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Virginia Siouans were recorded as composed of at least 16 different groups organized into three confederacies:
Northern: Manahoac included the Manahoac, possibly the Stegarake and others.
Central: Monacan included the Monacan, Mahoc & Nuntaly.
Southern: Tutelo included the Tutelo, Saponi & Occaneechi.
In the area of Virginia and the Carolinas, at least 40 Siouan speaking tribes occupied territory of at least 20,000 square miles.
(“Siouan Tribes of the East”, by James Mooney, 1894, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 22, Government Printing Office, Wash., DC.)
(“Indian Island in Amherst County” (p.17), by Peter W. Houck, 1984, Lynchburg historical Research Co., Lynchburg, Va.)
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There is evidence that these tribes interacted freely and formed frequent but temporary alliances cited in L. Daniel Mouer’s 1983 “Review of the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Monacans” p.21-39 (Piedmont Archaeology, Publ # 10, Archaeological Society of Va, Richmond, Va).
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That the Tutelo Confederacy was part of the Monacan Alliance is supported by Capt. John Smith’s map of 1608 showing 5 “Monacan Towns” :
Mowhemicho (twenty days inland from the falls of the James River – same as Lederer’s “Monacan Town” of 1670, and “Manakin Town” of 1699 Huguenot settlement – several sources for those apparent assertions.),
Massanack (Monacan) (present-day Powhatan Co.),
Rassaweck (Monacan) (present-day Fluvanna Co.),
Monasukapanough (Saponi) (present-day Albermarle Co.),
Monahassanugh (Tutelo) (present-day Nelson Co.).
(“The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, etc., 1622”, 2 Vols., Franklin Press, Richmond, Va., 1819.)
(These five towns, only 2 of which were actually visited by Smith, were only the closest to the colonial frontier. More recent archaelogical evidence of Monacan settlements in and to the west of the Appalachians does exist and will be cited in additional posts.)
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In 1671, Thomas Batts encountered a Saponi settlement along the Otter River, near present-day Lynchburg in Campbell County and farther west, “Totera” (Tutelo) settlements in the vicinity of the present-day city of Salem, Roanoke County to Patrick County, Virginia.
(“The First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by the Virginians, 1650-1674”, by C.W. Alvord and Lee Bidgood, eds. 1912.)
(These locations may be the initial refuge area for the Tutelo and Saponi as the Susquehannock “buffer” started breaking down.)
In 1675, Virginia and Maryland colonists finally shattered and scattered the Susquehannock (upper Potomoc, western Maryland, southern Pa.). The Iroquoi Susquehannock had been an effective buffer between the Five Nations and the Virginia peoples and allowed the Five Nations to invade Virginia at will.
(Mooney, 1894. Beverly, 1705.)
(This probably marked the end of the Monacan Alliance as these people attempted to evade marauding Iroquois from the Five Nations by moving deeper into the mountains and out of their way. From there, the Tutelo and Saponi moved near the Occaneechi on the Dan. Ironically, this move put them right in the direct path that the northern Iroquois traditionally used to war on the Catawba in North Carolina. Weakened, they moved into North Carolina and eventually ended up at Ft. Christiana.)
(“The Tutelo Indians in Pennsylvania History”, Claude E. Schaeffer, 1942, Penn. Historical Commission, v-xvii.)
(Mooney, 1894. Beverly, 1705. )
In 1695, the General Assembly of Virginia issued stamped metal badges to friendly and allied native people based on their particular tribal insigna (and insisted that any Indian not tatooed with their “friendly” insigna would be shot on sight). The insigna for the various tribes of the Monacan Alliance was “three arrows”, arranged somewhat differently for each of the alliance members. (Robert Beverly’s 1705 “The History of the Present State of Virginia”, book 3.)
If I’ve neglected to source any statements, give me shout, I’ve got them.
It’s very poignant to realize really only the southerly tribes survived at all. Those in the north were first in the path of the raiding Seneca.
Hello While looking at a map site the other day there was reference to people having these arrow tattos , it was very palin on the people painted squatting arownd. This was in White drawings, so the tattoos were probably pre contact issues. Tom
Linda,
Not so. They’re still there. Read on.
“By the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was assumed that the Monacans and their confederates were long gone from Virginia, if not extinct. The Indians at the foot fo the Blue Ridge, whom we now know as Monacans, were variously labeled as Cherokees, Seminoles, Portuguese, and “Negroes” well into the twentieth century.” (although they have always called themselves “Monacans”.)
(source: “Indian Island in Amherst County”, p.18, by Peter W. Houck, c.1984, Lynchburg Historical Research Co., Lynchburg, Va., as cited by Cook in “Monacans and Miners”, see that source below.
“No one suspected that they (modern day Amherst Co. Indians) were, in fact, the remnant of a vast conglomeration of Siouan speaking peoples who once inhabited the southeastern United States.”
