There’s an intriguing tale of a tribe of American Natives who were called ‘moon-eyed people’ by the ancient Cherokee because of the light color of their eyes. There were other ways this tribe differed from other Native tribes. Some say they were descended from pre-Columbian Welsh explorers. Others say they never existed and its all just legend. Read about them below and see photos and a video and you decide. Did they exist or not?

Fort Mountain, Georgia

The tales of this strange Indian tribe goes back to over 300 years before 1462 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It seems there was a Welsh Prince Madoc. His full name being Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd. It is said that Prine Madoc was one of the illegitimate sons of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of Gwynedd (also known as the King of Wales), who was widely considered one of the greatest Welsh rulers of the Middle Ages. Prince Gwynedd died in 1169. His death precipitated bloody fighting between his numerous sons and heirs. It was during this time that Madoc and his brother Rhirid decided to see what was over the ocean. Legend has it that the two were peace loving and left to avoid the bloodshed of their kinsmen. Its all speculation though as there are no records to verify if or why they left.

The royal Welsh brothers, along with 100 men sailed west from Wales. Following currents, they landed in the natural port at what is now Mobile, Alabama. This is the same route taken later by explorers like Juan Ponce de Leon, Amerigo Vespucci and other Europeans who found the new lands early in history. The men disembarked and were very pleased with the uninhabited, lush, generous land they had happened upon. One hundred men set off, following the Alabama river north, to build an encampment and begin to set down roots. Prince Madoc returned to Wales to recruit settlers.

The earliest printed account of this early voyage is found in The Historie of Cambria, by Dr. David Powels, published in 1584:

Madoc. . .left the land in contention betwixt his brethern and prepared certain shipps with men and munitions and sought adventures by seas, sailing west. . .he came to a land unknown where he saw manie strange things. . . . Of the viage and returne of this Madoc there be manie fables faimed, as the common people do use in distance of place and length of time, rather to augment than diminish; but sure it is that there he was. . . .And after he had returned home, and declared the pleasant and fruitfulle countries that he had seen without inhabitants, and upon the contrarie part, for what barren and wilde ground his brethern and nepheues did murther one another, he prepared a number of shipps, and got with him such men and women as were desirous to live in quietnesse, and taking leave of his freends tooke his journie thitherward againe. . . This Madoc arriving in the countrie, into which he came in the yeare 1170, left most of his people there, and returning back for more of his own nation, acquaintance, and friends, to inhabit that fayre and large countrie, went thither againe.

Madoc never returned to Wales after that. The legend continues in the New World. The evidence that has led to speculation that they existed are few. Physical evidence is the stone fortresses built before written history and attributed in ancient tales to the ‘moon eyed people’. The fortresses are remarkably similar in construction and design to those found in Wales in the same time period. These forts were built along the Alabama river. The most impressive was built on Lookout Mountain in Alabama. Another was built later at Ft. Mountain near the Georgia-Tennessee border (pictured below). Minor fortifications were built throughout the Chattanooga area. Their last known fortress was built near what is now Manchester, Tennessee. As they progressed from one of these structures to the next, they became less well built.

Ft. Mountain, Georgia – Photos

Ft. Mountain Georgia – Map

Other factors that have lead many to believe this tribe of Welsh Indians existed are the testimony of early Cherokee who encountered them along the way. In 1810, then Tennessee Governor John Seiver wrote a letter in response to a request by Major Amos Stoddard. In the letter, Seiver gives an account of a conversation he had with the 90-year-old chief of the Cherokee Nation, Oconosoto. Oconosoto had related to Seiver his story of how the stone fortifications had come to exist.

“they were a people called Welsh and they had crossed the Great Water.” He called their leader “Modok.” If true, this fits with the known history of 12th century Welsh Prince Madoc. He further related: “It is handed down by the Forefathers that the works had been made by the White people who had formerly inhabited the country. . .” and gave him a brief history of the “Whites.” When asked if he had ever heard what nation these Whites had belonged to, Oconostota told Seiver that he “. . .had heard his grandfather and father say they were a people called Welsh, and that they had crossed the Great Water and landed first near the mouth of the Alabama River near Mobile. . ..”

Oconostota went on to tell Seiver that the White people had left the country and traveled a very long way down the Tennessee river, then up the Ohio to the Missouri. He also said they were no longer White people, that they had become Indians.

The White tribe differed from other tribes in their appearance and living habits. They were light skinned, light eyed, grew beards and their hair turned gray as they grew older. Rather than living a nomadic lifestyle they build ‘towns’ with multiple permanent dwellings of a style not seen in any other Native tribe. They also spoke a language unlike any other known in the Americas. It is said that it was a diluted form of Welsh.

Over the years, different individuals and groups sought out these Welsh Indians, including Lewis and Clark. In reading the various accounts, it seems that whether or not they saw this group as being of Welsh descent depended on what their purpose was in searching them out.

Many historians feel the entire legend was invented by the Tudors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. She had wanted to lay claim that the English had settled the New World before the Spanish and so the legend was created to meet that desire. That doesn’t account for the collaborating legends handed down by the Cherokee that picked up where the Welsh legends left off.

Detractors say there is no proof. They say that historians and scientists need proof.

Prince Madoc and his descendants have been tied to many tribes throughout the United States. Some say his people left and were the White people who were thought to be gods by the Aztecs and promised to return. Leaving way for the Spaniards to come back 300 years later to be welcomed with open arms only to be destroyed by the invaders.

Most people who follow this story think that the Welsh Indians became the Mandan tribe whose language, customs and appearance was decidedly different than that of other tribes. The Mandan were decimated by a smallpox epidemic of 1781. The epidemic of 1837 basically wiped them out. Even though 150 tribesmen survived the epidemic and there are still descendants of the tribe, they are considered an extinct tribe.

Following the 1837 smallpox epidemic they joined nearby tribes, Hidatsas, and Arikaras, who were similarly affected. They formed the Three Affiliated Tribes. Below is a photo of representatives from the Three Affiliated Tribes who went as a delegation to Washington D.C. Can you guess from the photo which of the delegates are from the Mandan tribe?

Three Affiliated Tribes – Photo

So what do you think? Are they descendants from Prince Madoc and his fellow Welsh settlers of many centuries ago? Do they have the same ancestry of other American Native tribes and its just a fluke that they appear so different than the others? Perhaps their descendants will submit to DNA testing so this mystery can be solved.