The Saponi are a Native American tribe historically based in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia . They spoke a Siouan language , related to the languages of the Tutelo , Biloxi , and Ofo .
56-801: They were part of the Monacan confederacies. Saponi, Tutelo, and Yesang were collectively called the Nahyssan. The Cayuga adopted the Saponi into the League of the Haudenosaunee in 1753, and some Saponi descendants are part of the Cayuga Nation . The origin and meaning of Saponi , sometimes spelled Sappony , is debated. American anthropologist John Reed Swanton wrote that Saponi was "a corruption of Monasiccapano or Monasukapanough." He wrote
112-689: A Native American tribe . They are: Numerous unrecognized tribes and other organizations claim Saponi ancestry. These include the Mahenips Band of the Saponi Nation of Missouri in the Ozark Hills, with headquarters in West Plains, Missouri . In 2000, the Saponi Nation of Missouri submitted a letter of intent to Petition for Federal Acknowledgement of Existence as an Indian Tribe; however, they did not follow through with submitting
168-553: A matrilineal society. They had settled villages and built houses of post-and-pole frames with central hearths. In the 17th century, men wore breechclouts and women wore deerhide aprons. Important leaders, such as medicine men , wore feather cloaks. British explorer John Lawson wrote that the Saponi were governed by a headman, an elders' council, and, when necessary, a war chief. Historically, Saponi people hunted deer, bear, beaver, squirrel, turkey, and other fowl. They may have hunted woodland bison and elk. They fished in rivers and
224-577: A Saponi hunter. Byrd noted several abandoned fields of corn, indicating serious disturbance among the local tribes. Hostilities between the Haudenosaunee and the Saponi and their neighbors ceased with the signing of the 1722 Treaty of Albany . In 1740, the majority of the Saponi and Tutelo moved to Shamokin in Pennsylvania . In 1753, the Cayuga people adopted them into their nation during
280-582: A Village of the Nahyssans," who were the Saponi. Lederer wrote about the Saponi: "The nation is governed by an absolute Monarch; the People of a high stature, warlike and rich." In 1671 Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam led an expedition that passed through several Saponi villages. After their visit, the Saponi and Tutelo moved downriver and settled with Occaneechi people. Nathanial Bacon led an attack against
336-503: A group called Saponi Nation of Ohio submitted a letter of intent to petition for recognition; however, they never submitted a completed petition. Monacan people The Monacan Indian Nation is one of eleven Native American tribes recognized since the late 20th century by the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia . In January 2018, the United States Congress passed an act to provide federal recognition as tribes to
392-569: A petition. Ohio is home to the second-largest population of people who claim Saponi ancestry. Ohio has no federally recognized or state-recognized tribes. Director of the Haliwa-Saponi Historic Legacy Project, Dr. Marty Richardson wrote, "A large group of Meadows Indians migrated to Ohio after 1835 and took advantage of fewer race-based restrictions." However, 1818 to 1842 marked Indian removals in Ohio . In 1998,
448-477: A settlement of families related to him. In 1850, the census recorded 29 families there. Over time, Native Americans in Virginia intermarried with Europeans and African Americans. Whites assumed that meant that they no longer identified as Indians, but were mistaken. In 1924, Virginia passed a Racial Integrity Act , which instituted a binary system of racial classification as black or white only. It also included
504-585: A total population of perhaps 100. Lederer also noted the towns of Sapon and Pintahae on the Staunton River . Batts and Fallam recorded the latter town as Hanahaskie in 1671. The 20th-century ethnologist Swanton considers this last to be a Nahyssan village. Around 1675 the Nahyssan settled on an island at the confluence of the Stanton and Dan rivers, upriver of the Occaneechi people. In 1677,
560-790: Is a corruption of Saponi Hollow. An estimated 30 Saponi warriors lived among these communities. Shortly after the American Revolutionary War, Samuel Kirkland noted a community of them living near Fort Niagara who was later believed to have joined the Mohawk, whereas others continued into Canada alongside the Cayuga. Since most of the Iroquois sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War , after
616-501: The Atlantic Ocean . They farmed maize, beans, and squash and harvested wild plants including various nuts, berries, and stone fruits. Chiefs used staffs of hickory wood. In 1600, James Mooney estimated there were 2,700 Saponi. English explorer Edward Bland wrote in 1650 about the "Occononacheans and Nessoneicks" living on Roanoke River. The "Nessoneicks" were Saponi. In 1670, John Lederer visited what he described as "Sapon,
