi now on the Caltaraugus’ reservation near Buffalo; some of them named Collins. Another band of Saponi stopped in North Carolina and settled on the plantation of Colonel William Eaton, near what is now Henderson, North Carolina. The Saponi had fought with Eaton in the wars with the Ohio Valley tribes. Eaton’s planation was on the frontier and the Saponi were, no doubt, his protectors. Around 1750, several tribes further east --- the Nansemond, Yeopin, and Poroskite --- lost their lands and began to fragment into individual family groups. Page 4 of 6 These Indian families began to migrate to the frontier and settled near the Saponi. In 1760, Eaton died and the frontier had moved on. The Saponi lost their land base then and also began to fragment into individual families, and move west. In 1760’s, I can pick up the Collins in Orange County, on the frontier, west of Hendersonville, North Carolina. By 1790, many of these Indian families, including the Collinses, had ‘buched up” in the counties of extreme northeastern North Carolina. Then in the 1790’s, they spread all over northeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and over into what is now Letcher and Knott Counties, Kentucky. Many of them, like the Bollings of Wise County, became prominent families in their areas. Then, in the 1830’s, Virginia became one of the more consciously racist and deliberately elitist states in the Union. First, most poor whites were disenfranchised by a property value requirement; most Virginians west of the Blue Ridge, as well as the poor further east, could not legally vote in Virginia. Further, a new legal category included citizen Indians, free blacks, and all non-whites. These “free colored” could not vote, bear arms, travel freely, etc. In southwest Virginia and neighboring parts of Tennessee, the more established Indian families “weathered the storm”. The Bollings in Wise County, redefined their status as being descendants of Pocahantas and John Rolfe, thus escaping the free colored category. Other families who were less weathly, darker, and concentrated in one area, got caught in the free colored category; and, thus the Melungeons of southern Wise County came into existence. By 1840, the situation became intolerable for some Indians in southwest Virginia, and they began to head for Kentucky, a less repressive social and legal atmosphere. In the 1840’s, three Collins families Page 5 of 6 moved into Kentucky, into Letcher County. In the 1850’s, two Collins families moved to Johnson County, just south of Paintsville (Grandpap William Collins and brothers). These Collinses were very Indian looking and dark. They must have been almost full-blood Indians. In Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, Indians were just another variety of “nigger” in the 1850’s, but Kentucky was much more liberal, at least in regards to Indians. By World War I, the situation had changed. Being Indian had almost a romantic prestige about it, and many families like the Collinses in Kentucky, had become successful mainstream citizens. It was at this point that the Melungeons began to be seen as possibly being part black, in order to explain their low rank and exclusion. Of course, the Collinses did not stop in Johnson County. The lower Big Sandy drainage and southern Ohio is full of Collinses who migrated to those area from further south in Kentucky and Virginia after the Civil War. Not all the Collinses headed west in 1760 after Colonel Eaton died. Some few went south to what is now Robeson County, North Carolina, and became part of the modern Lumbee Indians in that region. The history of the Collins family is both remarkable and fascinating. They are almost an “ethnic group” all by themselves. There are Seneca Cayuga Collinses in New York, White and Melungeon Collinses in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia, part-Indian Collinses all do [missing wn - think this is the word down] the Big Sandy and into southern Ohio, Lumbee Indian Collinses in North Carolina --- all, at least Page 6 of 6 distantly, related and all descended from two or three households of Saponi Indians in 1740. Someone should write a novel about your family; at least, you should rent a stadium and have a family reunion. What an “outfit” (as we say in Oklahoma)! I hope this brief sketch of the Collins family history repays you for your kindness to me, some small measure. Sincerely, Robert K. Thomas P.S. If you have any questions, my address is: 9685 Log Cabin Trail Union Lake, Michigan 48985 Phone: 313-698-9342 P.P.S. Please excuse my bad handwriting! ---------------------------------------------------- [note: the document off the Internet was typed and not handwritten as one is lead to believe by the P.P.S. I surmise Kerri Conley typed the original letter. I have no idea who she is. Because of the poor quality of the document (difficult to read) as it appears on the Internet, I then re-typed it. ----- 11 Jan 1999] --------------------------------------------- I am going to try to contact Robert THOMAS after 6PM this evening. I hope he is still 'vertical'. Or - perhaps someone on the list knows whom he is, and whom Kerri CONLEY is? I am interested in Robert THOMAS' research material: how it was gathered and from where; and, what prompted his research. I am also sending a copy of this information to the Melungeon List/Digest. Any reactions/comments are welcome. Good hunting - good luck! Shirley: bobert@panacom.com =========================================================