Yes, I did ALL that typing Bacon's Rebellion at Occoneechee Island

Vance, the Rappa: word is an abbreviation for Rappahanock. They are being urged to join forces with the Nansiatico (Nanzantico) likely because the Council is trying to figure out something to do with the Nansiatico, since they neglected them earlier, before all their lands were lost to encroaching whites, and rum traders got ahold of them. I wrote about them last year.

It’s probably not hard to imagine why the Rappahanock didn’t go through with it. They knew the Nansiatico were on very thin ice and didn’t want to be associated with them. I’ll quote that old post here, about how the children of the Nansiatico were taken from them and indentured to the men on the Council, while they, the adults of the tribe, were shipped off to slavery in Barbados.

Nansiatico? Never heard of them? Neither had I. I’ve been perusing the “Executive Journal of the Colonial Council in VA.” The first entry I read was in Volume III about this tribe I’d never heard of. I was going to skip it since I was thinking it couldn’t be too important.

Wrong! It’s the perfect first entry. It’s about 13 little children , ALL the remaining children of their tribe, under the age of 12, who are being indentured to the men sitting on the Virginia Colonial Council because everyone in their tribe older than they are, are about to be transported. Simon – 10, Little Jack – 6, Betty – 10, Little Betty – 9, Jack – 6, Charles – 5, Nanny – 10, Molly – 11, Little Nanny – 3, Kate -1, Ben – 18 mos., Lizzy – 12 mos.

I went back to Vol II for the backstory. There’s an entry about their tribe, the Nansiatico, getting caught in a plot a few years earlier that was felt detrimental to British interests. They were let off for that. Then a few years later two white landowners push them off their land. Nothing was done. Then there’s a complaint that some trader’s selling them too much liquor. Nothing’s done about that. Then a white man gets murdered by someone in the tribe. They all get carted down to Williamsburg. A letter is sent by the white people in their county, asking that they be transported. (Read: sold into slavery in the West Indies.)

Then there’s a request that they be given their clothes before they’re transported. It’s granted. Then there are entries about a huge convoy going to Britain and anybody going to the West Indies must leave before mid-July, 1705. No more mention of the Nansiotico.

BUT, this story looms large in all the dealings from there on out with the tribes. You can see the government influenced by it, cracking down on rum traders and encroachers, and the tribes very influenced, ever mindful that if they go too far, they too will literally be history.

It’s also very apparent that in the period between the Massacre of the Occaneechi, 1670s, and the 1720s, when peace is finally made with the Seneca, that the Eastern Siouan were very much being ripped to shreds by the Seneca. Not because of what’s said, but because of what’s NOT said. They were out in western Virginia, away from the English. There is scarcely any mention of them in Vol. II. 1699-1705. It’s not till Vol. III that they show up in Brunswick, in small numbers. They and the Iroquoian tribes are constantly tagging each other. Obviosly an UGLY feud. Four get killed here, three there. Finally the GOV steps in and says, okay, next tribe who takes another swipe is transported.

End of feud. Everybody remembered the Nansiotico. Without their example, it might have been our Ancestors who ended up in Barbados. Very important tribe. Remember them. Nansiotico.

http://www.saponitown.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=585&highlight=nansiatico

Crystal, yes, there were many riches to the west of Occoneechee Island, and Bacon, who’d dabbled in Indian trading himself, was WELL aware of how much could be gained by getting them out of the way. It was only a few years earlier that Needham was murdered by an Occoneechee because he had the nerve to attempt to trade directly with the Cherokee, right in front of the Occoneechee man who later killed him.

Then Arthur, the illiterate English bondsman with Needham, was whisked away by the Cherokee (some say Yuchi) leadership and hauled all throughout the south, and I mean the entire South, down to Florida, to keep him out of the hands of other tribal members who would have wanted him silenced. Big decisions, big debates were underway by our neighbors on what to do about the ‘Siouan question.’ In the end, it was decided by all round that we were to go down (hence Arthur was delivered safe and sound to the Colonials to tell his tale about the death of Needham). Those west of us needed to get the best possible price for their furs, if they were to get enough guns to survive themselves. Talk about a road warrior world. And remember, it wasn’t like that till the Europeans arrived and upset the balance of power everwhere with their weapons trade.

It’s very interesting to me that the tribes on the east coast who survived the best were those with the strongest female influence. Our Siouan tribes were very warrior-centered. To warriors, the only choice is to try to gain as much wealth and power as possible to avoid destruction. Female thinking will see other possibilities, like the time the Pamunkey queen asked the British to come take some of her land. In doing so, she surrounded her little band with English settlers, who inadvertently gave protection to her people from raiders like the Seneca. For the Seneca’s part, I think they won the Mourning Wars because their women were so good at adopting captives. They loved them to death. It had to be a powerful influence to demoralize enemies. Good lesson for history, if you’re going to lose a war, put women in charge, who are better adapted for surviving humiliation. Besides, if you’re a female war captive and you know you’re going someplace where women elect the leaders, you may not resist your captivity quite so vehemently.

Thanks for the compliment, but I actually do better writing things like this than I would telling them. I don’t recall details on my feet nearly as well. Sometimes I do okay, but on the whole I think writing is more my medium.