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#1732772465769672-730: The Cayuga . They participated with them in the American Revolutionary War as allies of the British against the Patriots . After the war, the Monacan went with the Iroquois to Canada. They were settled at the (Six Nation Reserve of the Grand River First Nation) in present-day Ontario. Their settlement of Tutelo Heights was noted in 1779. By the early 20th century, their descendants in Ontario had been largely absorbed by
728-659: The Cayuga tribe through intermarriage. Smaller bands are believed to have split off in North Carolina, and at several locations across Virginia. After Peter Wynne's expedition of 1608, the Monacan are one of the groups who have been conjectured to be " "Welsh Indians" " . Historians have found no evidence for that and treat it as myth . The Monacan language was part of the Siouan language family. In 1831–1833, William Johns, an ancestor of some of today's Monacan, purchased 452 acres (1.83 km ) of land on Bear Mountain for
784-467: The Doeg , whom they eventually displaced, in the meantime teaching them the art of growing corn. He recorded another Monacan tradition as follows: "From four women, viz. Pash, Sepoy, Askarin, and Maraskarin, they derive the race of mankinde; which they therefore divide into four tribes, distinguished under those several names." At the time of Lederer's visit, the tribe had about 30 bowmen or warriors, out of
840-902: The James River in May 1607, they learned that the James River Monacan (along with their northern Mannahoac allies on the Rappahannock River ) controlled the area of the Piedmont between the Fall Line (where present-day Richmond developed) and the Blue Ridge Mountains . The Monacan were hostile competitors with the Powhatan confederacy, a group of 30 Algonquian -speaking tribes who controlled much of
896-453: The Monacan and Erie were trade allies, especially copper. The Monacan towns of Mowhemencho and Mahock were still occupied in 1670, when John Lederer and Major Harris recorded visiting them; they found that the men possessed muskets. Lederer recorded their tradition that they had settled in the area on account of an oracle 400 years earlier, having been driven from the northwest by an enemy nation. They told him they had found it occupied by
952-629: The Roanoke River , its tributary the Staunton River , and the Yadkin River . Lands in the Virginia Piedmont were dominated by oak, hickory, and pine forests. In the mid-18th century, most surviving Saponi migrated to Pennsylvania and New York . Their primary town was called Saponi. In 1670 Lederer visited their nearby settlement, Pintahae, near present-day Lynchburg, Virginia . The Saponi were an Eastern Siouan people with
1008-781: The Tidewater and coastal plain. The weroance Parahunt, son of paramount chief Powhatan of the Powhatan confederacy, persuaded Captain Christopher Newport not to venture beyond the James River falls into Monacan country. However, the determined Newport made an expedition into Monacan country the following year in November 1608. On a 40-mile (64 km) march, the settlers found two Monacan towns, whose names they recorded as Massinacak and Mowhemenchough . Unlike
1064-481: The one-drop rule , requiring classification as black of a person with any known African ancestry. The director of the department of vital records insisted on reclassifying specific families as black, although they had long been recorded as Indian. This program ignored how people identified socially and culturally, and disrupted decades of records, causing American Indians in Virginia to lose historical continuity. But they kept their culture and community, and reorganized in
1120-707: The "Monakin" ( Monacan ) who occupied the Piedmont area of Virginia. Other Native groups which he described visiting on his second journey included the Nahyssans at Sapon and Akenatzy; the Rickahockans; the Oenocks ( Weyanokes ); the Shackorys at Watary and Shakor; the town of Sara in the mountains that "receive from the Spaniards the name of Suala " (now known as Joara ); the Usheryes at Wisacky and Ushery ;
1176-614: The 20th century to regain recognition as Native American peoples. In 1926 Mongrel Virginians: The WIN Tribe , a study of a mixed-race group in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was published by the Carnegie Institution . The author described the group as "degenerate". The author referred to the group as the WIN tribe , for White-Indian-Negro, because he was disguising the name of the group, the surnames of its members,
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#17327724657691232-643: The Appalachians between 1669 and 1670. Berkeley wanted him to find a passage to the West and the Indian Ocean , which Europeans believed was a few weeks' travel away. On 9 March 1669, Lederer left Chickahominy, an Indian village near the headwaters of the York River , and traveled northwest to Eminent Hill. During this expedition, lasting until 24 March, he and the three members of his small party became
