The Beginning
Between 20,000 B.C. and 10,000 B.C. a nomadic people of Asian decent (now known as Paleo- Indians) began wandering into the woodlands and hills of what was later to be called the American southeast (Houck, p. 3). For eons these wandering hunter/gathers had been slowly but surely following large game like deer, buffalo and mammoth southward, first over a land bridge covering the Bering Strait in Alaska and eventually into the western United States where it is speculated that two groups broke off; one following game south, eventually inhabiting Mexico and South America; and the other following game east, eventually inhabiting the American eastern seaboard (Houck, p. 5). Interestingly enough, even as late as 1730 a few buffalo still remained in Albemarle County (of which Fluvanna County was still a part until 1777) (Houck, p. 12). Over thousands of years Indian culture began relying less on wandering in search of large game. Roughly from 8,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. the Indians of the Archaic Period set a pattern of returning to sites during different times of the year, using baskets and catching fish (Houck, p. 8). The Woodlands Indian Period from 1,000 B.C. to 1,600 A.D. was the climax of Native American culture in which was included using clay for pottery, learning farming techniques, and using the bow and arrow (Houck, p. 8).
Map of Monacan Villages circa 1608 (Click map to be taken to enlargement).
During the Woodlands Period, several distinct language groups inhabited the future land of Virginia. The Algonquin inhabited land from the eastern shore to the fall line of the James River where Virginia's Piedmont began. The Algonquin later included the great Chief Powhatan Confederacy and were the first Native Americans to meet the white settlers at Jamestown in 1608 (Houck, p. 8). The Algonquin were agriculturists and had semi-permanent villages, relying on hunting more as sport than for total sustenance. The Algonquin tribes consisted of the Shawnee, the Chowanoc and the Powhatan (Purvis, p. 22). For the most part the Iroquois inhabited the land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the related Cherokee inhabited southwestern Virginia (Houck, p. 8). The Iroquoian tribes consisted of the Cherokee, Tuscarora, Meherrin and the Nottaway (Purvis, p. 22). The Iroquois were similar to the Algonquin in that they relied less on hunting and more on agriculture to sustain themselves. The northern Iroquois tribes had also banded together for protection, forming an alliance known as the Five Nations Confederacy, which as Samuel Cook states, "had long been a military nemesis of many southern tribes" including the Algonquin and the Piedmont Indians (Siouan) (p. 35).
Inhabiting Virginia's Piedmont from the falls of James River westward to the Blue Ridge Mountains lived the Siouan. The Siouan had little contact with early white settlers and thus there is little written historical record on the people. In later American history the Siouan (more commonly know as the Sioux) were the Plains Indians of the American West that we all learned about in history class. However, by studying their language the Sioux can trace their history and culture back to the east including Virginia (Houck, p. 10). Unlike the Algonquin of the East and Iroquois and Cherokee of the West, the Siouan relied heavily on hunting and gathering and moved around quite frequently. Also, to their disadvantage the nomadic Siouan tribes never fully allied themselves for protection and were constantly assailed by the aggressive Iroquois to the north (Houck, p. 14).
At the time Europeans discovered America, the Siouan who numbered nearly 47,000 people and were comprised of ten distinct divisions, had spread across the continent (Houck p. 16). In the east, the Siouan had two further divisions: the Carolina and Virginian Siouan (Cook, p. 26). The Siouan in Virginia numbered about 16 tribes (which rarely interacted) but as stated by Cook had "three tentative alliances" (p. 26). These alliances included the:
1) Monacan Confederacy, which included tribes such as the Monacan, Meiponsky, Mahoc, Nuntaly, and Mohetan;
2) Tutelo Confederacy, which included tribes such as the Tutelo, Saponi, and Occanichi; and
3) Manahoac Confederacy, which included such tribes as the Hassinnungaes, Manahoac, Ontponeas, Stegarake, Shackakoni, Tauxitania, Tegninateos, and Whonkenteas (Houck, p. 17: Cook, p. 26).
