Cultural History of the Eno River

The first human inhabitants to settle along the river were Native Americans. Archeological finds date the oldest discovered remains at about 2000 B.C.E. The Native American groups whose members currently reside in the Hillsborough area refer to themselves as the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. They are of Siouan descent and have around 400 registered members at present.

The Eno River is located along what was once known as the Great Indian Trading Path. Stretching from Niagara Falls to Mexico, the path was the principal route for the movement of goods that the colonial traders eventually trod. In North Carolina it has been succeeded in modern times by Interstate 85, which approximates its route fairly well.

In 1701 the colonial English surveyor and administrator John Lawson entered the settlement of Achonechy on the Eno near present-day Hillsborough. His record is the first mention in colonial records of the river. Lawson found the town with its well established trade connections and surrounding lands to be quite agreeable. Two decades later, a colonist named William Byrd was journeying through the Piedmont when he was met by an old Indian who wanted to lead him to a silver mine on the Eno River. Byrd made a joke of it and gave the old man a bottle of rum "to comfort his heart, with which he made himself very happy and all the family very miserable by the horrible noise he made all night."

While the mine of precious metal was never discovered, a group of local citizens centuries later found the Eno itself to be of tremendous, lasting value. In the late 60's and early 70's, they formed the Eno River Association and fought to preserve the river from a proposed dam. In 1973, the Eno River State Park was born. Today the park provides a wilderness refuge for animal and plant life in the midst of one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Explore for yourself the old mill sites, the rhododendron bluffs, and the cool waters of "that never-failing stream the Eno."

Eno Indian Tribe

Eno A tribe associated with the Adshusheer and Shakori in North Carolina in the 17th century. Mooney thinks it doubtful that the Eno and the Shakori where of Siouan stock, as they seem to have differed in physique and habits from their neighbors, although their alliances were all with Siouan tribes. Little is known of them as they disappeared from history as tribal bodies about 1720, having been incorporated with the Catawba on the south or with the Saponi and their confederates on the north, although they still retained their distinct dialect in 1743. The Eno and Shakori are first mentioned by Yardley in 1654, to whom a Tuscarora described, among other tribes of the interior, living next to the Shakori, "a great nation" called Haynoke, by whom the northern advance of the Spaniards was valiantly resisted (Hawks, N. C., ii, 19, 1858). The next mention of these two tribes is by Lederer, who heard of them in 1672 as living south of the Occaneechi about the headwaters of Tar and Neuse rivers. The general locality is still indicated in the names of Eno river and Shocco creek, upper "branches of these streams. In 1701 Lawson found the Eno and Shakori confederated and the Adshusheer united with them in the same locality. Their village, which he calls Adshusheer, was on Eno River, about 14 miles east of the Occaneechi village, which was near the site of the present Hillsboro. This would place the former not far north east of Durham, N. C.

Eno Will, a Shakori by birth, was at that time, according to Lawson, chief of the three combined tribes, and at this period the Shakori seem to have been the principal tribe. They had some trade with the Tuscarora. Later, about 1714, with the Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, and Keyauwee, together numbering only about 750 souls, they moved toward the settlements. Lawson includes Eno in his list of Tuscarora villages at that date, and as the Eno lived on the Neusead joining the Tuscarora, it was natural that they were sometimes classed with them. In 1716 Gov. Spotswood, of Virginia, proposed to settle the Eno, Sara, and Keyauwee at Eno town, on " the very frontiers" of North Carolina; but the project was defeated by North Carolina on the ground that all three tribes were then at war with South Carolina. From the records it can not he determined clearly whether this was the Eno town of Lawson or a more recent village nearer the Albemarle settlements. Owing to the objection made to their settlement in the north, the Eno moved southward into South Carolina. They probably assisted the other tribes of that region in the Yamasi war of 1715. At least a few of the mixed tribe found their way into Virginia with the Saponi, as Byrd speaks of an old Indian, called Shacco Will, living near Nottoway river in 1733, who offered to guide him to a mine on Eno river near the old country of the Tuscarora. The name of Shoekoe creek, at Richmond, Va., may possibly have been derived from that of the Shakori tribe, while the nacre of Euoree river in South Carolina may have a connection with that of the Eno tribe.

