"Many Fabulous Stories and Idle Tales": The Intersection of Elizabethan Political Gambits and Indigenous Erasure in the Early American Republic

Author

Daniel Ryan Lewis, University of KentuckyFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8109-2006

Date Available

5-10-2024

Year of Publication

2024

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

History

First Advisor

Dr. Vanessa Holden

Abstract

Welsh Indian Theory, originating in Elizabethan England, stated that a group of Welsh explorers settled in the Americas in the late 12^th century and intermarried with the Indigenous tribes, thereby explaining “advanced cultures” ranging from the Mississippians to the Aztec Empire. This act of erasure became rooted in Kentucky and the surrounding area in the 18^th and 19^th centuries; a series of prominent individuals from Kentucky in turn contributed to a growing body of false historical narratives that denied Indigenous Americans their cultural identities and connection their ancestral lands in the United States. With a 460-year trail of scholarly debate and conjecture, the Welsh Indian Theory provides a case study of inherent cultural bias in historical research and US-Indigenous relations.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.161

Recommended Citation

Lewis, Daniel Ryan, ""Many Fabulous Stories and Idle Tales": The Intersection of Elizabethan Political Gambits and Indigenous Erasure in the Early American Republic" (2024). Theses and Dissertations--History. 84.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/84