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Occaneechi. A small tribe of the eastern Siouan group formerly residing in south Virginia and northern North Carolina. Their history is closely interwoven with that of the Saponi and Tutelo, and there is historical evidence that their language was similar. The first known notice of the Occaneechi is that of Lederer, who visited them in 1670. They then dwelt on the middle and largest island in Roanoke river, just below the confluence of the Staunton and the Dan, near the site of Clarksville, Mecklenburg county, Va. Their fields were on the north bank of the river, where they raised large crops of corn, having always on hand as a reserve a year’s supply. Between the date of this visit and 1676 they were joined by the Saponi and Tutelo, who settled on two neighboring islands. In 1676 the Conestoga sought shelter with them from the attacks of the Iroquois and English. They were hospitably received, but soon attempted to dispossess their benefactors, and, after a battle, were driven out. Being harassed by the Virginians and Iroquois, they left their island and fled south into Carolina. In 1701 Lawson found them in a village on Eno river, about the present Hillsboro, Orange county, N. C. They combined later with the Saponi, Tutelo, and others. They were cultivators of the soil and traders. We are assured by Beverley that their dialect was the common language of trade and also of religion over a considerable region. They divided the year into the five seasons of budding or blossoming, ripening, mid-summer, harvest, and winter. They were governed by two chiefs, one presiding in war, the other having charge of their hunting and agriculture. Ceremonial feasting was an important feature of their social life. Their tribal totem was a serpent.
Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894.
Saponi. One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in North Carolina and Virginia, but now extinct. The tribal name was occasionally applied to the whole group of Ft Christanna tribes, also occasionally included under Tutelo. That this tribe belonged to the Siouan stock has been placed beyond doubt by the investigations of Hale and Mooney. Their language appears to have been the same as the Tutelo to the extent that the people of the two tribes could readily understand each other. Mooney has shown that the few Saponi words recorded are Siouan.
Lederer mentions a war in which the Saponi seem to have been engaged with the Virginia settlers as early as 1654-56, the time of the attack by the Cherokee, probably in alliance with them. The first positive notice is by Lederer (1670), who informs us that he stopped a few days at Sapon, a town of the Tutelo confederacy, situated on a tributary of the upper Roanoke. This village was apparently on Otter river, southwest of Lynchburg, Va. Pintahae is mentioned also as another of their villages near by. It is evident that the Saponi and Tutelo were living at that time in close and apparently confederated relation. In 1671 they were visited by Thomas Batts and others accompanied by two Indian guides. After traveling nearly due west from the mouth of the Appomattox about 140 miles, they came to Sapong, or Saponys, town. Having been harassed by the Iroquois in this locality, the Saponi and Tutelo at a later date removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they settled near the Occaneechi, each tribe occupying an island in the Roanoke in what is now Mecklenburg county, Va. Lawson, who visited these Indians in 1701, found them dwelling on Yadkin river, N. C., near the present site of Salisbury, having removed to the south to escape the attacks of their enemies. Byrd (1729) remarks: “They dwelt formerly not far below the mountains, upon Yadkin river, about 200 miles west and by south from the falls of Roanoak. But about 25 years ago they took refuge in Virginia, being no longer in condition to make head not only against the northern Indians, who are their implacable enemies, but also against most of those to the south. All the nations round about, bearing in mind the havock these Indians used formerly to make among their ancestors in the insolence of their power, did at length avenge it home upon them, and made them glad to apply to this Government for protection.”
Soon after Lawson’s visit in 1701 the Saponi and Tutelo left their villages on the Yadkin and moved in toward the settlements, being joined on the way by the Occaneechi and their allied tribes. Together they crossed the Roanoke, evidently before the Tuscarora war of 1711, and made a new settlement, called Sapona Town, a short distance east of that river and 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie county, N. C. Soon after this they and other allied tribes were located by Gov. Spotswood near Ft Christanna, 10 miles north of Roanoke river, about the present Gholsonville, Brunswick county, Va. The name of Sappony creek, in Dinwiddie county, dating hack at least to 1733, indicates that they sometimes extended their excursions north of Nottoway river. Their abode here was not one of quiet, as they were at war with neighboring tribes or their old enemies, the Iroquois. By the treaty at Albany (1722) peace was declared between the northern Indians and the Virginia and Carolina tribes, the Blue Ridge and the Potomac being the boundary line.
