Patricia Watkinson wrote, "A few years ago I advised and  sat on a 
dissertation committee for a diss in History of Education at VCU on 
"Policies and Attitudes: Public Education and the Monacan Indian Community 
in Amherst County, Virginia
1908-1965" by Melanie Haimes-Bartolf.  This is a good treatment, and it 
includes information gleaned from interviews with Monacan seniors who had 
gone to Bear Mountain School in the past.  You might try to get hold of it 
if you are interested in modern Indian history."
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The acceptance of the mixed-race community in Amherst County as Monacan 
Indian by the Virginia Legislature is based largely on Peter W. Houck's book 
"Indian Island in Amherst County" (1984) Lynchburg, Va.: Progress Printing 
Company. I understand he has since admitted he made up much of the 
information in the book. My understanding of his admission is only hearsay, 
but my own research (verifiable by anyone who is willing to spend a few 
hours at the LVA) shows that the Johns family he portrays as Monacans were a 
white branch of that family that had nothing to do with Monacan Indians.

The community began with the movement there of Henry Hartless, a "mulatto," 
presented by the Spotsylvania County court on 4 May 1761 for cohabiting with 
a white woman [Spotsylvania Orders 1755-65, 208]. He became a large 
landowner in Amherst. Other mixed-race families from surrounding counties 
followed: Arnold, Beverly, Branham, Clark, Evans, Fields, Fortune, Gowen/ 
Goins, Humbles, Johns, Pinn, Redcross, Terry, Viers, Winters, etc. To my 
knowledge no one has ever made a connection between any of these families 
and a Monocan Indian.

The history of the mixed-race families that settled Amherst County can be 
found on my web site: http://www.freeafricanamericans.com
Paul