Moon-eyed people

[4][5] Published accounts of an ancient moon-eyed people who lived in the southern Appalachian region of the United States before the Cherokee came into the area have appeared in America since the late 18th century.

Among the earliest people to mention the legend are Benjamin Smith Barton, who wrote that he had heard a story from Leonard Marbury, about ancient moon-eyed people;[6] and John Sevier, who told of an ancient white race, according to later published sources who mention Sevier's letters.

[7] Barton, Marbury, and Sevier lived during the era when the lower Appalachians were still part of the Cherokee Nation, before the Trail of Tears.

[8] The Georgia Parks Division of the Department of Natural Resources, has a marker at Fort Mountain that mentions legends about the wall's origin.

Benjamin Smith Barton, author of New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America (1797), describes an ancient people who were "moon-eyed.

"[6] Barton, citing Colonel Leonard Marbury (an intermediary between the government and the Cherokee), writes, "the Cheerake tell us, that when they first arrived in the country which they inhabit, they found it possessed by certain 'moon-eyed-people,' who could not see in the day-time.

"[6] A 1923 article in The Chattanooga News mentions a 1797 book by Barton and repeats the Cherokee legend about moon-eyed people.

"[1] In his book, Barton infers that the moon-eyed people were ancestors of albinos encountered by Lionel Wafer, a Welsh explorer of the early 18th century.

According to Barton, Wafer lived for a time among the Kuna people of Panama, called "moon-eyed" because they could see better at night than day.

Both Ezekial Sanford's History of the United States Before the Revolution and B. R. Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina cite James Adair, in attributing the term "moon-eyed people" to Cherokee tradition.

Citing John Sevier's story of Oconostota [7] as it relates to whites having built the ancient structures, Welsh historian Gwynn Williams notes that this is "a beautiful example of the way minds were working in the late eighteenth century – and of the power of suggestion which white minds could exercise over red.".

Putnam writes that "Cherokee legend attributes the wall to a mysterious band of 'moon-eyed people' led by a Welsh prince named Madoc who appeared in the area more than 300 years before Columbus sailed to America.