1288-589: The Civil War and general emancipation. Both authors considered the Issues (sometimes called "Old Issues") to be tri-racial . The Episcopal Church ran a primary school ( Bear Mountain Indian Mission School ) for the children of this community at Bear Mountain near Amherst, Virginia . There was no high school education available. In 1963, Amherst County proposed a $ 30,000 bond to build a school for
1344-806: The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee. In 1711 the majority of Saponi migrated with the Cayuga to near Ithaca, New York , while some remained in Pennsylvania until 1778. A band with 28 adult Saponi remained near Granville County, North Carolina until 1755. In 1765, Saponi settled at Tioga Point , where the Chemung River joins the Susquehanna River in north-central Pennsylvania. They also settled as Pony Hollow, just southwest of Newfield, New York , which connected to other Nahyssan and Haudenosaunee communities nearby. "Pony Hollow"
1400-484: The Hamburg Academic Gymnasium where he matriculated in 1662. Lederer immigrated to Virginia in 1668. By this time he spoke French, Italian and Latin in addition to German, but had to learn English. Believing that the riches of California lay just beyond the mountains west of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley , colonial governor of Virginia, commissioned Lederer to make three expeditions into
1456-642: The Monacan Indian Nation has approximately 2,000 members. There are satellite groups in West Virginia , Maryland , Tennessee , and Ohio . The Monacan nation was first recorded by Jamestown settlers in colonial Virginia . Their native language is a Siouan language . The people are related to other Siouan-speaking tribes of the inland in this region, such as the Tutelo , Saponi and Occaneechi . When Jamestown settlers first explored
1512-610: The Monacan Tribe incorporated as a nonprofit organization to establish its presence. In 1989, the tribe was officially recognized by the State of Virginia . Other tribes recognized by the state include the Chickahominy , Eastern Chickahominy , Mattaponi , Nansemond , Pamunkey , Rappahannock , Upper Mattaponi , Patawomeck , Nottoway , and Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) tribes. On January 30, 2018, federal recognition status
1568-571: The Monacan and five other tribes in Virginia. They had earlier been so disrupted by land loss, warfare, intermarriage, and discrimination that the main society believed they no longer were "Indians". However, the Monacans reorganized and asserted their culture. In the 21st century, the Monacan nation is located primarily in their traditional territory of Virginia's Piedmont region , particularly in Amherst County near Lynchburg . As of 2018
1624-642: The Monacan chief Surenough was one of several native signatories to the Treaty of Middle Plantation following Bacon's Rebellion . Virginian settlers and the Pamunkey encountered them, and the Manahoac, on the Upper Mattaponi and North Anna rivers in 1684. By 1699, the Monacan had abandoned their homeland, moving farther away due to European encroachment. The Virginian House of Burgesses granted much of
1680-499: The Monacan tribe. While this population had claimed an Indian cultural identity since the turn of the 20th century, Houck was the first to link some of them to the Monacan tribal identity. Prior to Houck's book, most people claiming Native American ancestry in that vicinity had identified as Cherokee , which were well-known in the Southeast. Many of the local families continue to claim Cherokee instead of Monacan ancestry. In 1988,
1736-454: The Monacans' language resembled " Welch " (Welsh), which Wynne spoke. Newport had asked Wynne to act as interpreter, but the language was not Welsh and he could not understand it. Mowhemencho , the Monacan nation's easternmost outpost, was between Bernard's Creek and Jones Creek in the eastern tip of present-day Powhatan County . Massinacak (Mahock) was at the mouth of Mohawk Creek, a mile south of present-day Goochland . The Monacan capital
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1792-402: The Powhatan, who had given the settlers lavish welcomes, the Monacan largely ignored them and went about their business. The settlers captured their chief and forced him to guide them around his territory. On November 26, 1608, Peter Wynne, a member of Newport's party to the Monacan villages, wrote a letter to John Egerton informing him that some members of the party believed the pronunciation of
1848-419: The Saponi believed they descended. Evidence came from a short list of names given by the missionary Samuel Kirkland . The Saponi language, now extinct, was a Siouan language , closely related to Tutelo . The Saponi dialect is known from only two sources. One is a word list of 46 terms and phrases recorded by John Fontaine at Fort Christanna in 1716. This contains a number of items showing it to be virtually
1904-510: The Saponi in 1701. He noted they fought against the Seneca and trapped beaver for the fur trade . Shortly after his visit, the Saponi migrated to North Carolina. A band of Saponi returned to Virginia in 1708. There Occaneechi and Stukanox joined them. By 1701, the Saponi and allied tribes, often collectively referred to as Nahyssan, Saponi, or Tutelo, had begun moving to the location of present-day Salisbury, North Carolina to gain distance from
