Contrary to popular belief Machisaba == Witchcraft. You can be a witch and practice Machisaba, you can be not a witch and practice Machisaba. It is not a religion, there’s no contracts or covenants. In my experience it’s just learning to work with the energy of things and the environment around you. Calm down. Quit demonizing your kin just because you don’t understand. A lot of us are Christians no less, and are against the witch terminology.
This belief was born in the same sense that the word Melungeon is a slur was born. As Melungeon people we did not call ourselves Melungeon, we called ourselves Ridgemanites and other names denoting where we resided. We did not call out practices Mekheshepha (Machisaba), this is the OT word for a witch or a female sorceress. We were demonized as mixed race and demonized as witches and had our own dialect stripped from us, so we adopted what was given to us. Machashabah similarly is the biblical word for cunning work, or knowing how to use intentions, thought, and prayer to heal.
All of this is bs. Machisaba is nothing but wicca with the word Melungeon attached to it. We had no foreign gods, no seasonal rituals about the wheel of the year or anything like that, aside from decoration day. Melungeon culture IS Appalachian culture, but we do have our own unique distinctions, but it IS NOT this. This person runs multiple accounts on social media to make it seem like there’s traffic behind this. They go under multiple aliases, Kati Blair, Katie Littlefeather, Georgia Clyde, etc. and run Melungeon culture page on Facebook along with machisaba groups; they also run a Melungeon culture tiktok that just relates Appalachian lore as purely Melungeon lore. They are also very culturally appropriative, claiming to be Lakota, Melungeon etc. in one video of hers you can tell she’s faking her southern accent so bad to the point it was almost Hollywood level embarrassing. She was born and raised in Michigan, no where near Appalachia. Words she claims are Melungeon, like bruxo, machisaba, etc. would HAVE NEVER survived the development of Appalachian dialect, especially our own Melungeon dialect which was a lot more relaxed and faster than the former. That shit would’ve never survived. Ask any linguist. She also runs an Etsy shop called MamieClydes Apothecary and another online shop called Actual Hen. She has also tried saying that Melungeons have/had nations, like the “Great Lakes nation” (another website she runs, and likely takes fees for from people who fall for it) when that is not the case. We had small pocket communities in TN, VA, NC, SC, and KY before the world wars, but never “nations.” We had family tribes like the “Collins tribe” or “Gibson clan” but that was only in relation to a group of families who intermarried with each other and migrated to other places together, for safety and security, especially after the civil war and during Jim Crow. Yes we did call ourselves ridgemanites, but we also called ourselves “malungean” in the Carolinas, “carmelites” in highland county, Ohio, etc. We’ve been called Melungeon, ramp, redbone, cro (Croatan), etc. I have receipts of her activity in the Melungeon group I help run, some of the groups she runs, messages with her, showing that none of this machisaba stuff existed to her or online before June 2020. She has tried claiming different southern/Appalachian/ magical practices as being totally closed as they are supposedly Melungeon and that is also totally false. She also runs a Michigan historical website about abandoned houses in Michigan, specifically Hazel Park, MI where she was born and raised. I tried to explain to her my issues about all of this, like do what you want but don’t say it’s Melungeon when it’s not, it’s a modern made religion basically, but don’t say it’s Melungeon or try to claim practices that aren’t yours to gatekeep as Melungeon to keep others from it. It seems she also runs the two other “Melungeon” pages on here along with her tumblr “georgiaclyde”. To beat it all, everything she puts out, she’s taking from my books, Backwoods Witchcraft, and Doctoring the Devil, which she has claimed are horrible in some groups, but when she tried adding “machisaba” to the Melungeon Wikipedia page, she sites my book as a source? Come on lmao 🤣 This has just been going on for too long with all her alias accounts. I will say it once and hope it sticks with y’all: FAKELORE is just as bad as cultural appropriation. I was the first one that said anything about finding unique differences between Melungeon life and that of greater Appalachia and then out of nowhere she has this entire religion she failed to mention to any of us cousins (she ain’t our cousin was we thought she was at the time) for so long? Come on now. She also took people gedmatch kits from our kit group and made her own, and multiple people had to go and leave it because they didn’t not consent to their genetic information being added to something like that without their knowledge. This is all I’m saying on the subject.
