14 Facts & Photos Profiles of Virginia History of Virginia For thousands of years before the arrival of the English, vari- other native peoples to form the powerful confederacy that con- ous societies of indigenous peoples inhabited the portion of the trolled the area that is now West Virginia until the Shawnee New World later designated by the English as “Virginia.” Ar- Wars (1811-1813). By only 1646, very few Powhatans re- chaeological and historical research by anthropologist Helen C. mained and were policed harshly by the English, no longer Rountree and others has established 3,000 years of settlement even allowed to choose their own leaders. They were organized in much of the Tidewater. Even so, a historical marker dedi- into the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes. They eventually cated in 2015 states that recent archaeological work at dissolved altogether and merged into Colonial society. Pocahontas Island has revealed prehistoric habitation dating to about 6500 BCE. The Piscataway were pushed north on the Potomac River early in their history, coming to be cut off from the rest of their peo- Native Americans ple. While some stayed, others chose to migrate west. Their movements are generally unrecorded in the historical record, As of the 16th Century, what is now the state of Virginia was but they reappear at Fort Detroit in modern-day Michigan by occupied by three main culture groups: the Iroquoian, the East- the end of the 18th century. These Piscataways are said to have ern Siouan and the Algonquian. The tip of the Delmarva Penin- moved to Canada and probably merged with the Mississaugas, sula south of the Indian River was controlled by the who had broken away from the Anishinaabeg and migrated Algonquian Nanticoke. Meanwhile, the Tidewater region along southeast into that same region. Despite that, many Piscataway the Chesapeake Bay coastline appears to have been controlled stayed in Virginia and Maryland until the modern day. Other by the Algonquian Piscataway (who lived around the Potomac members of the Piscataway also merged with the Nanticoke. River), the Powhatan and Chowanoke, or Roanoke (who lived between the James River and Neuse River.). Inland of them The Nanticoke seem to have been largely confined to Indian were two Iroquoian tribes known as the Nottoway, or Towns, but were later relocated to New York in 1778. After- Managog, and the Meherrin. The rest of Virginia was almost ward, they dissolved, with groups joining the Iroquois and entirely Eastern Sioux, divided between the Monaghan and the Lenape. Manahoac, who held lands from central West Virginia, through southern Virginia and up to the Maryland border (the region of The Chowanoke were moved to reservation lands by the Eng- the Shenandoah River Valley was controlled by a different peo- lish in 1677, where they remained until the 19th century. By ple). Also, the lands peoples connected to the Mississippian 1821, they had merged with other tribes and were generally Culture may have just barely crossed over into the state into its dissolved, however the descendants of these peoples reformed southwestern corner. Later, these tribes merged to form the in the 21st century and re-acquired much of their old reserva- Yuchi. tion in 2014. Algonquian Eastern Siouan Rountree has noted that “empire” more accurately describes the Many of the Siouan peoples of the state seem to have originally political structure of the Powhatan. In the late 16th and early been a collection of smaller tribes with uncertain affiliation. 17th centuries, a chief named Wahunsunacock created this Names recorded throughout the 17th century were the powerful empire by conquering or affiliating with approxi- Monahassanough, Rassawek, Mowhemencho, Monassukap- mately thirty tribes whose territories covered much of what is anough, Massinacack, Akenatsi, Mahoc, Nuntaneuck, Nutaly, now eastern Virginia. Known as the Powhatan, or paramount Nahyssan, Sapon, Monakin, Toteros, Keyauwees, Shakori, chief, he called this area Tenakomakah (“densely inhabited Eno, Sissipahaw, Monetons and Mohetons living and migrating Land”). The empire was advantageous to some tribes, who throughout what is now West Virginia, Virginia, North were periodically threatened by other groups, such as the Carolina and South Carolina. All were said to have spoken, at Monacan. The first English colony, Jamestown, was allegedly least two distinct languages—Saponi (which appears to be a allowed to be settled by Chief Powhatan as he wanted new mil- missing link language existing between the Chiwere and itary and economic advantages over the Siouans west of his Dhegihan variants) and Catawba (which is most closely related people. The following chief, Opechancanough, succeeded him to Biloxi and the Gulf Coast Siouan languages). John Smith within only a couple of years after contact and had a much dif- was the first to note two groups in the Virginian interior—the