1960-529: The Siouan Manahoac to the north. In 1656 several hundred Nahyssan , Mahock, and Rechahecrians (possibly Iroquoian-speaking Erie from present-day Pennsylvania) threatened both the Powhatan tribes and the settlers by camping near the James falls. A combined force of the Powhatan and settlers was sent to dislodge them. The Pamunkey chief Totopotomoi was slain in the resulting battle. Historically
2016-591: The West of Carolina, And other parts of the Continent: Begun in March 1669, and ended in September 1670 . Before Lederer, accounts and maps of the interior had been vague. While some corrections have been made, Lederer's map was important for subsequent explorers and settlement. In addition, he identified many Native American tribes and villages. Lederer recorded several legends and customs he observed among
2072-491: The colonial frontier. By 1711 they were just east of the Roanoke River and west of modern Windsor, North Carolina . In 1712, they asked Virginia to prohibit alcohol sales in their settlement. In 1714, Alexander Spotswood , governor of the Colony of Virginia , resettled them in an Indian Reservation at Fort Christanna near Gholsonville, Virginia . The tribes agreed to this for protection from hostile Haudenosaunee. In 1716,
2128-634: The colonists sometimes referred to them as the Christanna Indians. In 1870, philologist Horatio Hale recorded an elder Nikonha 's information about the Tutelo language in Brantford, Ontario . At the time of European contact up to the early 18th century, the Saponi lived in present-day Virginia and North Carolina . Their settlements extended into the New River in West Virginia . In the 17th and 18th centuries, some Saponi settled along
2184-501: The combined Saponi, Tutelo, and Manahoac population at the reservation was 200. Although in 1718 the House of Burgesses voted to abandon the fort and school, the Siouan tribes continued to stay in that area for some time. They gradually moved away in small groups over the years 1730 to 1750. One record from 1728 indicated that Colonel William Byrd II made a survey of the border between Virginia and North Carolina , guided by Ned Bearskin,
2240-552: The core remnant seems to have merged with the Nahyssan and other closely related Virginia Siouan tribes, by then known generally as Tutelo - Saponi . Under this collective name, the bulk of the tribe may be traced to North Carolina (1702), and back to Virginia ( Fort Christanna , 1714). They headed north to join the Iroquois around the Great Lakes for protection, and were noted in Pennsylvania ( Shamokin , by 1740); and in western New York at Coreorgonel by 1753, where they joined
2296-445: The county which was studied – every fact about them. Some contemporary academic reviewers strongly criticized and ridiculed the book and its reliance on community anecdotes to make judgments about families and individuals. When ancestors of current Monacan families entered the U.S. military to serve in the world wars, they resisted accepting the classification of "colored", which the state of Virginia had tried impose on them. In 1946
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2352-546: The first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains , and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. In May 1670 Lederer left Fort Charles (now Richmond ) and followed the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains south into what is now North Carolina . He was accompanied by Major Harris, commanding twenty white men, and five Indian guides. Twenty-one members of
2408-424: The former site of Mowhemencho to French Huguenot refugees, who were settled on both sides of the James River in 1700 and 1701. First promised land at Jamestown, they were forced by the Virginian colonial government to settle above the falls. In Goochland County, they established the villages of Manakin and Sabot, today known as Manakin-Sabot, Virginia . Although a few Monacan lingered in the area as late as 1702,
2464-402: The mission community. The proposal was voted down, and 23 students applied for transfer to public schools. The state approved their applications and the mission school closed. In the early 1980s, Peter Houck, a local physician, published Indian Island in Amherst County , in which he speculated that the free people of color in the region during the antebellum era were in part descendants of
2520-559: The name came from moni-seep meaning "shallow water." University of Kansas linguist Robert L. Rankin also suggested that their name derived from sa:p moni meaning "shallow water" or sa:p oni: meaning "shallow tree." Ethnographer James Mooney suggested the word might come from the Siouan term sapa meaning "black." German explorer John Lederer suggested their name came from Sepy, a female immortal in their religion. He wrote that either four tribes or clans were named for this spirit and three other closely related female spirits from whom
