The Occaneechi are Native Americans related to the Saponi, Tutelo, Monacan, and other eastern Siouan peoples living in the Piedmont region of present-day North Carolina and Virginia. A Hupa man, 1923 The indigenous peoples of the Americas were the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. ... Saponi is the name of one of the eastern Siouan tribes, related to the Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan and other eastern Siouan peoples, whose original homeland is in North Carolina and Virginia. ... TUTELO is a name classification referring to Indians who historically resided from the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia down to the valleys of the Mayo and Dan Rivers in North Carolina. ... The Monacan are an Indian tribe in Virginia, located in Amherst County, Virginia near Lynchburg, Virginia. ... Pre-contact distribution of the Siouan languages The Siouan (a. ... The James River winds its way among piedmont hills in central Virginia. ... This article is the current U.S. Collaboration of the Week. ... Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area  Ranked 35th  - Total 42,793 sq mi (110,862 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 430 miles (690 km)  - % water 7. ...

By the time the Occaneechi entered the recorded history of European Americans their society was already undergoing rapid change. In the early 18th century the Occaneechi were grouped with the Tutelo, Saponi, and others living at Fort Christanna in Virginia. The English of Virginia generally refered to all the Fort Christanna Indians as "Saponi". Fort Christanna was closed in 1717, after which there are very few written references to the Occaneechi. But the references that do survive indicate that the Occaneechi retained their language during the 18th century and perhaps into the 19th century.

The amalgamation of various Indians, collectively called Saponi by the 18th century English, apparently fragmented into several small groups in the 1730s and became generally dispersed through the Piedmont region. The history of the various Saponi groups, including the Occaneechi, has been a topic of research in recent decades. The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation today consists of about 700 tribal members living primarily in Alamance County, North Carolina. Since 1983 the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been uncovering "Occaneechi Town", a 16th and 17th century Occaneechi village on the Eno River near present-day Hillsborough, North Carolina. The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation are the descendants of the Saponi and other Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia. ... Alamance County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. ... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. ... The Eno River at Hillsborough, North Carolina The Eno River, named for the Eno Indians who once lived along its banks, is the initial tributary of the Neuse River in North Carolina, USA. The Eno rises in Orange County. ... Hillsborough is a town located in Orange County, North Carolina. ...

History

The Occaneechi were mentioned in 17th century colonial English records as living on the Trading 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. In 1673, Abraham Wood, a Virginian fur trader, sent James Needham and Gabriel Arthur into the southern Appalachian Mountains in an attempt to make direct contact with the Cherokee, thus bypassing the Occaneechi. The party did make contact with the Cherokee, but it would not be until colonial South Carolina established a strong relationship with the Cherokee and other interior tribes during the last decades of the 17th century that the Occaneechi's role as trading middlemen was undermined. The Trading Path is not simply one wide path as many named historic roads were or are. ... Abraham Wood was an English fur trader (specifically the deerskin trade) and explorer of colonial Virginia during the 17th century. ... A rainy day in the Great Smoky Mountains, Western North Carolina Appalachia, the central and southern Appalachian Mountains of the United States, also including the Allegany and Cumberland Plateaus The Appalachian Mountains (French: les Appalaches) are a vast system of North American mountains, partly in Canada, but mostly in the... For other uses, see Cherokee (disambiguation). ...

In 1701 John Lawson visited Occaneechi Town on the Eno River. His written report plus modern archaeology at the site paint a picture of a society undergoing rapid change while trying to maintain something of their traditional way of life. John Lawson (1674-1711) was an Englishman who became the first Surveyor-General of North Carolina. ...

The Occaneechi, along with the "Stuckanok, Tottero, and Saponi", signed a "Treaty of Peace" with the colony of Virginia in 1713, after which they moved to Fort Christanna in southeast Virginia. Occaneechi Town appears to have been almost entirely abandoned by 1713.

Fort Christanna was operated by Virginia from 1714 to 1717. Its closure was apparently due to a lack of profits via its use as an Indian trading center. Although several distinct groups of 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 there are very few references to the Occaneechi in colonial records. Those references that do exist indicate a continued trade between Virginia and the Saponi and Occaneechi.

In 1727, a settler living near the Meherrin Indians, in a region where some violence had broken out, wrote to the governor of Virginia, saying that the Meherrin denied attacking the Nottoway, and that "they lay the whole blame upon the Occaneechy King and the Saponi Indians"; which seems to indicate a continued distinction between the Occaneechi and Saponi, recognized even by English settlers. The Meherrin Tribe is one of eight state-recognized tribes of Native Americans in North Carolina and received formal state recognition in 1986. ...

