Monacan Indian Nation

Not to be confused with the people ofMonaco.

Not to be confused with the Manonoakin village of thePocomoke people.

Monacan

Total population
2,000 enrolled members
Regions with significant populations
Virginia,West Virginia,Maryland,Ohio
Languages
English, formerlyTutelo
Related ethnic groups
Tutelo,Occaneechi,Manahoac,other easternSiouantribes

TheMonacan Indian Nationis one of elevenNative Americantribes recognized since the late 20th century by the U.S. Commonwealth ofVirginia.

In January 2018, theUnited States Congresspassed an act to provide federal recognition as tribes to the Monacan and five other tribes in Virginia. They had earlier been so disrupted by land loss, warfare, intermarriage, and discrimination that the main society believed they no longer were Indians. However, the Monacans reorganized and asserted their culture.

The Monacan nation was first recorded byJamestownsettlers incolonial Virginia,as living west and upland of theTidewaterarea. Their native language is aSiouan language.They are related to other Siouan-speaking tribes of the Appalachian foothill region, such as theTutelo,SaponiandOccaneechi.One of their former villages, upriver of the falls of theJames Riverwas abandoned by the 18th century and the land granted to Huguenot settlers, who retained the name ofManakin town.Today, the Monacan nation is located primarily in their traditionalPiedmont region,particularly inAmherst CountynearLynchburg.As of 2018, the Monacan Indian Nation had approximately 2,000 citizens.There are satellite groups inWest Virginia,Maryland,Tennessee,andOhio.

History

17th century

Historical marker near the site of the Monacan village ofMonasukapanoughin northernAlbemarle County, Virginia.

WhenJamestownsettlers first explored theJames Riverin May 1607, they learned that the James River Monacan (along with their northernMannahoacallies on theRappahannock River) controlled the area of thePiedmontbetween theFall Line(where present-dayRichmonddeveloped) and theBlue Ridge Mountains.The Monacan were hostile competitors with thePowhatanconfederacy, a group of 30Algonquian-speaking tribes who controlled much of theTidewaterand coastal plain. TheweroanceParahunt, son of paramountchief Powhatanof the Powhatan confederacy, persuaded CaptainChristopher Newportnot to venture beyond the James River falls into Monacan country.

However, the determined Newport made an expedition into Monacan country in November 1608. On a 40-mile (64 km) march upstream along the banks of the James River, the settlers found two Monacan towns, whose names they recorded asMassinacakandMowhemenchough.Unlike the Powhatan, who had given the settlers lavish welcomes, the Monacan largely ignored them and went about their business. The settlers captured their chief and forced him to guide them around his territory. On November 26, 1608, Peter Wynne, a member of Newport's party to the Monacan villages, wrote a letter toJohn Egertoninforming him that some members of the party believed the pronunciation of the Monacans' language resembled "Welch"(Welsh), which Wynne spoke. Newport had asked Wynne to act as interpreter,but the language was not Welsh and he could not understand it.

Mowhemencho,the Monacan nation's easternmost outpost, was upriver of the falls of the James River, between Bernard's Creek and Jones Creek in the eastern tip of present-dayPowhatan County.Massinacak(Mahock) was further upriver at the mouth of Mohawk Creek, a mile south of present-dayGoochland.The Monacan capital wasRassawek,located at the point within the two branches,Point of Fork,of the upper James andRivannarivers. Tributary to them were the Monahassanugh (later known as the Nahyssan, i.e.Tutelo), whose town was further upstream on the James River near what later developed asWingina,and the Monasukapanough (later known as theSaponi), living near present-dayCharlottesvilleupstream on the Rivanna River.All these groups were closely related with the SiouanManahoacto the north.

In 1656 several hundredNahyssan,Mahock, andRechahecrians(possibly Iroquoian-speakingEriefrom present-day Pennsylvania) threatened both the Powhatan tribes and the settlers by camping near the James falls. A combined force of the Powhatan and settlers was sent to dislodge them. ThePamunkeychiefTotopotomoiwas slain in the resulting battle. Historically theMonacanand Erie were trade allies, especially copper.

The Monacan towns of Mowhemencho and Mahock were still occupied in 1670, whenJohn Ledererand Major Harris recorded visiting them; they found that the men possessed muskets. Lederer recorded their tradition that they had settled in the area on account of an oracle 400 years earlier, having been driven from the northwest by an enemy nation. They told him they had found it occupied by theDoeg,whom they eventually displaced, in the meantime teaching them the art of growing corn.

