Though white settlers had little contact with the Siouan tribes of Virginia, in 1608 Captain John Smith sent Captain Christopher Newport up the James River from Jamestown to explore Virginia's Piedmont region. Upon seizing a "petty king" of the Monacans at the outset of the expedition, Newport learned of Monacan towns along the James River and its tributaries (Cook, p. 35). The first, about fifteen miles above the fall line (at present-day Richmond) and on the river's south side was known as Mowhemcho. The next town up river, Massinack, was about thirty miles upriver and also on the river's south side. Massinack and Mowhemcho were the only two villages actually visited by Newport; the three others were related to him by the "petty king." About fifteen miles upriver was the town of Rassawek, which as Smith stated in 1608, "was the principal town of the Monacans, to which all other villages paid tribute" (Cook, p. 30). Rassawek was located at a fork in the river where the Rivanna River meets the James River near the present town of Columbia in Fluvanna County. Near the headwaters of the Rivanna River, another thirty miles northwest, was the town of Monasukapanough. Continuing back up the James River from Rassawek about sixty miles upstream was the town of Monahassanugh on the river's north bank and near the present town of Wingina in Nelson County.
Though not originally known for being agriculturists and staying still for very long, by the time of Newport's expedition there is archeological evidence that at least two of the five villages were fairly permanent settlements with possibly hundreds of residents (Cook, p. 31). By the 1600s the Monacan people were becoming more reliant on staples such as corn and were becoming more agricultural than they previously had been (Cook, p. 32).
Monacan villages were not protected by log walls as was common with their neighbors to the east and west. Their villages were often circular in pattern with a speaking platform or stump in the center while structures were built from bark (Cook, p. 31). The Monacans were not an aggressive people by nature and there is no record of any attacks on white settlers (Houck, p. 24). The neighboring Algonquin first named their piedmont neighbors "Monacan" which means "earth diggers." Most artifacts of the Monacan people consist of quartz and quartzite, which was the stone of choice for tools (Houck, p. 24). As stated by Houck, "at the turn of the seventeenth century, the Monacans were drawn closer to the English by both awe and fear" (p.26). Awe in that the tools and weapons the English brought were very attractive and fear being from the powerful and aggressive Iroquois who were endlessly raiding the Monacan tribes (Houck, p. 26). The Monacans slowly began abandoning towns such as Rassawek and either continued west or settled around English forts (such as Fort Christiana in Brunswick County) for protection (Houck, p. 26). As stated by Cook, "It might even be argued that the demise of the Monacans hinged on the manner in which European colonial forces affected relations between the Monacan and their tribal enemies" (p. 35). After several cultural clashes, many of the Monacans moved north into Pennsylvania and from there into Canada (Houck, p. 28).
What Did Virginia's Piedmont Look Like Prior to Europeans?Before the arrival of Europeans, the lands of Virginia's Piedmont, including Fluvanna County, were extremely rich in plant and animal species. In ten square miles of a deciduous hardwood forest of the eastern United States in 1600, there were approximately 750,000 trees (3 in.+ in diameter, 4 ft. high) 786,000 tree seedlings, 2,810,000 shrubs and 230-140 million herbaceous plants (Purvis, p. 7). The trees consisted mainly of oak, maple, basswood, hickory, walnut, ash, and chestnut which, as Cooks states, "provided them (Monacans) with high carbohydrate nuts and very durable wood" (p. 33). The shrubbery was composed of spicebush, pawpaw, strawberry bush, and Virginia Creeper while the herbaceous plants consisted of bloodroot, wild ginger, squirrel corn, violets, false Solomon's seal, jewelweed, and nettle (Purvis, p. 7). Wildlife in a similar ten square mile area was just as plentiful. One could expect to find 5 black bears, 2-3 mountain lions, 1-2 gray wolves, 30 red foxes, 2 elk, 400 deer, 10,000 - 20,000 squirrels, 160,000 - 320,000 mice, 200 turkeys, 20 - 50 pairs of hawks, owls, and other predatory birds, 7,680 pairs of small nesting birds, 8,960 million arthropods in soil and ground litter and 26,880 million insects, spiders, and other invertebrates (Purvis, p. 7). By periodically burning the forest under story, the Monacan people kept the forest underbrush down which providing an abundance of large game. Hunting practices of the Monacan people were sustainable, and large game stocks were not depleted because of frequently changing hunting areas.
