 Tribal territory of the Occaneechi during the 17th century. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| United States (North Carolina,[1]Virginia[2]) | |
| Languages | |
| English[citation needed],Occaneechi language | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Saponi,Tutelo,Biloxi, andOfo peoples[3]: 286 |
TheOccaneechi areIndigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands whose historical territory was in thePiedmont region of present-dayNorth Carolina andVirginia.[4]
In the 17th century, they primarily lived on the large, 4-mile (6.4 km) long Occoneechee Island and east of the confluence of theDan andRoanoke rivers, near current-dayClarksville, Virginia.[2][4] They spoke one of theSiouan languages and were linguistically related to theSaponi,Tutelo,[3]: 286 Eno, and neighboring SoutheasternSiouan language–speaking peoples.
In 1676, in the course ofBacon's Rebellion, the tribe was attacked by militias from theColony of Virginia and decimated. Also under demographic pressure from European settlements and newly introducedinfectious diseases, the Saponi and Tutelo came to live near the Occaneechi on adjacent islands.[citation needed] By 1714 the Occaneechi moved to join the Tutelo, Saponi, and other Siouan-language speaking people living on a 36-square-mile (93 km2) reservation in current-dayBrunswick County, Virginia. It included a fort calledChristanna.[citation needed] The Natives had been drastically reduced to approximately 600 people.[citation needed] Fort Christanna was closed in 1717, after which there are few written references to the Occaneechi. Colonists recorded that they left the area in 1740 and migrated north for protection with theHaudenosaunee.
The meaning and origin of the name Occaneechi is unknown. They have also historically been called the Achonechy, Aconechos, Akenatzy, Hockinechy, Occaneches, Occaanechy, Occhonechee, Occonacheans, Occoneechee, Ockanechees, Ockanigee, Okenechee, Acconeechy, Occaneeches, Ochineeches, and Ockinagee.[3]: 298
The Occaneechi language was aSiouan language, related to the Saponi and Tutelo languages.[4] It became a commonly used trade language for the region by the early 18th century.[4]
Archeological studies have found finely chipped projectile points, which provide evidence of thousands of years of habitation, on the former Occoneechee Island, as well as nearby Field's Island, Lewis Island, and Tottero (or Nelson's) Island in the Roanoke River.[5]
Occaneechi Island | |
|---|---|
Trading town | |
 Interactive map of Occaneechi Island | |
| Coordinates:36°36′54″N78°31′59″W / 36.6151224°N 78.5331751°W /36.6151224; -78.5331751 | |
| Established | c. 1620 |
| Abandoned followingBacon's Rebellion | 1676 |
| Flooded byJohn H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir | c. 1953 |
The Occaneechi were first written about in 1650, by English explorerEdward Bland.[3]: 291 He wrote that they lived on theTrading Path that connected Virginia with the interior of North America. Their position on the Trading Path gave the Occaneechi the power to act as trading "middlemen" between Virginia and various tribes to the west. German physicianJohn Lederer wrote about them in 1670.[4]
In 1673,Abraham Wood, a Virginian fur trader, sent James Needham and Gabriel Arthur into the southernAppalachian Mountains in an attempt to make direct contact with theCherokee, thus bypassing the Occaneechi. The party did make contact with the Cherokee. It was not until the last decades of the 17th century when South Carolina colonists established a strong relationship with the Cherokee and other interior tribes, that the Occaneechi role as trading middleman was undermined.[6]
In May 1676, the Occaneechi allied with Nathaniel Bacon and his British troops in a war with theSusquehannock; however, the British immediately turned on their allies and attacked three forts within the Occaneechi village. The British killed the Occaneechi's leader Posseclay, approximately 100 men, as well as many women and children. A Susquehannock war party attacked Occoneechee Island in the summer of 1678.[3]: 292 Old records in the British Public Record Office describe Bacon's expedition traveling southward from the James to Roanoke Rivers, expecting the fleeing Susquehannocks would try to buy powder from the Occaneechi at their island in the Roanoke River, and entering an agreement with the Occaneechee and their Manneking, Haykolott, and Annelector allies, who raided the Susquehannocks and captured about 30 men, some of whom they put to death.[7] The records also include a letter written by Mrs. Bacon to her sister on June 29, 1676 (which the sister received on September 26) describing many Indian raids, and Bacon's losses including an overseer at one of his outward plantations, as well as many cattle.[8] Bacon himself also complained of losing an overseer and cattle before his expedition, and described a two-day fight at the Occaneechee island, and killing about 100 men and two of their kings, beside women and children.[9]
By 1676, the Saponi and Tuleto settled near the Occaneechi, and eventually joined theConestoga in Pennsylvania.[4]
After the massacres during Bacon's Rebellion, surviving Occaneechi regrouped near a bend the Eno River at a place later to be known as the Fredricks archaeological site, east of the later American town of Hillsborough. The settlement, Occaneechi Town,[1] was alongside a prior settlement site to be known as the Jenrette archaeological site.[10][11] This site was on the Great Trading Path and the Occaneechis continued to be engaged in long-distance trade between English settlers and Indian communities.[12]
Occaneechi Town | |
|---|---|
Town or village | |
 Interactive map of Occaneechi Town | |
| Coordinates:36°04′14″N79°05′26″W / 36.0706319°N 79.0905916°W /36.0706319; -79.0905916 | |
| First settled | c. 1680 |
| Abandoned | 1710–1713[13] |
In 1701John Lawson visited the Occaneechi village, located on theEno River near present-dayHillsborough, North Carolina.[3]: 292 His written report plus modernarchaeological research at the site give insight into a society undergoing rapid change. They also were working to continue traditional crafts and a way of life.
