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Rappahannock Tribe
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The Rappahannock are a tribe of Native Americans.
History
Seventeenth century
In 1607, the Rappahannock were the dominant tribe of the Rappahannock River valley, maintaining thirteen villages along the north and south banks of the river named after them. Their capital town was Topahanocke (or Tappahannock). They were a peripheral group within the Powhatan Confederacy. In spring of that year when news spread of explorers sailing on the James, their weroance took a party and rushed there.
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Encyclopedia
The Rappahannock are a tribe of Native Americans.
History
Seventeenth century
In 1607, the Rappahannock were the dominant tribe of the Rappahannock River valley, maintaining thirteen villages along the north and south banks of the river named after them. Their capital town was Topahanocke (or Tappahannock). They were a peripheral group within the Powhatan Confederacy. In spring of that year when news spread of explorers sailing on the James, their weroance took a party and rushed there. They stayed with their cousins the Quiockohannocks, and sent word requesting audience with the explorers. The weroance and explorers met on May 4.
George Percy wrote a vivid description of the weroance having his body painted crimson, and his face painted blue sprinkled with silver. He wore a red deer-hair crown tied around his hair knot and a copper plate on the other side, with two feathers sticking up arranged like horns, and earrings made of bird-claws fastened with yellow metal. When he came to the shore thus arrayed, he was playing on a flute, and escorted the explorers to his camp following a tobacco ceremony. The settlers were confused about the native names, and referred to the Quiockohannocks south of the James by the name of Tappahannocks for some time.
After Captain John Smith was captured in December 1607, he was taken northward to the Rappahannock capital. He was told that they wished to see if he was from the same nation that had attacked them some years earlier (possibly the Spanish); however, they determined that he was not. In 1608 Smith returned to them and ended up mediating a feud between them and their neighbours, the Moraughticunds.
The Rappahannock seldom appeared in early English records, but were one of the groups attacked in 1623, following the Great Massacre of 1622. When the Second Anglo-Powhatan War of 1644-45 broke out, the colonists seem to have viewed the Rappahannock as independent and outside the conflict, and they thus escaped from being attacked.
In the 1650s, when colonists began settling along the river, the Rappahannock withdrew from the southern bank; their weroance Accopatough deeded the land east of Totuskey Creek to settlers just before he died in April 1651. His successor Taweeren confirmed the deed in May. Their main town in 1652 was two miles up Cat Point Creek. By 1653, English were moving into the region in such numbers, that the colony assigned the tribe reserved land, and committed to build Taweeren an English-style house.
Disputes between the two groups continued. In November 1654, colonists visited the tribe to demand restitution for damages, but a brawl ensued in which Taweeren was killed. Border disputes continued under his successor Wachicopa. In 1662, the Virginia Colony fixed the Rappahannock boundaries at Cat Point Creek on the west and Totuskey Creek on the east. The Rappahannocks soon gave up on trying to defend their homeland and moved away; by 1669 they were settled at the headwaters of the Mattaponi River with 30 bowmen.
In 1677, the Rappahannock joined the briefly-resurrected Powhatan Confederacy of Cockacoeske, but broke away again in 1678. In 1684, the tribe numbered only 70 total, located on the ridge between the Mattaponi and Rappahannock rivers. The Virginia Colony ordered them to merge with the Portobago Indians on the Upper Rappahannock in Essex County, Virginia, supposedly for protection from the marauding Seneca nation. Their descendants continued to live there. The Nanzatico (Nantaughtacund) lived across the river from them, until in 1705 the English deported the Nanzatico to the West Indies.
Twentieth century
Today's Rappahannock Tribe consists of a few hundred descendants of the original Rappahannock, Morattico (Maraughtacund), Portobacco, and Doeg tribes who merged in the late 17th century. Most live in Essex, Caroline and King and Queen counties.
To solidify their tribal government in order to seek state recognition, the Rappahannocks incorporated in 1921; their first chief was George Nelson. The Commonwealth of Virginia officially recognized the tribe in January 1983. In 1998, they elected the first woman chief to lead in Virginia since the 1700s, Chief G. Anne Richardson. Along with six other Virginia tribes, the Rappahannocks are working to acquire Federal recognition.
Notable Rappahannocks
External links
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