Lederer speaks of the Eno village as surrounded by large cultivated fields and as built around a central plaza where the men played a game described as "slinging of stones," in which "they exercise with so much labor and violence and in so great numbers that I have seen the ground wet with the sweat that dropped from their bodies." This was probably the chunky game played with round stones among the Creeks. Lederer agrees with Yardley as to the small size of the Eno, but not as to their bravery, though they were evidently industrious. They raised plentiful crops and "out of their granary supplied all the adjacent parts." "The character thus outlined," says Mooney, "accords more with that of the peaceful Pueblos than with that of any of our eastern tribes and goes far to indicate a different origin." It should be remembered, however, that Lederer is not a leading authority, as it is doubtful if he was ever in North Carolina. The houses of the Eno are said to have been different in some respects from those of their neighbors. Instead of building of bark, as did most Virginia and Carolina tribes, they used interwoven branches or canes and plastered them with mud or clay, like the Quapaw Indians of east Arkansas. The form was usually round. Near every house was a small oven-shaped structure in which they stored corn and nuts. This was similar to the storehouse of the Cherokee and some other southern tribes. Their government was democratic and patriarchal, the decision of the old men being received with unquestioned obedience.
See Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1896.

Shakori A small tribe associated with the Eno and Adshusheer in North Carolina in the 17th century. It is doubtful, from their physical characteristics, whether they were of Siouan stock, though they were allied with Siouan tribes. As the Shakori were constantly associated with the Eno they were probably linguistically related to them. They are first mentioned by Yardley (1654), who says a Tuscarora Indian described to him among other tribes of the interior "a great nation called Cacores," of dwarfish stature, not exceeding. that of boys of 14 years, yet exceedingly brave and fierce in fight and active in retreat, so that even the powerful Tuscarora were unable to conquer them.

They were then near neighbors of the Eno. Lederer (1672) found the villages of the two tribes about 14 miles apart, that of the Shakori being farthest west. In 1701 Lawson found the two tribes confederated, and the Adshusheer with them. Their village, which he calls Adshusheer, was on. Eno river about 14 miles east of the Occaneechi village, probably a short distance north east of the present Durham, N. C.

They resembled the Eno in their customs. According to Col. Barnwell, commander in the Tuscarora war of 1711, they are identical with the Sissipahaw.
Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894.

Saponi One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in North Carolina and Virginia, but now extinct. The tribal name was occasionally applied to the whole group of Ft Christanna tribes, also occasionally included under Tutelo. That this tribe belonged to the Siouan stock has been placed beyond doubt by the investigations of Hale and Mooney. Their language appears to have been the same as the Tutelo to the extent that the people of the two tribes could readily understand each other. Mooney has shown that the few Saponi words recorded are Siouan.

Lederer mentions a war in which the Saponi seem to have been engaged with the Virginia settlers as early as 1654-56, the time of the attack by the Cherokee, probably in alliance with them. The first positive notice is by Lederer (1670), who informs us that he stopped a few days at Sapon, a town of the Tutelo confederacy, situated on a tributary of the upper Roanoke. This village was apparently on Otter river, southwest of Lynchburg, Va. Pintahae is mentioned also as another of their villages near by. It is evident that the Saponi and Tutelo were living at that time in close and apparently confederated relation. In 1671 they were visited by Thomas Batts and others accompanied by two Indian guides. After traveling nearly due west from the mouth of the Appomattox about 140 miles, they came to Sapong, or Saponys, town. Having been harassed by the Iroquois in this locality, the Saponi and Tutelo at a later date removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they settled near the Occaneechi, each tribe occupying an island in the Roanoke in what is now Mecklenburg county, Va. Lawson, who visited these Indians in 1701, found them dwelling on Yadkin river, N. C., near the present site of Salisbury, having removed to the south to escape the attacks of their enemies. Byrd (1729) remarks: "They dwelt formerly not far below the mountains, upon Yadkin river, about 200 miles west and by south from the falls of Roanoak. But about 25 years ago they took refuge in Virginia, being no longer in condition to make head not only against the northern Indians, who are their implacable enemies, but also against most of those to the south. All the nations round about, bearing in mind the havock these Indians used formerly to make among their ancestors in the insolence of their power, did at length avenge it home upon them, and made them glad to apply to this Government for protection."