HistorianRobert Beverley, Jr., in hisHistory and Present State of Virginia (1705), wrote that the Occaneechi language was widely used as alingua franca, "understood by the chief men of many nations, as Latin is in many parts of Europe" — even though, he says, the Occaneechi "have been but a small nation, ever since those parts were known to the English." Beverley said that the "priests and conjurers" of the otherVirginia Indian tribes "perform their adorations and conjurations" in this general language, much "as the Catholics of all nations do their Mass in the Latin."Linguistic scholars believe that the Occaneechi spoke a dialect of theSiouan languageTutelo.
Virginia governorAlexander Spotswood mentioned the Occaneechi as being one of nine Native nations within Virginia in 1712.[14] Along with the "Stuckanok, Tottero, and Saponi," the Occaneechi signed a "Treaty of Peace" with the colony of Virginia in 1713. They moved toFort Christanna in southeast Virginia. Occaneechi Town was almost entirely abandoned by 1713.
Fort Christanna was operated by theVirginia Company from 1714 to 1717. Its closure was apparently due to a lack of profits as an Indian trading center. Although several distinct groups of Siouan Indians lived at Fort Christanna, the English Virginians tended to refer to them simply as "Saponi" or "Fort Christanna Indians." After the closing of Fort Christanna in 1717, colonial records contain few references to the Occaneechi. Those references that do exist indicate a continued trade between Virginia colonists and the Saponi and Occaneechi.[6]
By 1720, after ongoing losses from warfare, the remnant bands of the Occaneechi, Saponi, and Stukanox, "who not finding themselves Separately Numerous, enough for their Defence, have agreed to unite in one Body, and all of them now go under the Name of the Sapponeys, asWilliam Byrd II wrote.[15]: i:188
In 1727, a settler living near theMeherrin, in a region where some violence had broken out, wrote to the governor of Virginia about the events. He said the Meherrin denied attacking theNottoway. "[T]hey lay the whole blame upon the Occaneechy King and the Saponi Indians." This suggests that English settlers recognized a distinction between the Occaneechi and Saponi.[6]
In 1730 Virginia'sHouse of Burgesses records noted an "Interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi Indians." This implied the existence ofmonoglot Occaneechi people. In 1730, many Saponi moved to live among theCatawba in South Carolina, but most returned to Virginia in 1733, along with someCheraw Indians. After 1733 the Saponi appear to have fragmented into small groups and dispersed. Some apparently remained in the vicinity of Fort Christanna, which was noted in Virginia records by its Saponi name,Junkatapurse. After 1742 the settlement is no longer mentioned, but only a road called Junkatapurse.[6]In the 1740s, the Saponi migrated south to live with the Catawba. Governor Gooch of Virginia reported that the "Saponies and other petty nations associated with them ... are retired out of Virginia to the Cattawbas" during the years 1743–1747.[6]
Most of the remaining Saponi members were recorded as migrating north in 1740 for protection with theIroquois. They mostly disappeared from the historical record in the Southeast. After theAmerican Revolution, in which four of the Iroquois Six Nations had sided with the losingBritish, the majority of the Iroquois (and Saponi) went toCanada for resettlement. Descendants live mostly at theSix Nations of the Grand River First Nation reserve inOntario. Traditional English-American histories typically describe the Saponi group of Indians as having left Virginia and North Carolina in the 18th century, either to join the Catawba or theIroquois.
Starting in the middle of the 18th century, however, historic records note Saponi living in North Carolina. Some Saponi moved from Virginia to various places in North Carolina. There is some evidence that isolated Native Americans never left these areas of North Carolina and became consolidated with Saponi from Virginia.[citation needed]
In 1763, Lt. GovernorFrancis Fauquier of Virginia wrote a letter that included a description of the Indians of Virginia: "There are some of the Nottoways, Meherrins, Tuscaroras, and Saponys, who tho' they live in peace in the midst of us, lead in great measure the lives of wild Indians."[6] He contrasted these Indians with the Eastern Shore andPamunkey Indians, whom he described as more assimilated to English ways. Thus, there are still indications of Saponi in Virginia during this period.[citation needed]
For years lay people and researchers have discovered thousands of artifacts from Occoneechee Town, Saponi Town, and Tutelo Town on islands in the Roanoke River nearClarksville, Virginia. Until the completion of theJohn H. Kerr Dam on the Roanoke River in 1952 and the islands' flooding by the resultantKerr Lake reservoir, this site had an abundance of artifacts. Since 1983 the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have been uncovering another "Occaneechi Town", a late 17th and early 18th century Occaneechi village on theEno River near present-dayHillsborough, North Carolina.[6]
In 1968, Virginia establishedOcconeechee State Park on 2,698 acres on the Virginia shore of 48,000-acreKerr Lake. Kerr Lake, created by theJohn H. Kerr Dam on the Roanoke River near its confluence with the Dan River, flooded Occoneechee Island where the tribe had been decimated in May 1676. A Virginia historical marker at the park's entrance mentions the massacre, as well as tribal members' return toFort Christanna nearby decades later. The visitor center now features exhibits about the indigenous people of the area.[16]
In 1995, a community centered aroundPleasant Grove, North Carolina, whoself-identified as descendants of the Occannechi, Saponi, and Tutelo people from Fort Christanna, began hosting an annualpowwow and organized under the nameOccaneechi Band of Saponi.[3]: 298 The state of North Carolina recognized the tribe in 2002, whose members primarily reside in theAlamance andOrange Counties.[17]: 328
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