She also runs diaryofamelungeon, moonshineinthebasement, and Melungeon-rose
All of this is bs. Machisaba is nothing but wicca with the word Melungeon attached to it. This is literally the Biblical term for witchcraft, just misspelled, lets not be ableist. This word is ancient, wicca is a newborn baby. https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-witch-to-live-a-murderous-mistranslation-1.5443682
We had no foreign gods, no seasonal rituals about the wheel of the year or anything like that, aside from decoration day. Mekeshepha is just folkcraft, people can recognize whatever deities they want, Melungeon people had many different faiths, practiced different folk belief and different religions.
Melungeon culture IS Appalachian culture, but we do have our own unique distinctions, but it IS NOT this. So we have our own culture or it is indistinguishable from the greater Appalachian culture? It can’t be both. (I’ll give you hint; Appalachian culture varies throughout each and every holler and family.)
This person runs multiple accounts on social media to make it seem like there’s traffic behind this. They go under multiple aliases, Kati Blair, Katie Littlefeather, Georgia Clyde, etc. and run Melungeon culture page on Facebook along with machisaba groups; they also run a Melungeon culture tiktok that just relates Appalachian lore as purely Melungeon lore. Appalachian lore? You mean just the conglomerate lore of the different cultures that make up Appalachian history? The culture that overlaps TONS of other cultures including Melungeon? Wow, big shock that Melungneon people out of Appalachia have cultural overlap with the rest of Appalchia. Traditions and folklore can exist throughout numerous cultures.
They are also very culturally appropriative, claiming to be Lakota, Melungeon etc. in one video of hers you can tell she’s faking her southern accent so bad to the point it was almost Hollywood level embarrassing. She was born and raised in Michigan, no where near Appalachia. I’m running for the GLMN BOD so I know this person IRL, do you? These are big claims coming from a man who was raised white, just learned they were Melungeon within the last 5 years and has appropriated Melungeon, Indigenous, and African cultures to sell 2 books that you never credited anyone you rehashed your information from. I wonder who owns that house in WV she’s always at then. Accents are another thing that varies throughout different hollers and states, I have had people think I was trying to make fun of them because my accent is similar but just off. Southern and Appalachian are 2 wildly different accents, I would think an Appalachian would know that? I guess thats new to you though.
Words she claims are Melungeon, like bruxo, machisaba, etc. would HAVE NEVER survived the development of Appalachian dialect, especially our own Melungeon dialect which was a lot more relaxed and faster than the former. That shit would’ve never survived. Ask any linguist. So Melungeon people were too what? Dumb and weak to preserve our dialect and culture? We are the ONLY culture that was unable to pass down an oral history? That is some true colonizer thinking, the very type of thinking Walter Plecker would be proud of. Dialects to this very day, differ from family to family, holler to holler, ridge to ridge. There is for sure words from my community that you’ve never heard in yours and vice versa
She also runs an Etsy shop called MamieClydes Apothecary and another online shop called Actual Hen.
ActualHen is run by Molly LeCuyer and Elizabeth Rogocki, do you just hate all Melungeon people trying to rebuild and showcase their culture?
She has also tried saying that Melungeons have/had nations, like the “Great Lakes nation” (another website she runs, and likely takes fees for from people who fall for it) when that is not the case. Nobody at GLMN ever claimed Melungeon people called their communities “Nations” historically, a nation is simply put:
“
a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory” and that is all it is meant to mean. GLMN enrollment is free for anyone who completes their own applications, application processing fees only apply to people who need their genealogist to complete their application for them. The Melungeon Heritage association charges a yearly fee, and almost every other Cultural Organization charges upwards of 100′s of dollars.We had small pocket communities in TN, VA, NC, SC, and KY before the world wars, but never “nations.” We had family tribes like the “Collins tribe” or “Gibson clan” but that was only in relation to a group of families who intermarried with each other and migrated to other places together, for safety and security, especially after the civil war and during Jim Crow. You forgot West Virginia, and we never called our communities tribes either, this is simply semantics you’re turning into a witchhunt. What are you really mad about? Not being raised Melungeon? Not being the Be All End All King of The Melungeons? Lmao. Grow up. A good LARGE number of Melungeon people migrated with the Great Appalachian Migration to states in the Midwest for work and to escape discrimmination, Wayne Winkler would be more than happy to talk to you further about the number of Harlan County Melungeons that ended up in the Detroit area. Hazel Parks Historical Society has a section dedicated to the Melungeon migrants, and their town is jokingly refferred to as Hazeltucky because it was almost entirely populated by appalachian people.