Probably about 1740 the Saponi and Tutelo went north, stopping for a time at Shamokin, in Pennsylvania, about the site of Sunbury, where they and other Indians were visited by the missionary David Brainard in 1745. In 1753 the Cayuga formally adopted the Saponi and Tutelo, who thus became a part of the Six Nations, though all had not then removed to New York. In 1765 the Saponi are mentioned as having 30 warriors living at Tioga, about Sayre, Pa., and other villages on the northern branches of the Susquehanna. A part remained here until 1778, but in 1771 the principal portion had their village in the territory of the Cayuga, about 2 miles south of what is now Ithaca, N. Y. When the Tutelo fled to Canada, soon after 1770, they parted with the Saponi (Hale was informed by the last of the Tutelo) at Niagara, but what became of them afterward is not known. It appears, however, from a treaty made with the Cayuga at Albany in 1780 that a remnant was still living with this tribe on Seneca river in Seneca county, N. Y., after which they disappear from history.
Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894; Bushnell in Am. Anthr., ix, 45-46, 1907.
Tutelo. One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in Virginia and North Carolina, but now extinct. Hale (Proc. ‘Am. Philos. Soc., Mar. 2, 1883) first made it known that the Tutelo language pertained to the Siouan stock, a discovery which, followed by the investigations of Gatschet, Mooney, and J. O. Dorsey, brought to light the fact that a considerable group of Siouan tribes formerly inhabited the piedmont region of Virginia and the Carolinas. The relation of the Tutelo appears to have been most intimate with the Saponi, the language of the two tribes being substantially the same. Their intimate association with the Occaneechi and their allied tribes indicates ethnic relationship. The history of the Tutelo is virtually the same as that of the Saponi. The name Tutelo, although by the English commonly used to designate a particular tribe, was by the Iroquois applied as a generic term for all the Siouan tribes of Virginia and Carolina, being applied more particularly to the allied tribes gathered at Ft Christanna (see Christanna Indians). They are first mentioned by Capt. John Smith in 1609 under the names of Monacan and Mannahoac, with many subtribes, occupying the upper waters of James and Rappahannock rivers, Va., and described by him as very barbarous, subsisting chiefly on the products of the chase and wild fruits. They were at constant war with the Powhatan Indians and in mortal dread of the Iroquois. Lederer, in his exploration from Virginia into North Carolina in 1670, passed through their territory and mentions the names of Nahyssan (Monahassanough) and Sapon (Saponi). In their frontier position at the base of the mountains the Saponi and Tutelo were directly in the path of the Iroquois.
Unable to with stand the constant attacks of these northern enemies, they abandoned this location some time between 1671 and 1701, and removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they established themselves near their friends and kinsmen, the Occaneechi, occupying two of the islands in the Roanoke immediately below the forks, the Tutelo settling on the upper one. How long they remained here is unknown; it is certain, however, that in 1701 Lawson found the Saponi on Yadkin river, N. C., and says that the Tutelo were living in the neighboring mountains toward the west, probably about the headwaters of the Yadkin. At this time, according to Lawson, the 5 Siouan tribes, the Tutelo, Saponi, Keyauwee, Occaneechi, and Shakori, numbered together only about 750 souls. Soon after Lawson’s visit they all moved in toward the white settlements, and, crossing the Roanoke, occupied a village called Sapona town, a short distance east of the river, about 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie county, N. C. Soon after this they removed and settled near Ft Christanna (see Christanna Indians, Totero).
In 1722, through the efforts of the Colonial governments, peace was finally made between the Iroquois and the Virginia tribes. In consequence the Saponi and Tutelo some years later moved to the north and settled on the Susquehanna at Shamokin, Pa., under Iroquois protection, later moving up the river to Skogari. Their chiefs were allowed to sit in the great council of the Six Nations. In 1763 the two tribes, together with the Nanticoke and Conoy, numbered, according to Sir Wm. Johnson, 200 men, possibly 1,000 souls. In 1771 the Tutelo were settled on the east side of Cayuga inlet, about 3 miles from the south end of the lake, in a town called Coreorgonel, which was destroyed in 1779 by Gen. Sullivan.
