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I am curious to know more about the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation in Alamance County. About four years ago, before my father and I were in communication with one another, I decided to go back to school. I wanted a degree in occupational safety and health and was exploring the different colleges offering this type of degree. It had to be online, as at this time I still had six children at home. Then I came accross North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, I fell in love with the college, Professors and people immediately.Then a couple years ago, my father and I began to build a relationship, and I started learning a little about our family. Then I found this site and began to learn even more. I have traveled from Cape Hatteras to Cherokee, and loved every inch of NC, but all this time I did not know How close the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation was to Greensboro. Well, I get a little wierd with when things like this happen, because I don’t believe in coincidence, things happen for a reason. I have found that a few of my Gibson’s were born in NC, curious if there is a connection.
Shirley
The website for the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation is:
http://www.occaneechi-saponi.org.
They give a basic history of the Saponi Confederacy in the early paragraphs before giving history of their band.
I’m wondering what differences and similarities there are between the
OBSN,the Eno-Occaneechi,and the Fort Christanna Saponi-Occaneechi.:confused:
P.S.-Why is it that no matter how my replies/threads look in the reply screen,they never line up properly after being submitted?:confused:
Hi Roca,
I visited the site and read the history, but still questions, questions, questions… I have been doing web searches to find info, and have the same questions as you. Did all of these Saponi originate from the same place? Were they scattered during the removal, and make homes with other tribes? Swanton has some interesting info and a nice map, here is the link.
http://www.hiddenhistory.com/PAGE3/ww-virg.htm
I found another link that has some interesting information and mentions many surnames listed here, as well as my Gibsons.
http://rla.unc.edu/dig/html/split/report48b.html
Shirley
The Eno Occoneechee were the first to organize, I’m not sure, at least 15-20 years ago. The principal players in the OBSN split away from them about ten years ago, though I seem to have heard that they’re hoping to bring the other Eno into their fold, I’m not sure how that’s going.
The Fort Christana Saponi Occoneechi was formed recently. There are so many different groups because some of them are going for federal recognition, and once you do that you have to become very strict about your membership, and hope you can make a strong claim that you are IT. This inevitably leaves some cousins, not in the contiguous community, out in the cold, so they organize on their own home turf.
It all gets tense and arbitrary since there are not clear smoking guns as to precisely which descendant groups out there are definitively descended from a specific group like the Occaneechee.
The FCSO live in Mecklenburg and Bruwnswitch counties and got involved in issues concerning land use in Occaneechee Sate park and a tourist development in Brunswick. Being their home town, it’s important they look after these matters carefully, hence it become important to use the name of the tribe in the vicinity, otherwise they are seen as outsiders in their own home, which obviously can’t happen. Since there is at heart only speculation as to who the actuall Occaneechee descendants actually arem, it gets confusing.
The original Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association was founded in 1984. I was one of the 6 original council members. In 1996, Mr. Joel Bass, one of the original council members, left the group, which had in 1995 changed the name to the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. On January 6, 1996 incorperated as the “Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association”, which he could legally do, the tribe having legally changed it’s name in 1995. The present “Eno-Occaneechi Indian Asociation” is NOT the original group in spite of misinformation put out by a few members of that group. A check with the NC Office of Incorporations will verify Joel Bass as the registered agent for the “Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association” and will provide the date of incorporation.
Most of the “key players” stayed with the original group, and did not split off from anyone. I hope this will correct any misunderstanding from earlier erroneous postings.
Actually, it was January 4, 1996 when the second “Eno-Occaneechi” group was formed.
Mr. Bass also incorporated the “Sissipahaw and Eno-Tutelo Indians of the Piedmont” on 12/12/1995, about 3 weeks prior to his incorporating the “Eno-Occaneechi” group
This info comes from the NC Sec. of State website.
It is so complicated and confusing… I want to see if I understand a few things though. The Saponi originated in Virginia, and at one time were quite large in number. But with the infilteration of European settlers and the diseases they brought, many died. These remaining moved north, south, and west, merging with other tribes. It is sad that the Federal government puts such tight restrictions on becoming recognized that some are left only to a few designated surenames. I so appreciate this site and the information here, thanks to those of you who put forth so much time and research to share with us all.
Shirley
The historic record tells of the Saponi and Tutelo travelling north to New York and then Canada, to join with the Six Nations. They had just lost a long-standing feud with the Seneca, one of the Six Nations. The Tutelo are described as moving to the reserve in Brandford, Ontario, and being adopted by the Cayuga. The Saponi disappear from history in upstate NY, around Niagara. Rick Haithcock, an Ohio Saponi leader and researcher, found two of the NY counties with Six Nations names, I believe it was Cayuga and Onondaga counties, with numerous surnames he’s associated with Saponi-related families, in the generation following this “disappearance.”
Meanwhile . . . there are many families throughout the Piedmont of VA/NC who trace back (if unofficially) to the Saponi-ish group of tribes (Piedmont Siouan) as well as many who migrated into Appalachia and beyond. Some families seem to have merged with the SC Catawba, another Siouan group, as that ID comes up on occasion. Non-Cherokee Indians in the Upper South, in general, were early Anglicized, and once that happened, it does become difficult to know if an individual community or family traces from just one tribal heritage or has intermarried with others.
Is there a story of Indian heritage along your Gibson line? There are several newcomers on board with the Gibson name. As I just said, it’s one of only a half dozen surnames that can actually be traced to someone in the Colonial record identified as a Saponi.
Hi Linda,
Thanks for all of the information, you must spend many hours researching, and to keep it all straight too. Well, I am fairly new to this genealogy business, but I will not be discouraged. I really know very little about my father’s family, as we have just recently begun to build a relationship. I have met my aunts, a few cousins, and my great uncle Freddy. The family is really pretty tight lipped about the family heritage, but I have found out a few things. Firstly, my father said his grandmother was Cherokee, dark skinned with jet black hair she had to move to sit down. I only have a black and white paper photo and her hair is up under a hat, I will attach. My mother told me long ago that my father was Blackfeet, and I don’t know where she got this info. He said her mother/or mother’s mother was sent to Ardmore. I know they were moonshiners, as my G-uncle Freddy told me about his part in it. I know the family was poor, in fact my father grew up in old mining houses that had been abandoned, they would put newspaper on the walls to cover the gaps in the wood. My father remembers his grandmother (Ceila Baldwin) lived in a cabin (she married Jonah Shortridge), where there was a table for thirty and a big bed all the kids slept in. The family lived in Buchanan county for many years (1860, 70, 80+ census), and then moved to Nicholas County, WV, where they are today.George, who was my GGGGGrandfather lived in Grundy and was a preacher there. The History of Buchanan County has quite a bit written on my Gibson’s as well as Who’s Your People, which has a great deal of info on the family. I am learning more all the time and have found a cousin who has been doing research for a while. A decendent of Martin, who was George’s father has just completed a Y-DNA test, and we are waiting for results, which we would like to compare to those of Archibald to verify we are of this line. I hope this is not too confusing, as I seem to have written all over the place, but that’s how it all seems in my head, confusing. I really don’t care what nationalities I find in my history, just to find answers would be a blessing. My surenames that I know are Gibson, Adkins, Baldwin, Thomas, Shortridge, Sparks, and the latest Daniel (George’s wife was Mary “Polly” Daniel).
Shirley
Just a quick addition, my gggrandmother was Isabelle (Ibby) Rosina Gibson, her Father was John Gibson (b.NC), his father George Gibson, his father Martin Gibson. This is all I have been able to trace thus far. My cousin who has done all the research said that the Saponi comes from Martin, though I have no documentation to prove this.
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