The
Occaneechi or
Occoneechee were
Native AmericansThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
related to the
SaponiSaponi, is the name of one of the eastern Siouan tribes related to the Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan, Manahoac and other eastern Siouan peoples, whose ancestral homeland is in North Carolina and Virginia....
or Sappony,
TuteloTutelo was a Siouan tribe, closely related to the Monacan and Manahoac peoples, known to be living above the Fall Line in present-day Virginia. Under pressure from English settlers, they joined with the Saponi...
or Totero,
EnoThe Eno or Enoke, also called Wyanoak, was an American Indian tribe located in North Carolina during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that was later absorbed into the Catawba and/or the Saponi tribes.-History:...
and other eastern
SiouanThe Siouan languages are a Native American language family of North America, and the second largest indigenous language family in North America, after Algonquian. The Siouan family is related to the Catawban family, together making up the Siouan-Catawban family...
-language peoples living in the
PiedmontPiedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New Jersey in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedmont province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division. The...
region of present-day
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
and
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
. Siouan-language peoples included those elements who migrated west to the Plains hundreds of years before
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an contact.
The Eastern Siouan territory or nation encompassed the majority of the current-day states of
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
and
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, approximately half of
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
and parts of
GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
,
West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
, and
OhioOhio is a Midwestern state of the United States. The thirty-fourth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the seventh-most populous with nearly 11.5 million residents...
.
The Occoneechi lived on a large four-mile (6 km) long Island surrounded by the
DanThe Dan River flows in both the U.S. states of North Carolina and Virginia. It originates in the state of Virginia in Patrick County and crosses the state border into Stokes County, North Carolina. It then flows into Rockingham County. From there it goes back into Virginia. It reenters North...
and
Roanoke riversThe Roanoke River is a river in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States, 410 mi long. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains southeast across the Piedmont...
near current day
Clarksville, VirginiaClarksville is a town founded in Mecklenburg County and overlapping across Halifax County in the U.S. state of Virginia, near the southern border of the state. The population was 1,329 at the 2000 census...
. In 1676 the tribe was attacked by European settlers and decimated. Also under demographic pressure from European settlement and newly introduced infectious diseases, the Saponi and Tutelo came to live near them on adjacent islands. By 1714 the Occoneechee were grouped with the Totero, and Saponi, and other Siouan people living on a reservation in current-day
Brunswick County, VirginiaBrunswick County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 18,419. Its county seat is Lawrenceville.- History :...
. It included a fort called Christanna. The Siouan people had been drastically reduced to approximately 600 people. Fort Christanna was closed in 1717, after which there are few written references to the Occaneechi. They were recorded as leaving the area in 1740 and migrating north for protection with the Iroquois.
The self-named
Occaneechi Band of the Saponi NationThe Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation claim to be descendants of the Saponi and other Siouan-speaking Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia. The community is located primarily in Pleasant Grove Township, Alamance County, North Carolina...
today consists of about 900 tribal members living primarily in
Alamance County, North CarolinaAlamance County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It coincides with the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. In 2002 it was the most recent tribe to be recognized by the state of North Carolina.
History
The Occaneechi were mentioned in 17th-century colonial English records as living on the
Trading PathThe Trading Path is not simply one wide path, as many named historic roads were or are...
that connected Virginia with the interior of North America. Their position on the Trading Path gave the Occaneechi the power to act as trading "middlemen" between Virginia and various tribes to the west. In 1673,
Abraham WoodAbraham Wood , sometimes referred to as "General" or "Colonel" Wood, was an English fur trader and explorer of 17th century colonial Virginia...
, a Virginian fur trader, sent James Needham and Gabriel Arthur into the southern
Appalachian MountainsThe Appalachian Mountains , often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians...
in an attempt to make direct contact with the
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people from the Southeastern United States...
, thus bypassing the Occaneechi. The party did make contact with the Cherokee. It was not until colonial South Carolina established a strong relationship with the Cherokee and other interior tribes in the last decades of the 17th century that the Occaneechi's role as trading middleman was undermined.
In 1701 John Lawson visited Occaneechi Town on the
Eno RiverThe Eno River, named for the Eno Indians who once lived along its banks, is the initial tributary of the Neuse River in North Carolina, USA.The Eno rises in Orange County. The river's watershed occupies most of Orange and Durham counties...