Yes we did call ourselves ridgemanites, but we also called ourselves “malungean” in the Carolinas, “carmelites” in highland county, Ohio, etc. We’ve been called Melungeon, ramp, redbone, cro (Croatan), etc. and? you forgot redlegs, blackwaters, portygee, plus more.
I have receipts of her activity in the Melungeon group I help run, some of the groups she runs, messages with her, showing that none of this machisaba stuff existed to her or online before June 2020. Georgia has been upfront that she learned this term from other people and just adopted it, but she’s always talked about being Melungeon, I’ve seen her share memories from 12 years ago about her Melungeon heritage.
She has tried claiming different southern/Appalachian/ magical practices as being totally closed as they are supposedly Melungeon and that is also totally false. People are allowed to gatekeep their culture from vultures like you who steal family histories and cultures to appropriate and publish for profits. Who are you to decide what practices from someone elses culture that you are not a part of are open or closed?
She also runs a Michigan historical website about abandoned houses in Michigan, specifically Hazel Park, MI where she was born and raised. What is the point here? She has never denied being raised in MI.
I tried to explain to her my issues about all of this, like do what you want but don’t say it’s Melungeon when it’s not, it’s a modern made religion basically, but don’t say it’s Melungeon or try to claim practices that aren’t yours to gatekeep as Melungeon to keep others from it. Who are you to tell people who were raised Melungeon, that their family traditions are not Melungeon, when you yourself were admittedly not raised Melungeon and neither was anyone in the group you run, and neither were any of your parents or grandparents?
It seems she also runs the two other “Melungeon” pages on here along with her tumblr “georgiaclyde”. Fayth Scott runs the blog you reblogged this from not Georgia. Is it more likely that multiple people who were raised Melungeon have similar upbringings or that Georgia is running hundreds of accounts on multiple platforms to push a practice she isn’t even that serious about? You seem to have an issue with anyone that doesn’t believe or practice exactly what you do. Your little group sounds like its becoming an uncultured cult.
To beat it all, everything she puts out, she’s taking from my books, Backwoods Witchcraft, and Doctoring the Devil, which she has claimed are horrible in some groups. Your books are just rehashed info from all the other Appalchian/Hoodoo/Conjure/Southern Cunning books there are out there, only you never credit the people you so blatantly steal your information from and profit off of. Funny how your witch hunt started after you got gatekept out of Melungeon cultural groups because people were trying to avoid that.
But when she tried adding “machisaba” to the Melungeon Wikipedia page, she sites my book as a source? Whats actually funny looking at the Melungeon wiki history is that it seems you were actually trying to use it to promote yourself and sell your book and continued to try and do so after your book as a source was removed numerous times. Come on lmao 🤣 This has just been going on for too long with all her alias accounts. I will say it once and hope it sticks with y’all: FAKELORE is just as bad as cultural appropriation. I was the first one that said anything about finding unique differences between Melungeon life and that of greater Appalachia and then out of nowhere she has this entire religion she failed to mention to any of us cousins (she ain’t our cousin was we thought she was at the time) for so long?And THERE IT IS!! “I was the first to try and rebuild Melungeon culture, how dare her not give me all the info to take credit for it! How DARE her not tell me, a culturally appropriative stranger who demonizes melungeon culture, all her family traditions right off bat!! How dare someone culturally raised Melungeon know more about her own culture than me, a white man!!!!”Come on now. She also took people gedmatch kits from our kit group and made her own, and multiple people had to go and leave it because they didn’t not consent to their genetic information being added to something like that without their knowledge. This is all I’m saying on the subject. Thats just a straight up lie, the GEDMATCH ancestor project was started before all this drama and everyone added to it, joined on their own accord. You continue to make shit up because you have some unhealthy obsession with being the God of all things Melungeon but you need to sit the fuck down because you aren’t even Melungeon, didn’t even know you could possibly be until less than a decade ago. Nobody that is culturally connected is going to stop following their culture just because you’ve never heard of it lmao. You need to stop trying to colonize us, Walter.