2576-461: The party and climbed the mountains by foot. From the heights, they sighted the Allegheny Mountains beyond the Shenandoah Valley. John Lederer settled in Maryland in 1671. In 1672 his expedition reports (a total of only 35 pages) were translated from Latin by Sir William Talbot , the governor of Maryland. Together with a map of his expeditions, this material was published as The Discoveries of John Lederer, In three several Marches from Virginia, To
2632-407: The party turned back, but Lederer pushed on with Jackzetavon, one of his five Iroquoian -speaking Susquehannock guides. They explored North Carolina to the Catawba River near what is now Charlotte . They returned to Virginia by mid-July, when they reached Fort Henry (now Petersburg ), a frontier post on the Appomattox River . On 20 August of that year Lederer and Col. John Catlett set out on
2688-479: The researcher William Harlan Gilbert Jr. described the Monacan in his " Memorandum Concerning the Characteristics of the Larger Mixed-Blood Racial Islands of the Eastern United States ". Edward T. Price had a study in 1953, " A Geographical Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in the Eastern United States ". Both used the former name for the group, "Issues", generally used to refer to free people of color , most of whom were mixed-race , who were free before
2744-458: The same language as recorded by Hale. The other source is William Byrd II's History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina (1728), in which he recorded the names of some local creeks. Byrd's scant list has been found to have included several names from unrelated Indian tribes. By the time linguistic data was recorded, many related eastern Siouan tribes had settled together at Fort Christanna in Brunswick County, Virginia , where
2800-452: The state of New York in 1789, but some remained in the Cayuga homelands. Distinct from the Person County Indians , a group of Saponi who remained in North Carolina merged with the Tuscarora , Meherrin , and Machapunga and migrated north into New York with them by 1802. North Carolina has three state-recognized tribes that identify as descendants of the historical Saponi people. None of these organizations are federally recognized as
2856-424: The third expedition. They departed from Robert Talifer 's (surname may have been Taliaferro or a variation of this prominent family) house, at a small settlement south of the Rappahannock River . They followed the Rappahannock River valley north, where Lederer noted "vast herds of red and fallow deer which stood gazing at us". Unable to cross the Blue Ridge by horseback, they left their mounts with some Indians in
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#17327724657692912-454: The tribes in 1676. This move was likely to avoid increasing attacks from Haudenosaunee people. Nearly decimated, the Saponi relocated to three islands at the confluence of the Dan and Staunton rivers in Clarksville with their allies, the Occaneechi, Tutelo, and Nahyssans. In 1677, the Virginia colonial government named the Saponi as tributary Indians under the colonial governor's protection. English explorer John Lawson wrote about
2968-514: The victory by the United States, the Saponi and Tutelo who had joined the Iroquois were forced with them into exile in Canada. After that point, recorded history was silent about the tribe. Americans destroyed Saponi communities in Pennsylvania and New York in 1779. In 1779, most of the Saponi were driven to Fort Niagara, where the Saponi separated from the Tutelo, who migrated north to Ontario, Canada . Those Saponi settled in Seneca County, New York in 1780. and they were forced to cede their lands to
3024-406: Was Rassawek , located at the point within the two branches, Point of Fork , of the upper James and Rivanna rivers. Tributary to them were the Monahassanugh (later known as the Nahyssan, i.e. Tutelo ), whose town was near what later developed as Wingina , and the Monasukapanough (later known as the Saponi ), living near present-day Charlottesville . All these groups were closely related with
3080-454: Was a 17th-century German physician and an explorer of the Appalachian Mountains . He and the members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains (1669) and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. A map documenting his discoveries was integral to subsequent understanding of the interior. Johann Lederer was born in Hamburg , Holy Roman Empire , in 1644. He studied medicine at
3136-546: Was granted to the Monacan Nation and five other tribes in Virginia through passage by Congress of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017. President Trump signed the bill approved by both houses of Congress. Today the Monacan Indian Nation operates a yearly powwow in May, and a homecoming celebration in October. A model of an ancient Monacan village has been constructed as part of Natural Bridge (Virginia) State Park, in nearby Rockbridge County . John Lederer John Lederer
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