Category: Lost Colonies

• The Lost Colony of the Welsh Indians

  This theory held that descendants of the medieval Welsh prince Madoc had crossed the Atlantic in the twelfth century and survived among Native peoples in North America. In the nineteenth century, the Mandan in particular were often claimed to be “Welsh Indians,” and explorers, writers, and antiquarians repeatedly sought evidence of European features, Christian traces, fortified settlements, or even the Welsh language among them. The documented record clearly shows that the Madoc legend circulated for centuries and that the Welsh-Indian hypothesis remained active throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. What is not supported is the claim that the Mandan or any other Native nation were actually descendants of a lost Welsh colony.