Well hi Kati. Nice to see you again ✌️ I know it’s you because I never mentioned your “papi’s” house in WV 😘 and baby girl, have you seen you? You are far whiter than me. Do not speak to me about my experiences growing up, bringing colorism into this. I do not own Melungeon culture, but I do want actual FACTS out there. And anyone who actually knows me, knows that I didn’t write my books for profit. Anyone who knows me KNOWS I don’t like the attention, all the interviews, etc. It doesn’t matter how long one has known the word Melungeon, I grew up knowing I didn’t belong anywhere. But I don’t have to explain shit to you. I’m the one that’s been doing actual research, holding polls, talking to people, while you’re the one making up words or trying to fit words into this region, that, honestly wouldn’t have held up in our dialect over 200 years. And maybe those shops are ran by other people, but the blame for my assumption can be placed on you (or Kati) because we never knew what account she was speaking from.
And yes they can recognize whatever gods they please but they cannot call them Melungeon gods. Melungeons did not have any kind of mythology like that. Like I told her last time, pray to who you want, do what you want, but don’t label it Melungeon when it’s not 🤷♂️
Regarding gatekeeping: she was not raised her. I was. Appalachian culture IS my say so. My ancestors have been in this hills since before the Watauga settlement. So yeah, I get an opinion as to whether some form of Appalachian culture is closed to outlanders. Because I also have screenshots showing Kati claiming her father was from a Lakota reservation near Michigan 🤷♂️ so which is it? At first I held no judgement for her/you, but as time went on, shit just wasn’t adding up.
I was not raised white. I was raised cherokee and have spoken out about how that affected my identity, especially when I found the term Melungeon and began seeing the patterns. Thus I no longer claim cherokee, because it doesn’t feel right. Thus, I am Melungeon. I always have been. And to be someone I’ve never spoken to, you seem to know an awful lot about me and what happened with Kati….. Kati 🙄
And my books are not “rehashed”. That’s why they’re so successful 🤪 because I actually did the work and research until other people, and made it available to get rid of misinformation. Which is the same as I’m doing now 🤷♂️ you’re welcome to look at my sources in the bibliographies of them or hell even the highlight on my Instagram. I ain’t got shit to hide, cause I don’t lie.
Also if she was raised Melungeon, wouldn’t she be sure on which side who was?? Cause I also have screenshots showing us discussing her genealogy and her/you asking me for help. Hell I might just make and post a power point with all the screenshots 🤔
We were discussing culture for weeks, and then all of a sudden it comes about? It’s just fishy. So I tried to learn about it more and do research and actually work with Kati and “mahala” on it, until I saw them dogging my name in another group and that’s when I confronted them on the shit. I don’t do two-face, three-faced, or twenty-faced folk like her.
And so I can’t say anything about others Melungeon things but you can’t say that I’m NOT one? Hypocrite much?
It’s people like you (all, possibly still singular in this case huh?) that make me not want to write anymore and being helpful knowledge to people, because it could be used the way she’s been using my books. She really thinks I’m stupid huh? That I can’t recognize something from my own writing? I haven’t told many people this, but I intentionally placed a handful of working that I MYSELF made in 2015-2016 in my books, so I can see the liars among the community, to see who claims whatever their grandmother or something did, which is actually something I made that they just decided to pluck from the book and go with it. So far you/Kati is only the second person I’ve seen, which thankfully is in good lighting to the community then. Just a few bad apples that’s all, right? Kisses. Roses. Thorns. ❤️
Regarding the tribes bit, since “I dOnT hAvE sOUrCeS” 🤪 🖕🏼
http://www.historical-melungeons.com/meltree.html
Melungeon Tree And It’s Four Branches
And another:
http://www.historical-melungeons.com/mooney.html
http://www.historical-melungeons.com/mcmillan.html
Hamilton McMillan – Melungeons 1890
Also you said “my” when talking about your accent so I know this is Kati. And I never said Melungeons didn’t move to Michigan. They moved all over 🤷♂️ I’m just saying your machisaba that you claim isn’t a religion but is bc it has different “Melungeon” gods and holidays is total bullshit. It literally lines up perfectly with wicca lmao.