Soon after Lawson's visit in 1701 the Saponi and Tutelo left their villages on the Yadkin and moved in toward the settlements, being joined on the way by the Occaneechi and their allied tribes. Together they crossed the Roanoke, evidently before the Tuscarora war of 1711, and made a new settlement, called Sapona Town, a short distance east of that river and 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie county, N. C. Soon after this they and other allied tribes were located by Gov. Spotswood near Ft Christanna, 10 miles north of Roanoke river, about the present Gholsonville, Brunswick county, Va. The name of Sappony creek, in Dinwiddie county, dating hack at least to 1733, indicates that they sometimes extended their excursions north of Nottoway river. Their abode here was not one of quiet, as they were at war with neighboring tribes or their old enemies, the Iroquois. By the treaty at Albany (1722) peace was declared between the northern Indians and the Virginia and Carolina tribes, the Blue Ridge and the Potomac being the boundary line.

Probably about 1740 the Saponi and Tutelo went north, stopping for a time at Shamokin, in Pennsylvania, about the site of Sunbury, where they and other Indians were visited by the missionary David Brainard in 1745. In 1753 the Cayuga formally adopted the Saponi and Tutelo, who thus became a part of the Six Nations, though all had not then removed to New York. In 1765 the Saponi are mentioned as having 30 warriors living at Tioga, about Sayre, Pa., and other villages on the northern branches of the Susquehanna. A part remained here until 1778, but in 1771 the principal portion had their village in the territory of the Cayuga, about 2 miles south of what is now Ithaca, N. Y. When the Tutelo fled to Canada, soon after 1770, they parted with the Saponi (Hale was informed by the last of the Tutelo) at Niagara, but what became of them afterward is not known. It appears, however, from a treaty made with the Cayuga at Albany in 1780 that a remnant was still living with this tribe on Seneca river in Seneca county, N. Y., after which they disappear from history.
Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894; Bushnell in Am. Anthr., ix, 45-46, 1907.

Tutelo. One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in Virginia and North Carolina, but now extinct. Hale (Proc. 'Am. Philos. Soc., Mar. 2, 1883) first made it known that the Tutelo language pertained to the Siouan stock, a discovery which, followed by the investigations of Gatschet, Mooney, and J. O. Dorsey, brought to light the fact that a considerable group of Siouan tribes formerly inhabited the piedmont region of Virginia and the Carolinas. The relation of the Tutelo appears to have been most intimate with the Saponi, the language of the two tribes being substantially the same. Their intimate association with the Occaneechi and their allied tribes indicates ethnic relationship. The history of the Tutelo is virtually the same as that of the Saponi. The name Tutelo, although by the English commonly used to designate a particular tribe, was by the Iroquois applied as a generic term for all the Siouan tribes of Virginia and Carolina, being applied more particularly to the allied tribes gathered at Ft Christanna (see Christanna Indians). They are first mentioned by Capt. John Smith in 1609 under the names of Monacan and Mannahoac, with many subtribes, occupying the upper waters of James and Rappahannock rivers, Va., and described by him as very barbarous, subsisting chiefly on the products of the chase and wild fruits. They were at constant war with the Powhatan Indians and in mortal dread of the Iroquois. Lederer, in his exploration from Virginia into North Carolina in 1670, passed through their territory and mentions the names of Nahyssan (Monahassanough) and Sapon (Saponi). In their frontier position at the base of the mountains the Saponi and Tutelo were directly in the path of the Iroquois.

Unable to with stand the constant attacks of these northern enemies, they abandoned this location some time between 1671 and 1701, and removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they established themselves near their friends and kinsmen, the Occaneechi, occupying two of the islands in the Roanoke immediately below the forks, the Tutelo settling on the upper one. How long they remained here is unknown; it is certain, however, that in 1701 Lawson found the Saponi on Yadkin river, N. C., and says that the Tutelo were living in the neighboring mountains toward the west, probably about the headwaters of the Yadkin. At this time, according to Lawson, the 5 Siouan tribes, the Tutelo, Saponi, Keyauwee, Occaneechi, and Shakori, numbered together only about 750 souls. Soon after Lawson's visit they all moved in toward the white settlements, and, crossing the Roanoke, occupied a village called Sapona town, a short distance east of the river, about 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie county, N. C. Soon after this they removed and settled near Ft Christanna (see Christanna Indians, Totero).

In 1722, through the efforts of the Colonial governments, peace was finally made between the Iroquois and the Virginia tribes. In consequence the Saponi and Tutelo some years later moved to the north and settled on the Susquehanna at Shamokin, Pa., under Iroquois protection, later moving up the river to Skogari. Their chiefs were allowed to sit in the great council of the Six Nations. In 1763 the two tribes, together with the Nanticoke and Conoy, numbered, according to Sir Wm. Johnson, 200 men, possibly 1,000 souls. In 1771 the Tutelo were settled on the east side of Cayuga inlet, about 3 miles from the south end of the lake, in a town called Coreorgonel, which was destroyed in 1779 by Gen. Sullivan.