He recorded another Monacan tradition as follows: "From four women, viz. Pash, Sepoy, Askarin, and Maraskarin, they derive the race of mankinde; which they therefore divide into four tribes, distinguished under those several names."

At the time of Lederer's visit, the tribe had about 30 bowmen or warriors, out of a total population of perhaps 100. Lederer also noted the towns ofSaponandPintahaeon theStaunton River.Batts and Fallam recorded the latter town asHanahaskiein 1671. The 20th-century ethnologist Swanton considers this last to be a Nahyssan village. Around 1675 the Nahyssan settled on an island at the confluence of the Stanton andDanrivers, upriver of theOccaneechipeople.

In 1677, the Monacan chief Surenough was one of several native signatories to the Treaty of Middle Plantation followingBacon's Rebellion.Virginian settlers and thePamunkeyencountered them, and the Manahoac, on the Upper Mattaponi and North Anna rivers in 1684.

By 1699, the Monacan had abandoned their homeland, moving farther away due to European encroachment.

18th century

The VirginianHouse of Burgessesgranted much of the former site of Mowhemencho to FrenchHuguenotrefugees, who were settled on both sides of the James River in 1700 and 1701. First promised land at Jamestown, they were forced by theVirginian colonial governmentto settle above the falls. In Goochland County, they established the villages of Manakin and Sabot, today known asManakin-Sabot, Virginia.

Although a few Monacan lingered in the area as late as 1702, the core remnant seems to have merged with the Nahyssan and other closely related Virginia Siouan tribes, by then known generally asTutelo-Saponi.Under this collective name, the bulk of the tribe may be traced to North Carolina (1702), and back to Virginia (Fort Christanna,1714). Some headed north to join the Iroquois around theGreat Lakesfor protection, and were noted in Pennsylvania (Shamokin,by 1740); and in western New York atCoreorgonelby 1753, where they joined theCayuga.Some participated with them in theAmerican Revolutionary Waras allies of theBritishagainst thePatriots.After the war, many Monacan went with the Iroquois to Canada and were settled at the (Six Nation Reserve of the Grand River First Nation) in present-day Ontario. Their settlement of Tutelo Heights was noted in 1779. By the early 20th century, their descendants in Ontario had been largely absorbed by theCayuga tribethrough intermarriage.

Smaller bands are believed to have split off in North Carolina, and at several locations across Virginia.

Meanwhile the new European colonists noted several large pre-existing mounds, and in 1784Thomas Jeffersonexcavated part of one burial mound on the Rivanna River near the former Monasukapanough, which he later mentioned in hisNotes on the State of Virginia "and which modern archeologists estimate to have contained as many as one thousand people.Another excavated mound was called "Rapidan" on the Rapidan River near the Stegara village. However, most other surviving mounds were further west, including "Bowman" on the North Fork of theShenandoah River,and the northernmost mound at "Brumback" on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. Other mounds were at "John East" and "Lewis Creak" before their confluence into the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. Two further mounds were at "Hayes Creek" and "Bell" on theMaury Riverupriver of its confluence with the James, and "Clover Creek" and "Withrow" on theCowpasture Riverbefore its confluence with the upper portion of the James, and "Hirsh" on theJackson Riverbefore its confluence near the headwaters of the James.

19th century

Current headquarters of the Monacan Indian Nation in Amherst, Virginia

After Peter Wynne's expedition of 1608, the Monacan are one of the groups who have been conjectured to be ""Welsh Indians"".Historians have found no evidence and treat it as myth.The Monacan language was part of the Siouan language family.

Between 1831 and 1833, William Johns, an ancestor of some of today's Monacan, purchased 452 acres (1.83 km²) of land on Bear Mountain for a settlement of families related to him. In 1850, the census recorded 29 families there.

20th century

Over time, Native Americans in Virginia intermarried with Europeans and African Americans. Whites assumed that meant that they no longer identified as Indians, but were mistaken. In 1924, Virginia passed aRacial Integrity Act,which instituted a binary system of racial classification as black or white only. It also included theone-drop rule,requiring classification as black of a person with any known African ancestry. The director of the department of vital records insisted on reclassifying specific families as black, although they had long been recorded as Indian. This program ignored how people identified socially and culturally, and disrupted decades of records, causing American Indians in Virginia to lose historical continuity. But they kept their culture and community, and reorganized in the 20th century to regain recognition as Native American peoples.