The last surviving full-blood Tutelo known was Nikonha, from whom Hale obtained the linguistic material by which he determined the relation of the tribe to the Siouan stock. He died in 1871. It is believed there are still a few mixed-bloods in Canada, but the last one who could speak the language was John Key, or Gostango (‘Below the Rock’), whose Tutelo name was Nastabon (‘One Step’), and who died in 1898, aged about 80 years (Chadwick, People of the Longhouse, 19, 1897; Boyle in Ann. Archmol. Rep. Ontario, 55, pl. xviii, b, 1898). Lawson describes the Tutelo as “tall, likely men, having great plenty of buffaloes, elks, and bears, with every sort of deer amongst them, which strong food makes large, robust bodies.” Nevertheless the evidence is clear that they were cultivators of the soil and relied thereon to a large extent for subsistence. The photograph of Nikonha, given by Hale, shows a face full oval in outline and large features of an almost European cast, ‘evidently,” says Hale, “not individual or family traits, as they reappear in the Tutelo half-breeds on the Reserve, who do not claim a near relationship to Nikonha.” On the other hand Zeisberger, who visited the remnant of the tribe while settled at Shamokin, speaks of the village as “the only town on the continent inhabited by Tuteloes, a degenerate remnant of thieves and drunkards.” Lederer describes the Nahyssan chief as an absolute monarch, and the people as tall, warlike, and rich. In their temples, or medicine lodges, they had large quantities of pearls, which they had taken in war from more southern tribes. Their tribal ensign consisted of three arrows.
Consult Hale in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., xxi, no. 114,1883; Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, 1894.
Sissipahaw. A former small tribe of North Carolina, presumably Siouan, from their alliance and associations with known Siouan tribes. They must have been an
important tribe at one time, as Haw river, the chief head stream of Cape Fear river, derives its name from them, and the site of their former village, known in 1728 as Haw Old Fields, was noted as the largest body of fertile land in all that region. It was probably situated about the present Saxapahaw on Haw river, in the lower part of Alamance county, N. C. They were mentioned by Lawson in 1701, but he did not meet them. Nothing more is known of them beyond the general statement that they and other tribes of the region joined the Yamasee against the English in the war of 1715.
Christanna Indians. A group of Siouan tribes of Virginia, which were collected for a time in the early years of the 18th century at Ft Christanna, on Meherrin river, near the present Gholsonville, Va. Gov. Spotswood settled these tribes there about 1700 in the belief that they would form a barrier on that side against hostile Indians.
The tribes were the Meipontsky, Occaneechi, Saponi, Stegaraki, and Tutelo.
See Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894.
rockhound;18208 wrote: Occaneechi. A small tribe of the eastern Siouan group formerly residing in south Virginia and northern North Carolina. Their history is closely interwoven with that of the Saponi and Tutelo, and there is historical evidence that their language was similar. The first known notice of the Occaneechi is that of Lederer, who visited them in 1670. They then dwelt on the middle and largest island in Roanoke river, just below the confluence of the Staunton and the Dan, near the site of Clarksville, Mecklenburg county, Va. Their fields were on the north bank of the river, where they raised large crops of corn, having always on hand as a reserve a year’s supply. Between the date of this visit and 1676 they were joined by the Saponi and Tutelo, who settled on two neighboring islands. In 1676 the Conestoga sought shelter with them from the attacks of the Iroquois and English. They were hospitably received, but soon attempted to dispossess their benefactors, and, after a battle, were driven out. Being harassed by the Virginians and Iroquois, they left their island and fled south into Carolina. In 1701 Lawson found them in a village on Eno river, about the present Hillsboro, Orange county, N. C. They combined later with the Saponi, Tutelo, and others. They were cultivators of the soil and traders. We are assured by Beverley that their dialect was the common language of trade and also of religion over a considerable region. They divided the year into the five seasons of budding or blossoming, ripening, mid-summer, harvest, and winter. They were governed by two chiefs, one presiding in war, the other having charge of their hunting and agriculture. Ceremonial feasting was an important feature of their social life. Their tribal totem was a serpent.
Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894.
I noticed here the tribal totem is the serpent…The Catabwa also had the snake…anyone know…of those Siouan SE tribes, which used the snake?
We visited Ft. Chistanna a couple years ago and were greeted by a huge black snake, which I took many photos….this encounter, really impacted me…to me he was a Sentinel and we felt very welcome there; it was like coming home.
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