The last surviving full-blood Tutelo known was Nikonha, from whom Hale obtained the linguistic material by which he determined the relation of the tribe to the Siouan stock. He died in 1871. It is believed there are still a few mixed-bloods in Canada, but the last one who could speak the language was John Key, or Gostango ('Below the Rock'), whose Tutelo name was Nastabon ('One Step'), and who died in 1898, aged about 80 years (Chadwick, People of the Longhouse, 19, 1897; Boyle in Ann. Archmol. Rep. Ontario, 55, pl. xviii, b, 1898). Lawson describes the Tutelo as "tall, likely men, having great plenty of buffaloes, elks, and bears, with every sort of deer amongst them, which strong food makes large, robust bodies." Nevertheless the evidence is clear that they were cultivators of the soil and relied thereon to a large extent for subsistence. The photograph of Nikonha, given by Hale, shows a face full oval in outline and large features of an almost European cast, 'evidently," says Hale, "not individual or family traits, as they reappear in the Tutelo half-breeds on the Reserve, who do not claim a near relationship to Nikonha." On the other hand Zeisberger, who visited the remnant of the tribe while settled at Shamokin, speaks of the village as "the only town on the continent inhabited by Tuteloes, a degenerate remnant of thieves and drunkards." Lederer describes the Nahyssan chief as an absolute monarch, and the people as tall, warlike, and rich. In their temples, or medicine lodges, they had large quantities of pearls, which they had taken in war from more southern tribes. Their tribal ensign consisted of three arrows.
Consult Hale in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., xxi, no. 114,1883; Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, 1894.

Catawba. (probably from Choctaw kat?pe, `divided,' `separated,' `a division.'-Gatschet). The most important of the eastern Siouan tribes. It is said that Lynche creek, South Carolina east of the Catawba territory, was anciently known as Kadapau; and from the fact that Lawson applies this name to a small band met by him southeast of the main body, which he calls Esaw, it is possible that it was originally given to this people by some tribe living in eastern South Carolina, from whom the first colonists obtained it.

The Cherokee, having no b in their language, changed the name to Atakwa, .plural Anitakwa. The Shawnee and other tribes of the Ohio valley made the word Cuttawa. From the earliest period the Catawba have also been known as Esaw, or Issa (Catawba isw?', `river'), from their residence on the principal stream of the region, Iswa being their only name for the Catawba and Wateree rivers. They were frequently included by the Iroquois under the general term Totiri, or Toderichroone, another form of which is Tutelo, applied to all the southern Siouan tribes collectively. They were classed by Gallatin (1836) as a distinct stock, and were so regarded until Gatschet visited them in 1881 and obtained a large vocabulary showing numerous Siouan correspondences. Further investigations by Hale, Gatschet, Mooney, and Dorsey proved that several other tribes of the same region were also of Siouan stock, while the linguistic forms and traditional evidence all point to this eastern region as the original home of the Siouan tribes. The alleged tradition which brings the Catawba from the north, as refugees from the French and their Indian allies about the year 1660, does not agree in any of its main points with the known facts of history, and, if genuine at all, refers rather to some local incident than to a tribal movement. It is well known that the Catawba were in a chronic state of warfare with the northern tribes, whose raiding parties they sometimes followed, even across the Ohio.

The first notice of the Catawba seems to be that of Vandera in 1579, who calls them Issa in his narrative of Pardo's expedition. Nearly a century later, in 1670, they are mentioned as Ushery by Lederer, who claims to have visited them, but this is doubtful.

Lawson, who passed through their territory in 1701, speaks of them as a " powerful nation" and states that their villages were very thick. He calls the two divisions, which were living a short distance apart, by different names, one the Kadapau and the other the Esaw, unaware of the fact that the two were synonymies. From all accounts they were formerly the most populous and most important tribe in the Carolinas, excepting the Cherokee.

