Legend of the Moon Eyed People | America's First Civilization
across the southern appalachian. mountains from georgia up through north. carolina hundreds of unusual stone. structures have been discovered some. date back hundreds of years some date. back thousands archaeologists aren't. sure who created these monuments but the. cherokee people claim they know exactly. who built them the cherokees say the. structures were built by the moon-eyed. people a race of fair-skinned. light-haired bearded humans their large. blue eyes were so sensitive to sun that. they lived in caves and came out only at. night which is why they're called. moonaid but the story gets even stranger.
[Music]. the cherokees say that the muni people. lived in the same area as the cherokee. nation but they were not native american. so if that's true who were they and how. did they get there now christopher. columbus is commonly connected to the. discovery of the new world but there's. plenty of debate on who was really first. norse explorer leith erickson is thought. to have discovered and settled an area. of newfoundland canada around a thousand. a.d and the remains of a norse.
settlement were found in newfoundland. not too long ago and the artifacts were. carbon dated to prove that someone was. there at precisely this time there's. also the legend of saint brendan an. irish monk who left ireland in the 6th. century in search of new lands and after. seven years st brendan returned to. ireland and claimed he discovered a land. covered in lush vegetation people. believe he was describing the east coast. of canada but whether norse or irish. none of these ancient settlements were. permanent every legend ends with the. explorers encountering dangerous natives.
who drive them off the land and back to. the sea. but what if permanent settlements were. established hundreds of years before. columbus well that brings us to the. legend of explorer prince maddock of. wales now prince matic was the. illegitimate son of welsh king owen. gwenett who ruled wales in the 12th. century when the king died in 1169 his. sons fought for the throne and civil war. broke out and matic didn't want to be a. part of it so he took a few ships and. sailed west he landed in present-day. mobile bay alabama and he was so excited.
by what he saw he returned to wales for. more ships and colonists he then sent. back out toward alabama in 1171 he's. never heard from again but prince. matic's story doesn't end there 500. years later in 1666 a welsh minister. named morgan jones set out into the. american wilderness to preach the good. word to the locals the locals were not. receptive jones and his group were. captured and imprisoned by a people. called the dog in present-day south.
carolina about to be executed jones. pleaded for his life then the dog chief. approached he was a small light-skinned. man dressed in typical native american. attire jones dropped to his knees and. said have i escaped so many dangers that. must i now be murdered like a dog. the dog chief stared at him with ice. blue eyes and said you shall not die. today and then set him free. now jones couldn't believe his ears the. chief of the dog tribe was speaking. welsh.
morgan jones story was not unique there. was another sailor named stedman who was. shipwrecked somewhere between alabama. and florida in the 1660s and he. published an account of encountering a. light-skinned native tribe that spoke. welsh and these stories circulated. throughout the americas for years in the. 19th century governor robert dinwiddie. of virginia financed a large and. expensive expedition to find the welsh. indians when lewis and clark set off to. map the louisiana purchase they were. specifically ordered by thomas jefferson.
to keep an eye out for welsh tribes who. are known to be pale-skinned. short-statured people with blonde hair. blue eyes and warm beards were the. moonine people direct descendants of. maddox colonists were they the tribes. who built the stone structures all along. the appalachian mountains the remains of. a lot of these structures still exist. and more are being discovered all the. time ford mountain stone wall in georgia. is over a thousand feet long and varies. in height from three to ten feet and. there are structures like this all. around the area there's a lot of debate. on who built the ruins and what their.
purpose was some archaeologists say they. were used for social events seasonal. meetings religious ceremonies and. observing astronomy but supporters of. the matic legend disagree. they point out that the teardrop shaped. foundations are similar to ruins found. throughout great britain specifically. similar to doll widow and castle in. north wales but the ruins in wales. aren't religious structures they're. military fortifications this matches the. cherokee legend almost a thousand years. ago the moon eyed people were at war. with cherokee and other local nations so.