For example, say an Irish group born in America start practicing celtic based spirituality. Then they make their own practices up, and try calling it celtic as well. But it’s not is it? Same premise here. Sure you can do whatever you want, be whatever you want, but don’t spread false information about a people who barely have their history straightened out as it is. Your just making the waters muddy again, the same way the fantasy origins about us, like Turkish ancestors, did.
The difference between us, is that my work was done to bring a dying culture back to the people, and I found it in museums, libraries, newspapers, obscure manuscripts, talking with neighbors, family friends, even acquaintances across the country when I traveled for work, whether in gas stations, grocery store, etc. and Ofcourse my work got a great reaction because even though they didn’t have a name for it, they was still raised with and in it. It is the same with being Melungeon. It is the same with Appalachian-Melungeon culture/vernacular. Whereas with you, it is just a “handful of families” who apparently did this but there’s no record of any kind that predates 2020, whether online, in writings, etc. Our people are not like other poc groups. Our history was built inside newspapers by others who had never heard of us. It is built on the writings of Juan Pardo. It is built in family stories. Is it possible some Melungeons did not conform to Christianity is a full way, going every Sunday etc.? Oh definitely. Most Melungeons switched from church to church because we were more spiritual in nature and gravitated towards what our souls needed. But I cannot fathom the following of gods no one but “a handful of families” have heard of. Not gods that have an root to other cultures outside of those families. Most Melungeons moved away because they ran from being Melungeon Or because job opportunities were more to their liking than staying with their kin, whom their families had traveled with for centuries from the east coast. It’s unlikely that they would look down at what they are, but cherish what was supposedly a Melungeon religion enough to pass it on to their kids if they (those who left and went away) wouldn’t even speak the word Melungeon and tried taking it to their grave. It’s just the more I look at it, the less I’m likely to believe it. I tried speaking with you about different words and such, trying to find a root or origin but I could not. I tried to find a middle ground with you, but you ended that by digging my name in another group when I hadn’t done anything to you. So I decided to be honest 🤷♂️
Yo, Korean-Melungeon author here. You know, I used to think like you, Jake. My question: what is your problem with your fellow Melungeons? I want you to know that I was taught what could be considered Machisaba by my great-grandmother (1911-2002 fwiw), so it is by no means “Wicca with a Melungeon label.” Granted, she didn’t call it that, it was just “the way things are” or not as acceptable today, “Indian ways.”
But I was raised to respect and venerate spirits of the sun, moon, and water. We didn’t call them by their Lusitanian names, but we knew of them and lived alongside them. Also, many Melungeons near the Newman’s Ridge area do use those names. Even though I write Melungeon focused fiction, I am also a historian by trade, and many of the names of the spirits (Alma) are attested on the Iberian peninsula as deities that have existed since Celtic times. Religious migrations are weird like that, and while our ancestors may not have been forced into Christianity, many of them weren’t as “Christian” as their neighbors. I’ve read all the sources you posted multiple times over the last decade, and while they don’t cite Machisaba, that doesn’t delegitimize what ancestors taught me directly. You do know that people count as primary sources, right? Especially elders.
Oh, and if you want to fight about legitimacy, my ancestors have been in Watauga and Carter County since before the Revolutionary War. They moved to Indiana for work and to be closer to their church headquarters in the ‘50s. If you want names and dates, I can give them to you, and I will gladly stand my ground. Also, general Appalachian practices are not closed. You seem to be the only Appalachian person I’ve seen who has demanded that they be so. They aren’t, get over it. Plus, there are Appalachians everywhere in this country and beyond. Also, our name literally means “mixed” and that doesn’t just apply to our backgrounds or skin tones. We are not a monolith, Jesus Christ.
I will continue to speak about Machisaba and teach to other Melungeons willing to learn what I may know. I will also continue to speak about my family’s practices in my work and on my platform. My ancestors demand it and folk like you can’t silence me. If you don’t believe us, go ahead, but don’t you dare badmouth my ancestors’ practices for your publicity or for your own image. Bless your heart and don’t let any doors hit you on the way out. ✌🏼
AUTHOR | HISTORIAN | ARTIST 