The reports on the state of the Indians always disclosed the presence
and the influence of Negroes among them. "Of the publishments of
colored persons interested and the early records of Dartmouth," said
J. M. Earle in 1861, "by far the larger proportion of those of them
were Negro men to Indian women. In Yarmouth a large portion of those
of Indian descent have intermarried with whites until their progeny
has become white, their social relations are with those of that color
and they are mingled with the general community having lost their
identity as a distinct portion of the Hassanamiscoes and it would have
been a fortunate thing for all if it had been so with them all. But
the mixture in most of the tribes has been more with the Negro race
than with the white until that blood probably predominates though
there are still a considerable number who have the prominent
characteristics of the Indians--the lank, glossy, black hair, the
high cheek bones--the bright dark eye and other features peculiar to
the race."[5]

Investigating the Indians of Gay Head in 1861, John M. Earle observed
that the people of Gay Head, like those of other plantations, were a
mixture of the red, white and black races. They had also "an infusion
of the blood of the chivalry of the South as well as of the Portuguese
and Dutch, as might be inferred from the names of Randolph, Madison,
Corsa, Sylvia and Vanderhoop being found among them."[6] The admixture
was much like that on the other plantations with perhaps a less
infusion of the African than in some of them. A few were so strongly
marked with Indian characteristics as to lead one to conclude that
they are very nearly of pure blood, but there were none so nearly
white as in some of the other tribes.

It appeared that these people had lived without the law, so to speak,
in Massachusetts because of their refusal to accept certain
regulations which the State desired to impose upon them. By the act of
June 25, 1811, the governor was authorized to appoint three persons to
be guardians of the Indian, Mulatto and Negro proprietors of Gay Head,
which guardians, in addition to the usual powers given to
functionaries in such cases, were empowered to take into their
possession the lands of Indians, and allot to the several Indians such
part of the lands as should be sufficient for their improvement from
time to time. The act further provided for the discontinuance or
removal of the guardians at the disc