(source: “Monacans and Miners”, p.25, Samuel R. Cook, c.2000, Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Ne.)
The Monacans of Amherst County appear to have survived, according to them, by moving into the Tobacco Row Mtns above the main valley warpath. Their Monacan Tribal Center is on Bear Mountain where they hold an annual homecoming each October. Their old schoolhouse, which operated from 1908 until 1963, is now registered as a national landmark and will soon be restored and used as a visitor’s center. There is also a Monacan Ancestral Museum nearby.
It is speculation, but a sure bet, that many groups survived in like manner, helping to explain the fact that we find remnants of Virginian Indian groups scattered across the landscape by 1800.
The Monacan (incl. Tutelo & Saponi) towns had a distinctive layout very different from their neighbors, making modern archaeological identification of them easier……
“….however, in contrast to the Cherokees and coastal Algonquians, there is no evidence that Monacan villages were ever palisaded for protection, as was common among neighboring tribes……… Monacan villages were organized in a circular pattern, with a central plaza often containing a stump or platform for orators. This pattern was recorded as late as 1716 when several Siouan tribes were conglomerated at Fort Christanna.”
(“The Five Monacan Towns in Virginia”, p.9, 28-32, David I. Bushnell, c.1930, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, quoted by Cook in “Monacans and Miners”.)
While James Mooney (prev cited), in 1894, thought that the Monacan village of Monahassanugh was possibly the same settlement visited by the explorer John Lederer in 1670, who called it “Nahyssen”, it is identifed as Tutelo by Alvord and Bidgood (1912). Mooney thought they were the same based only on the similarities of the names but later archaeological research by David Bushnell (1930) adds strength to Mooney’s argument.
Some Monacan groups may have stayed in the Big Sandy valley, totally bypassed by the Iroquois…….
“Brief accounts by European explorers in the mid-1600s mentioned a group called the Monetons who may have been associated with the Monacans, far to the West along the Kanawha River (in present day West Virginia).”
(prev. listed sources: Mooney, 1894. Alvord and Bidgood, 1912. and “Early History of the Eastern Siouan Tribes”, p.373, John R. Swanton, c.1936, in “Essays in Anthropology Presented to A.L. Kroeber”, Univ of Calif Press, Berkeley, Ca.
The “may have been” isn’t offered as “proof” but the Moneton v. Monacan name similarity certainly piques the curiousity. Evidence that the Monacan culture extended west of the Blue Ridge and into the Appalachians coupled with these “Moneton” references, makes this a larger group than appears to have been appreciated. It’s probable that only the eastern most Monacan groups were ever identifed in the colonial period and it is certain that race based eurocentric nineteenth century americans misidentifed all the rest.
More to come as time permits.
Bill says >>>> It is speculation, but a sure bet, that many groups survived in like manner
Such as the groups at “Little Texas” in Alamance co, NC. and High Plains and Moriah in Person co, NC. What is incredible is the vast number of NAs who managed to stay hidden and the degree of NDN blood that has survived into the 21st century by marrying within the families of the given groups. There is personal satisfaction that Removal was not nearly as successful as people once believed.
peace
Ken
The other issue touching on your observation, is that the Removal Acts were only applied to Nations recognized by the Federal Govt thru previous treaties, etc., and unless people from the remnant nations had been adopted into those larger recognized nations, removal did not touch them except that not being recognized by the Feds as Indian resulted in the authorities thinking these people couldn’t be “Indians”, they must be something else, like “portuguese”, or mixed bloods or liars.
This above is a simplified overview and details varied, but the Feds did not go door to door looking for Indians all over the country, except in core homeland areas of those nations they knew to exist.
I was talking about tribes like the Stegarake, Mahoc & Nuntaly who likely merged with the others, but still, the tribe itself is gone. I don’t remember even hearing of the Mahoc and Nuntaly before, and that’s very sad.
I know some Monacans and I like them. They have some very talented people in leadership with good, open minds. They’ve had some people attacking them, at least online. I don’t know if anyone ever took them seriously, but they were fussing that the Monacans are really Cherokee. The truth that I’ve seen is that there aren’t any contemporary tribes out here that are purely any one traditional tribe. Just a preponderance. So a few Cherokee lines in the mix doesn’t disprove anything.
Bill,
I was wondering if you could clarify which “Falls of the James River” you speak of in your post? The one in Richmond, or the one at Natural Bridge? Thanks.
Hi, Coheelady,
The “falls of the James” at Richmond is what these authors referred to as the “fall line”.
Hi Linda,
Yes, I agree. The Stegarake, Mahoc & Nuntaly culture must have been broken since we don’t hear about them after the 1670s.
Of course, they may have just “gotten out of the way”, built new villages and as a result, were called something else by explorers who unfailingly called the inhabitants of a village by the name of the village and assumed that each village was a “different” tribe. But we don’t really know what happened to them.
The “Traditional” issue is really touchy and I agree with your observation on that.
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