the moonaid people built forts and walls. to protect themselves using technology. that was unknown to the local tribes. there's even historical evidence of this. in a letter written in 1810 from john. cevier who is the first governor of. tennessee he says that in 1782 he was. told by an indian chief that the walls. were not built by american indians they. were built by white people called the. welsh who lived in the area hundreds of. years ago in 1799 that same governor. servier wrote a report where he. mentioned the discovery of six skeletons.
on the ohio river they were wearing. armor bearing the welsh coat of arms. apparently the welsh were driven out of. the land by the cherokee and travel to. the ohio valley or down the mississippi. there's actually evidence of a huge. battle that took place in this area. sometime around 1450. that's almost 50. years before columbus by the way now. local tribes say this was a great battle. between the red indians and the white. indians according to the legend the. white indians lost the war and some of. them began integrating and intermarrying.
with a tribe called the mandans the. mandan tribe was said to be very. different than other tribes in. appearance they were fair-skinned with. light hair and light eyes they built. their settlements laid out on a grid. like european cities the mandans didn't. use canoes like most tribes did they. built round bull boats which were. identical to the coracle boats used by. the welsh and the irish the mandan. language to european ears sounded like. welsh and there are a lot of words in. the mandan language that are very close. to medieval welsh are these the moonai. people descendants from a welsh.
expedition that arrived in america in. the 1170s according to the cherokee. legend no they can't be you why not well. the cherokee and most other native. people arrived in america at the time of. the last ice age over 10 000 years ago. and possibly many years before that but. the cherokees say that when they came to. america many thousands of years ago the. moon eyed people were already there. [Music]. the cherokee do not consider the moonaid. people white indians they say the. moonaid people were a separate race and.
there was no evidence of their. appearance until until until 2015 when. the cherokee county historical museum. put on a display of a very unusual. artifact a statue of two humanoid. creatures about three feet tall and. carved from a single block of soapstone. hundreds or thousands of years ago was. discovered in the blue ridge mountains. of north carolina. what hello. that's an alien yeah a few others have. proposed that theory but for the sake of. this video let's assume that the. moon-eyed people are not from outer.
space obviously an alien okay would you. let me get back to this you got it. small in stature with light skin light. hair and large round eyes the moon eyed. people were said to have lived in. appalachia until they lost a long and. bloody war with the cherokee the muni. people were finally defeated when the. cherokee attacked them during a full. moon their blue eyes were so sensitive. to light that they only came out at. night even the full moon was too bright. for them and the cherokee took advantage. of this after the moon eyed were. expelled from cherokee land they went. west and disappeared but they left a.
serious imprint on the land they. inhabited the pre-columbian city of. cahokia is said to have been built by. the moonaid people cloaca. cahokia what i say. at its height cahokia's population. exceeded 40 000 people and covered about. six square miles now for comparison at. this time in history london one of the. world's largest cities had a population. only of about 15 000 people covering. about three square miles so half the. size of cahokia in fact it would take.
almost a thousand years for a city in. north america to reach 40 000 people. philadelphia did it about the turn of. the 18th century and no city in north. america would reach six square miles. until the 20th century so cahokia was a. metropolis what happened to it nobody. knows but you can visit the ruins of the. city at cahokia mound state park in. illinois the site is over 2 000 acres. and contains 80 man-made mounds of. varying sizes and it's the largest and. most complex archaeological site north. of the aztecs so if the moon-eyed people.
are a local legend to the cherokee then. we shouldn't expect to see stories of. white indians or light-skinned. white-haired people anywhere else in the. americas right wait wait have they found. moon-eyed people in other places they. sure have. albinism is a genetic condition that. occurs in all species of animals and. plants and if the tyr gene is altered or. damaged melanin can't be produced and. the animal becomes an albino this. results in white hair feathers skin and. in humans albinism occurs in one out of.
