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Teresa MartÃn and Luisa MenÃ©ndez: Indigenous Women from Appalachia in the Spanish Colonial Record

Edited by Melissa D. Birkhofer, Edited by Paul M. Worley, Foreword by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

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In 1600, Teresa MartÃn and Luisa MenÃ©ndez were among the witnesses called before the expansionist governor of La Florida after the Spanish crown demanded official testimonies regarding the land, resources, and potential wealth in the colonial interior of North America. MartÃn and MenÃ©ndez were considered ideal informants. As Indigenous women who had married Spaniards, both were closely associated with the first inland European settlement, a Spanish fort at the Catawba town of Joara. In these firsthand accounts, their descriptions of La Tamaâ€”a Native American paramount chiefdom in the Piedmont region of present-day Georgiaâ€”have long merited closer study as essential primary documents._x000D_ Teresa MartÃn & Luisa MenÃ©ndez: Indigenous Women from Appalachia in the Spanish Colonial Record translates and publishes two important transcripts of the governor's investigation in their entirety: the RelaciÃ³n de la Tama y su tierra, y de la poblaciÃ³n inglÃ©s (Account of La Tama and its lands, and the English settlement) and the paylist in which MartÃn claims her deceased husband's salary from the Spanish crown. Read through the lens of Latin American testimonio, these documents extend the timeline of Indigenous literatures of America written in Latin script to the sixteenth century and underscore the indelible ties between the contemporary nations of Turtle Island (North America) and Abya Yala (Latin America). They also suggest a more nuanced history of Latinx peoples in the southeastern United States._x000D_ With contributions from leading scholars, editors Melissa D. Birkhofer and Paul M. Worley critically examine these accounts in essays that reframe readers' current understanding of US history, literature, and culture.