. His written report plus modern archaeology at the site paint a picture of a society undergoing rapid change while trying to maintain their traditional way of life. The Occaneechi, along with the "Stuckanok, Tottero, and Saponi," signed a "Treaty of Peace" with the colony of Virginia in 1713. They then moved to Fort Christanna in southeast Virginia. Occaneechi Town appeared to have been almost entirely abandoned by 1713.
Fort Christanna was operated by the
Virginia CompanyThe Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on April 101606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
from 1714 to 1717. Its closure was apparently due to a lack of profits via its use as an Indian trading center. Although several distinct groups of Siouan Indians lived at Fort Christanna, the English Virginians tended to refer to them simply as "Saponi" or "Fort Christanna Indians." After the closing of Fort Christanna in 1717, there are very few references to the Occaneechi in colonial records. Those references that do exist indicate a continued trade between Virginia and the Saponi and Occaneechi.
Virginia's
House of BurgessesThe Virginia House of Burgesses was the elected lower house in the legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619...
records in 1730 note an "Interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi Indians," implying the existence of monoglot Occaneechi people. In 1730, many Saponi moved to live among the
CatawbaThe Catawba are a federally recognized nation of Native Americans, known as the Catawba Indian Nation. They live in the Southeast United States, along the border between North and South Carolina. The Catawba were once considered one of the most powerful eastern Siouan tribes...
, but returned to Virginia in 1733, along with some
CherawThe Cheraw , were a tribe of Siouan-speaking Amerindians first encountered by Hernando De Soto in 1540. The name they called themselves is lost to history but the Cherokee called them ani-suwa'ii and the Catawba sara...
Indians. After 1733 the Saponi appear to have fragmented into small groups and dispersed. Some apparently remained in the vicinity of Fort Christanna, which continued to be mentioned in Virginian records by its Saponi name
Junkatapurse. After 1742 the settlement is no longer mentioned, but only a road called Junkatapurse. In the 1740s, the Saponi again went to live with the Catawba. Governor Gooch of Virginia reported that the "Saponies and other petty nations associated with them ... are retired out of Virginia to the Cattawbas" during the years 1743-1747.
Most of the remaining Saponi tribe members were recorded as migrating north in 1740 for protection with the
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an indigenous people of North America. In the 16th century or earlier, the Iroquois came together in an association known as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power"...
. They disappeared from the historical record in the Southeast. After the
American RevolutionThe American Revolution is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
, in which they sided with the British, the majority of the Iroquois (and Saponi) went to
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
for resettlement.
Starting in the middle of the 18th century, there are records of Saponi living in North Carolina. Some Saponi moved from Virginia to various places in North Carolina. There is some evidence that isolated Indians never left these areas of North Carolina and became consolidated with Saponi from Virginia.
In 1756, the Moravian settlers living near present-day
Winston-SalemWinston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to the tallest office buildings in the...
reported the existence of an Indian palisaded "fort" settlement near the
Haw RiverThe Haw River is a tributary of the Cape Fear River, approximately 110 mi long, that is entirely contained in north central North Carolina in the United States...
. The Moravians called the Indians "Cherokees", but it is more likely they were Sissipahau ("Saxapahaw") or another group related to the Occaneechi. This, along with various oral traditions, indicates the continued existence of Indians living in a more or less traditional manner in North Carolina's Piedmont after such settlements supposedly vanished.
In 1763, Lt. Governor
Francis FauquierFrancis Fauquier was a Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Colony , and served as acting governor from 1758 until his death in 1768. He was married to Catherine Dalston....
of Virginia wrote a letter including a description of the Indians of Virginia: "There are some of the Nottoways, Meherrins, Tuscaroras, and Saponys, who tho' they live in peace in the midst of us, lead in great measure the lives of wild Indians." He contrasted these Indians with the Eastern Shore and
PamunkeyThe Pamunkey nation are one of seven Virginia Indian tribes recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia. They were part of the Powhatan paramountcy. This paramount chiefdom was made up over 30 tribes, totaling about 15,000 people, at the time the English arrived in 1607...
Indians, whom he described as more assimilated to English ways.
Traditional English-American histories typically describe the Saponi group of Indians as having left Virginia and North Carolina in the 1700s, either to join the Catawbas or the
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an indigenous people of North America. In the 16th century or earlier, the Iroquois came together in an association known as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power"...
.
