In this column debunking the Welsh Indians myth, Cecil states:
Was the gene mixing always in that direction?
IOW, were there never any Mandan men doing the nasty with white women?
Nowhere near as many during the century in question, when the Dakotas were largely unsettled by whites.
The legend gets worked into Madeline L’Engle’s A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Read it a long time ago, but know that it posits a South American Welsh colony (Vespugia) harboring a bad guy named Mad Dog, and I think it has something to do with Ford Madox (note the kinship to Madoc) Ford (English author known best for The Good Soldier). Other than that, I can’t remember shit.
Few today remember the “Tom Quest” series of boys’ adventures by Fran (“The Lone Ranger”) Striker, which employed the Welsh-Mandan legend in at least two volumes.
South American Welsh colonies exist, but they don’t go back to the 1100’s.
So … if the area was “largely unsettled by whites,” then that would seem to rule out **any ** sexual liasons between whites and Mandans.
No white males gittin’ jiggy with Mandan females, and no white women doin’ the horizontal dance with Mandan men.
I like how their shipped was named the Mimosa…after the mixed drink? “Myy starss, Lloydd. Howw didd we gett herre?”
I think “largely unsettled” means that there were probably some men out there (explorers, hunters, trappers, etc.) but few or no women, since that would be more indicative of permanent settlements. WAG.
As the young folks say, “Like, duh!”
Just out of curiousity, has any roadside attraction ever actually advertised a “snakum”: half-snake, half-possum?
As other young folk say, “Deign to be less obtuse, dude.”
Do they really say that?
BTW What was that crack Cecil made about the Vikings implying?