ferent view of the English. He led several failed uprisings, Monaghans and the Monahoacs. The words came from the which caused his people to fracture, some tribes going south to Powhatan and translations are uncertain, however Monaghan live among the Chowanoke or north to live among the seems similar to a known Lenape word, Monaquen, which Piscataway. After that, one of his sons took several Powhatans means “to scalp.” They were also commonly referred to as the and moved off to the northwest, becoming the Shawnee and Eastern Blackfoot, which explains why some Saponi today took over former Susquehannock territories. Recorded in the identify as the Siouan-Blackfoot people, and later still as the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania throughout the 17th cen- Christannas. tury, they eventually made their way into the Ohio River Val- ley, where they are believed to have merged with a variety of Profiles of Virginia Facts & Photos 15 As far as can be assumed, however, it seems that they were ar- 1718, the Saponi dispersed. With continued conflicts between Facts/Photos ranged thus—from east to west along the north shore of the the Saponi and Iroquios in the region, the governors of Vir- James River, just inland of the Powhatan, would have been the ginia, Pennsylvania and New York joined to organize a peace Eno, Shakori and Saponi. Around the source of the river (and treaty, which did ultimately end the conflict. Some time around probably holding some of the river’s islands a ways back east) 1722, the Tutelo and some other Saponis migrated to the should have been the Occaneechi, or Akenatsi. They were be- Iroquoian-held Pennsylvania territory and settled there, among lieved to have been the “grandfather” tribe of the region, a term many other refugees of local tribes who had been destroyed, among native peoples for any tribe highly respected and vener- absorbed into Colonial society, or simply moved on without ated for being the first or oldest people of their kind. West of them. In 1753, the Iroquois reorganized them all into Tutelo, the Occaneechi and primarily located in what is now West Vir- Delaware and Nanticoke Tribes, relocated them to New York ginia were, at least, two more tribes believed to have been re- and gave them full honors among the Confederacy, despite lated—the Moneton of the Kanawha River and the Tutelo of none of them being Iroquoian. After the American Revolution, the Bluestone River, which separates West Virginia from Ken- these tribes accompanied them to Canada. Later, the descen- tucky. About midway along the southern shores of the James dants of the Tutelos migrated again to Ohio, becoming the River should have been the Sissipahaw. They were probably Saponi and Tutelo Tribes of Ohio. Many of the other Siouan the only Eastern Siouan tribe in the state who would have spo- peoples of Virginia were also noted to have merged with the ken a form of Catawba language, rather than Saponi/ Tutelo. Catawba and Yamasee tribes. North of them were the Manahoac, or Mahock. The Keyauwee are also of note. It is difficult to say whether they were a Iroquoian subtribe of others mentioned, a newly formed tribe, or from While mainly noted in Virginia, it appears that the Tuscarora somewhere else. migrated into the region from the Delmarva Peninsula early in the 17th century. John Smith noted them on an early map as the Originally existing along the entirety of the current western Kuskarawocks. (They may have also absorbed the Tockwoghs, border of Virginia and up through some of the southwestern who also appear on the map and were most likely Iroquoian.) mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky, they seem to have After an extended war with the English, the Tuscarora began first been driven east by the Iroquoian Westo during the Beaver leaving for New York and began merging with the Iroquois in Wars. Historians have since come to note that the Westo were groups around 1720, continuing approximately until the Iro- almost definitely the Erie and Neutrals/ Chonnonton, who had quois were banished to Canada following the American Revo- conquered wide swathes of what is now northern and eastern lution. Those who remained became a new tribe—the Ohio approximately during the 1630s and were subsequently Coharie—and migrated south to live near the Meherrin. conquered and driven out by the Iroquois Confederacy around 1650. The Tutelo of West Virginia first seem to be noted as liv- The Meherrin aided the Tuscarora in that war, but did not fol- ing north of the Saponi, in northern Virginia in around 1670. low them north. In 1717, the English gave them a reservation Later in the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois lost their new lands in just south of the North Carolina border. The North Carolina Ohio and Michigan to the French and their new native allies government contested their land rights and tried to take them around the western Great Lakes.