The Afro-American Griot Speaks

Basically, this started in 1969-70 while I was on vacation in Houston, Texas. I asked my grandfather, Nelson Mason Jones, Sr., "Granddaddy, where do we come from and who are we?" And he answered, "They say we are Guitchees." It was said so ominously, I did not know whether that was bad, like being a criminal or top secret like being a spy. Since then, I have heard a number of explanations such as 1) these were Blacks who settled in the islands  off Louisiana, a