There is a mention in Virginia's House of Burgesses records in 1730 of an "Interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi Indians", implying the existence of monoglot Occaneechi people. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

In 1730, many Saponi moved to live among the Catawba, but returned to Virginia in 1733, along with some Cheraw Indians. Pre-contact distribution of the Catawba The Catawba (also known as Issa or Esaw) are a tribe of Native Americans, once considered one of the most powerful eastern Siouan tribes, that traditionally lived in the Southeast United States, along the border between North and South Carolina. ... The Cheraw (variously called Charaw, Charraw, Sara, Saraw, Saura, Suali, Sualy, Xualla, or Xuala), were a tribe of Siouan-speaking Amerindians first encountered by Hernando De Soto in 1540 and subsequently disappeared after 1768. ...

After 1733 the Saponi seem to have fragmented into small groups and dispersed. Some apparently remained in the vicinity of Fort Christanna, which continued to be mentioned in Virginian records by its Saponi name, "Junkatapurse". After 1742 the settlement is no longer mentioned, but only a road called Junkatapurse.

In the 1740s, the Saponi once again went to live with the Catawba, but returned to Virginia in a few years. 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.

Starting the in middle 18th century there are records of Saponi living in North Carolina, where today many Occaneechi and Saponi descendants live. Some Saponi moved from Virginia to various places in North Carolina, and there is some evidence that some Indians never left these areas of North Carolina and became consolidated with Saponi from Virginia. Colonial records and those of the United States provide only a vague historical record. As the Piedmont Indians ceased living in a way that the local non-Indians thought of as "Indian", words like "mulatto" and "free colored" began to be used to describe these people. There may be connections between the Occaneechi and Saponi descendants and the Lumbee and Melungeons. Dame Kelly Holmes is half Black (Jamaican) and half White (English). ... In the history of the slavery in the Americas, a free person of color was a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved. ... The Lumbee are a Native American tribe of North Carolina, though their origins are disputed. ... Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of so-called tri-racial isolate groups of the Eastern United States, found mainly in Appalachia, especially Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky. ...

In 1756, the Moravian settlers living near present-day Winston-Salem reported the existence of an Indian palisaded "fort" settlement near the Haw River. The Moravians called the Indians "Cherokees", but it is more likely they were Sissipahau ("Saxapahaw") or another group related to the Occaneechi. This, along with various oral traditions, indicates the continued existence of Indians living in a more or less traditional manner in North Carolina's Piedmont long after such settlements supposedly vanished. Nickname: Twin City Location in North Carolina Coordinates: Country United States State North Carolina Counties Forsyth County Founded Incorporated 1766 (Salem) 1849 (Winston) 1913 Mayor Allen Joines (D) Area    - City 283. ... Categories: Stub | North Carolina rivers ...

In 1763, Lt. Governor Francis Fauquier of Virginia wrote a letter in which he described 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." He contrasted these Indians these the Eastern Shore and Pamunkey Indians, who he described as much more assimilated to English ways. This is another indication that at least some of the Saponi continued to live in the Piedmont in at least a somewhat traditional way, and with a distinct Saponi ethnicity, as late as the 1760s. A Painting of Francis Fauquier Francis Fauquier was a Lieutenant Governor of the colony of Virginia (in what is today the United States), and served as acting governor from 1758 until his death in 1768. ... The Pamunkey Tribe has been in existence for around ten to twelve thousand years, since the Ice Age. ...

Traditional English American histories typically describe the Saponi group of Indians as leaving Virginia and North Carolina in the 1700s, either joining the Catawbas or the Iroquois. In recent decades it has become increasingly clear that some Saponi remained in Virginia and North Carolina, living in semi-traditional ways long after they were commonly thought to have vanished. The Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power, Five Nations, or Six Nations, mostly Six nations now a days) is a group of First Nations/Native Americans. ...

During the 19th century and early 20th, when it was often a liability to be of Indian descent, Piedmont Indians were often recorded as "colored" or "Negro" or other such terms. Many people of Indian descent were described, either by themselves or others, as "Cherokee", which was one of the few reasonably well-respected Indian tribes of the 19th century. Only in the middle-to-late 20th century have the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmont Indian descendents officially reclaimed ancestral names like Saponi and Occaneechi, such as the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. For other uses, see Cherokee (disambiguation). ... The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation are the descendants of the Saponi and other Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia. ...

References

• Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont
• Forest Hazel. "Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community"., published in Southern Indian Studies. Mathis, Mark A., ed. Vol. 40 (October, 1991). The North Carolina Archaeological Society, Inc., Raleigh.