The moon-eyed people are a legendary group of short, bearded white-skinned people who are said to have lived in Appalachia until the Cherokee expelled them. Stories about them, attributed to Cherokee tradition, are mentioned by early European settlers in America. In a 1797 book, Benjamin Smith Barton explains they are called “moon-eyed” because they saw poorly during the day.
Some stories claim they created the area’s pre-Columbian ruins, and they disappeared from the area.[Barton cited as his source a conversation with Colonel Leonard Marbury, an early settler of Georgia. Marbury, a Revolutionary War officer and a Congressman in the Second Provincial Congress of Georgia (1775), acted as intermediary between Native American Indians in the state of Georgia and the United States government.
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. Sources disagree as to the accuracy of the stories, whether or not the stories are an authentic part of Cherokee oral tradition; whether the people existed or were mythical; whether they were indigenous peoples or early European explorers; and whether or not they built certain prehistoric structures found in the region.
Different ideas about the people have appeared in letters, newspapers, and books for over two hundred years. Stories about the era before widespread European settlement were published by early European settlers of America, who became interested in the native people and old ruins in America. 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; and John Sevier, who told of an ancient white race, according to later published sources who mention Sevier’s letters. Barton, Marbury, and Sevier lived during the era when the lower Appalachians were still part of the Cherokee Nation, before the Trail of Tears. Later human-interest articles mention Barton.