every 20 000 births or so but the kuna. tribe of panama has the highest rate of. albinism of any community in the world. one out of every 145 kuna born are. albinos that's over 130 times the. typical rate now in kuna mythology. albinos were given a special. significance their light eyes and skin. color makes them very sensitive to light. people right so they were given the duty. of defending the moon against those who. would try to destroy it in fact they. became known as children of the moon.
albino children are born at very high. rates in other native american tribes. the hopi zuni gemez san juan and laguna. tribes all see albinism occurring at. over a hundred times the rate of the. rest of the world are these native. american albinos the descendants of the. moon eyed people which is why their. traits keep showing up in native. populations well we don't know cherokee. said the moon eyed people were driven. west this is interesting the piu people. were a tribe who lived in utah and parts. of california and they talk about city.
ka and sitika were a tribe of red-haired. giants with white skin who lived in. caves they feared the sun and they only. came out at night now pew were at war. with the red-haired giants for many. years and eventually they were able to. trap the white-skinned giants in their. caves they then set a huge fire and. killed them all that story was passed. down for hundreds of years and was. considered to be a fairy tale. but in 1911 the cave was discovered by. local miners and over the next 10 years. it was excavated and inside they found.
skeletons over six feet six inches tall. who had red hair. [Music]. the legend of the moon eyed people is. still a mystery and a lot of it is. unsolved. but not all of it let's go back to. prince matic of wales we don't know for. sure that he existed but we do know that. his father king owen of gwened did exist. and we know that queen elizabeth the. first was a big supporter of the prince. matic of gwyneth story in the late 16th. century england spain and portugal were.
striving for supremacy of the new world. dr john d was an advisor to queen. elizabeth and is famous for coining the. phrase the british empire he told the. queen that she should lay claim to north. america. all of it john d convinced the queen. that because her family the house of. tudor was related to the gwyneth royal. family of wales she could claim title to. the entire continent as it was her. ancestor prince matic of wales who got. there first i remember morgan jones the. welsh preacher whose life was spared by. the welsh indians well his story was.
said to have happened in 1666 but the. story wasn't actually published until. the 1740s almost 100 years later when. england was at war with spain now morgan. jones story appeared in several london. journals and became a source of. fascination with the english and pride. amongst the welsh propaganda or was. published under the title the crown of. england's title to america prior to that. of spain not exactly unbiased no it. wasn't as for the stone ruins and mounds. found in cahokia and all around that. part of the country when european. settlers came across these structures.
they just couldn't attribute them to. local native tribes who they considered. savages a city twice the size of london. was so shocking that they thought it. must have been created by a different. race white people right. now same with the welsh language myth. most of the american colonists were. simple and uneducated american indian. languages would have sounded like. nothing more than gibberish to them but. the same could be said for basque. finnish and even welsh these europeans. couldn't imagine that what they saw as. an inferior people could develop a. complex language so they attributed it.
to european specifically welsh influence. in fact in 1791 john williams a welsh. minister wrote that words in common use. on different parts of the continent. which are very near or undeniably welsh. in both sound and sense could not happen. by chance and they could not be derived. from any europeans but from the ancient. britons and explorers quickly seized on. native words that were similar in welsh. like presso for welcome and bara for. bread but they ignored the many many.
other words that aren't even close the. media has been spitting out fake news. and propaganda for a long time huh a. long time. there was a lot of excitement when. british explorers found a tribe in. virginia who had a word for penguin that. sounded a lot like penguin which in. welsh means whitehead however penguins. heads are black how did welsh indians in. virginia even know what a penguin was. that's a good point but when a probably. fake story like the one about the welsh. preacher goes viral people are going to. be able to find all sorts of data to.
back up the theory especially if it. serves their agenda to me these are. pretty logical explanations for why for. centuries people believe there were. white welsh indians living in the. americas but the truth is there probably. weren't any what about the moonaid. people the statue discovered on cherokee. land what about the mounds and. metropolis at cahokia well nobody has. really explained these yet. that's why it's a great story. thanks for hanging out with us today my. name is aj that's hecklefish this has.
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you.
