Sapponi attack on Meherrin

There was a lot of conflict at this time. Can see what you are saying about the Meherrin not wanting to join those at Fort Christanna. There is a passage about this in the History of Pittsylvania County.

The Meherrin and Nottoway tribes lived in Virginia on the rivers of
those names, and the Tuscaroras in North Carolina; all three tribes
belonged to the Iroquoian Race, and were ancient enemies of the Saponeys.
Page 17 https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/H011596.pdf

Similarly there were Saponi and Catawba who did not wish to move North and join the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) given the long history of enmity, particularly with the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka.

At the point of time of this attack in 1728 was Fort Christanna still fully occupied? The execution of one of the Saponi headmen by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1728, is said to have been the last straw for some of those remaining at Fort Christanna.

covers this time period

The records of this time reveal what pains the government of
Virginia took to protect these tributary Indians and to keep the peace
among the various tribes. Nathaniel Harrison, of Surry County, was
Indian agent for the tribes between the James and Roanoke Rivers. He
represented to the Council in February, I 726, that the Saponeys complained that when a party of their Indians went hunting on the Roanoke
River they were attacked in the night by the Tuscaroras, and seven of
their men captured or slain.
In April, the great men of the Saponeys appeared45 before the Council
and repeated their complaint against the Tuscaroras, praying that if the
government could not obtain satisfaction, that they be allowed to take
their revenge in their own way. The great men of the Saponeys also
complained to the Council that the English brought rum to their town
to sell to their young men, causing great disorder among them. Colonel
Byrd wrote that the good purpose of Governor Spottswood in gathering
the Indians at Christiana had been to a large extent frustrated by the
way in which the white people of the neighborhood corrupted their morals
and ruined their health with rum. Strong drink was continually causing
them to break the laws of the Colony.
One of the great men of the Saponeys committed a murder while
drunk for which he was tried in the courts and hanged, in I 728. Governor Gooch of Virginia reported46 the occurrence to the Lords of Trade
of England, saying:
“The murder was committed while the Indian was drunk which they
look upon as a just excuse, because, as they say a man is not accountable for what he did while he was deprived of his reason. Yet they readily
delivered him up to justice, upon my first message, and he has since been
tried and executed without any sign of resentment although he was in
much esteem among them. I had ordered some of the nation to be at
the tryal who did attend, and by an interpreter were made to understand
that the Proceedings in the court against them were the same as in like
case they would be against a white man.”
But Governor Gooch was mistaken, the Saponeys felt great grief and
indignation at the ignominious death suffered by one of their great men,
and threatened47 to drive the whites across James River. The following
year they left Virginia and went to live with their friends, the Catawbas,
in Carolina. The History of Pittsylvania County pages 19-20

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by MarcSnelling.