Controversy
For years lay people and researchers have discovered thousands of artifacts from "Occoneechee Town," "Saponi Town" and "Tutelo Town" on islands near Clarksville, Virginia. Prior to the flooding of the islands in 1952, this was one of the richest archeology sites on the East Coast. Since 1983 the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. The university is the oldest in, and flagship of, the University of North Carolina system...
have been uncovering another "Occaneechi Town", a late 17th and early 18th century Occaneechi village on the
Eno RiverThe Eno River, named for the Eno Indians who once lived along its banks, is the initial tributary of the Neuse River in North Carolina, USA.The Eno rises in Orange County. The river's watershed occupies most of Orange and Durham counties...
near present-day
Hillsborough, North CarolinaHillsborough is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,446 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Orange County....
.
The contemporary Occaneechi and
Haliwa-SaponiThe Haliwa-Saponi are located in eastern North Carolina, United States, one of eight Native American tribes recognized by the state. The Haliwa-Saponi hold membership on the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. The name Haliwa is derived from the two counties: Halifax and Warren, which...
tribes are mostly descendants of multiracial people who settled on the frontier of Virginia and North Carolina as early as the mid-to late 18th century. They migrated and acquired land as did European or English neighbors from the Tidewater areas. 20th century researchers such as Paul Heinegg and Dr. Virginia Easley De Marce have conducted extensive research in colonial records: including court records, deeds of land, wills, etc. to trace back members of families in this area who were listed in the 1790 census. They have found 80 percent of those listed as free people of color, a category that then included Indians, could in fact be traced back to African Americans free in Virginia during the colonial period. Most of the free people of color were descended from relationships between white women and African men, often both indentured servants, during the 17th and 18th century when racial boundaries between groups were not as hardened as they later became. Some of the African men were slaves freed as early as the 17th century, as was John Jeffries, a "Negro man" belonging to Captain Robert Randall and freed in 1698 in
Surry County, VirginiaSurry County is a county located in the South Hampton Roads region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of 2000 census, the population was 6,829. Its county seat is Surry....
. Paul Heinegg believes he was the great-grandfather of Jacob Jeffries who settled in
Orange County, North CarolinaOrange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 118,227. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
by 1790, but there is no documentry evidence for this.
In frontier areas, such peoples of mixed race sometimes identified themselves (or others did) as Indian, or Portuguese, or Spanish, to explain darker skin color or physical features not typical of northern Europeans. In some areas they may also have intermarried with a few American Indians. People in the mixed-race groups associated with different social groups over the decades: some marrying into the white community, some marrying other multiracial people and identifying as Indian, and others marrying into the black community.
The loss of freedoms in 1835 after the Nat Turner Rebellion affected all free people of color in North Carolina, who lost their ability to vote and other civil rights. The aftermath of the Civil War put more pressure on multiracial communities, known as "Old Issues", meaning free before the Civil War. While public schools were established for the first time under Reconstruction, whites insisted they be segregated. Free people of color were expected to send their children to schools with the children of freedmen. Some, such as ancestors of the current
LumbeeThe Lumbee are a Native American tribe recognized by the state of North Carolina. The name "Lumbee" is derived from the region near the Lumber River that winds through Robeson County, North Carolina....
tribe, sought another route in the late 19th century and gained official state recognition as Indians in the 1880s. They established an Indian school.
Many people who claimed Indian descent were described, either by themselves or others, as "
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people from the Southeastern United States...
," a respected Indian tribe of the 19th century. The issues of ethnic identity are complex, and cannot be strictly tied to race. There were certainly numerous mixed-race unions during the colonial and antebellum years. The Seminoles of Florida are an example of a tribe formed in the 18th and 19th century, and including numerous European-American and African-American members. People of mixed-race have numerous ethnic ancestries to draw from.
Only in the middle-to-late 20th century have the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmont Indian descendants officially reclaimed historical names such as Saponi and Occaneechi. A limited amount of information exists tying the present tribe to its Siouan ancestors.
The
Occaneechi Band of the Saponi NationThe Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation claim to be descendants of the Saponi and other Siouan-speaking Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia. The community is located primarily in Pleasant Grove Township, Alamance County, North Carolina...
, now numbering 700, are the eighth and smallest tribe officially recognized by the state of North Carolina, receiving official status in 2002. The tribe presently owns of land in NE
Alamance County, North CarolinaAlamance County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It coincides with the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, where it is developing a tribal center.