In 1926Mongrel Virginians: The WIN Tribe,a study of amixed-racegroup in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was published by theCarnegie Institution.The author described the group as "degenerate". The author referred to the group as theWIN tribe,for White-Indian-Negro, because he was disguising the name of the group, the surnames of its members, the county which was studied – every fact about them. Some contemporary academic reviewers strongly criticized and ridiculed the book and its reliance on community anecdotes to make judgments about families and individuals.

When ancestors of current Monacan families entered the U.S. military to serve in the world wars, they resisted accepting the classification of "colored", which the state of Virginia had tried impose on them.

In 1946 the researcherWilliam Harlan Gilbert Jr.described the Monacan in his "Memorandum Concerning the Characteristics of the Larger Mixed-Blood Racial Islands of the Eastern United States".Edward T. Price had a study in 1953,"A Geographical Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in the Eastern United States".Both used the former name for the group," Issues ", generally used to refer tofree people of color,most of whom weremixed-race,who were free before the Civil War and general emancipation. Both authors considered the Issues (sometimes called "Old Issues" ) to betri-racial.

TheEpiscopal Churchran a primary school (Bear Mountain Indian Mission School) for the children of this community at Bear Mountain nearAmherst, Virginia.There was no high school education available. In 1963, Amherst County proposed a $30,000 bond to build a school for the mission community. The proposal was voted down, and 23 students applied for transfer to public schools. The state approved their applications and themissionschool closed.

Claims and recognition as Native American

In the early 1980s, Peter Houck, a local physician, publishedIndian Island in Amherst County,in which he speculated that thefree people of colorin the region during theantebellumera were in part descendants of the Monacan tribe.While this population had claimed an Indian cultural identity since the turn of the 20th century, Houck was the first to link some of them to the Monacan tribal identity. Prior to Houck's book, most people claiming Native American ancestry in that vicinity had identified asCherokee,which were well-known in the Southeast. Many of the local families continue to claim Cherokee instead of Monacan ancestry.

In 1988, the Monacan Tribe incorporated as a nonprofit organization to establish its presence. In 1989, the tribe was officially recognized by the State ofVirginia.Othertribes recognized by the stateinclude theChickahominy,Eastern Chickahominy,Mattaponi,Nansemond,Pamunkey,Rappahannock,Upper Mattaponi,Patawomeck,Nottoway,andCheroenhaka (Nottoway)tribes.

On January 30, 2018, federal recognition status was granted to the Monacan Nation and five other tribes in Virginia through passage by Congress of theThomasina E. JordanIndian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017. President Trump signed the bill approved by both houses of Congress.

Name

The Monacan were also historically known as the Manskin.Their territory on thePamunkey Riverwas also called Manskin.

Manonoakins on the Eastern Shore

Complicating matters, one of the subgroups of the Algonquian-speakingPocomoke peoplewho lived on what is now known as theEastern Shore of Maryland,was sometimes called the Manonoakin or Manakin tribe. Although Capt. John Smith encountered the Pocomoke people in the early 17th century, and some descendants continue to live in the area, disease and governmental displacement policies devastated the tribe by that century's end. Maryland only began contemplating state recognition of its Indigenous people in 1974 with the creation of its Commission on Indian Affairs.Unlike Virginia, it has to date only recognized officially two tribes, the Piscataway (who lived across from modern Washington, D.C.) and the Accohonnock (who also lived on the Eastern shore), and neither has achieved federal recognition.Nonetheless, Maryland in December 2023 unveiled a historical marker commemorating the Manonaokin village.Furthermore, in Tidewater Virginia, a plantation constructed for founding father Francis Lightfoot Lee was calledMenokinafter the place name used by theRappahannock people,another Algonquian-speaking people and who like the Monacan received federal recognition in 2018.

Celebrations

Today the Monacan Indian Nation operates a yearlypowwowin May, and a homecoming celebration in October. A model of an ancient Monacan village has been constructed as part ofNatural Bridge (Virginia)State Park, in nearbyRockbridge County.

Further reading

• Houck, Peter W.Indian Island in Amherst County.Lynchburg: Lynchburg Historical Research Co., 1984.
• Estabrook, Arthur H. & McDougle, Ivan E.Mongrel Virginians: The WIN Tribe.Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1926.

External links

• Monacan Indian Nation,official site