Virginia traders were already among them at the time of Lawson's visit. Adair, 75 years later, says that one of the ancient cleared fields of the tribe extended 7 miles, besides which they had several smaller village sites. In 1728 they still had 6 villages, all on Catawba river, within a stretch of 20 miles, the most northern being named Nauvasa. Their principal village was formerly on the west side of the river, in what is now York County, S. C., opposite the month of Sugar creek. The known history of the tribe till about 1760 is chiefly a record of petty warfare between themselves and the Iroquois and other northern tribes, throughout which the colonial government tried to induce the Indians to stop killing one another and go to killing the French. With the single exception of their alliance with the hostile Yamasi, in 1715, they were uniformly friendly toward the English, and afterward kept peace with the United States, but were constantly at war with the Iroquois, Shawnee, Delawares, and other tribes of the Ohio valley, as well as with the Cherokee. The Iroquois and the Lake tribes made long journeys into South Carolina, and the Catawba retaliated by sending small scalping parties into Ohio and Pennsylvania. Their losses from ceaseless attacks of their enemies reduced their numbers steadily, while disease and debauchery introduced by the whites, especially several epidemics of smallpox, accelerated their destruction, so that before the close of the 18th century the great nation was reduced to a pitiful remnant. They sent a large force to help the colonists in the Tuscarora war of 1711-13, and also aided in expeditions against the French and their Indian allies at Ft Du Quesne and elsewhere during the French and Indian war. Later it was proposed to use them and the Cherokee against the Lake tribes under Pontiac in 1763. They assisted the Americans also during the Revolution in the defense of South Carolina against the British, as well as in Williamson's expedition against the Cherokee.

In 1738 smallpox raged in South Carolina and worked great destruction, not only among the whites, but also among the Catawba and smaller tribes. In 1759 it appeared again, and this time destroyed nearly half the tribe. At a conference at Albany, attended by delegates from the Six Nations and the Catawba, under the auspices of the colonial governments, a treaty of peace was made between these two tribes. This peace was probably final as regards the Iroquois, but the western tribes continued their warfare against the Catawba, who were now so reduced that they could make little effectual resistance. In 1762 a small party of Shawnee killed the noted chief of the tribe, King Haiglar, near his own village. From this time the Catawba ceased to be of importance except in conjunction with the whites.

In 1763 they had confirmed to them a reservation, assigned a few years before, of 15 miles square, on both sides of Catawba River, within the present York and Lancaster Counties., S. C. On the approach of the British troops in 1780 the Catawba withdrew temporarily into Virginia, but returned after the battle of Guilford Court House, and established themselves in 2 villages on the reservation, known respectively as Newton, the principal village, and Turkey Head, on opposite sides of Catawba River.

In 1826 nearly the whole of their reservation was leased to whites for a few thousand dollars, on which the few survivors chiefly depended. About 1841 they sold to the state all but a single square mile, on which they now reside. About the same time a number of the Catawba, dissatisfied with their condition among the whites, removed to the eastern Cherokee in western North Carolina, but finding their position among their old enemies equally unpleasant, all but one or two soon went back again. An old woman, the last survivor of this emigration, died among the Cherokee in 1889. A few other Cherokee are now intermarried with that tribe. At a later period some Catawba removed to the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory and settled near Scullyville, but are said to be now extinct. About 1884 several became converts of Mormon missionaries in South Carolina and went with them to Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Catawba were sedentary agriculturists, and seem to have differed but little in general customs from their neighbors. Their men were respected, brave, and honest, but lacking in energy. They were good hunters, while their women were noted makers of pottery and baskets, arts which they still preserve. They seem to have practiced the custom of head-flattening to a limited extent, as did several of the neighboring tribes. By reason of their dominant position they gradually absorbed the broken tribes of South Carolina, to the number, according to Adair, of perhaps 20.

In the early settlement of South Carolina, about 1682, they were estimated at 1,500 warriors, or about 4,600souls; in 1728 at 400 warriors, or about, 400 persons. In 1738 they suffered from smallpox; and in 1743, after incorporating several small tribes, numbered less than 400 warriors. In 1759 they again suffered from smallpox, and in 1761 had some 300 warriors, or about 1,000 people. The number was reduced in 1775 to 400 souls; in 1780 it was 490; and in 1784 only 250 were reported. The number given in 1822 is 450, and Mills gives the population in 1826 as only 110.

In 1881 Gatschet found 85 on the reservation, which, including 35 employed on neighboring farms, made a total of 120. The present number is given as 60, but as this apparently refers only to those attached to the reservation, the total may be about 100. See Lawson, History of Carolina, 1714 and 1860; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 1-11, 1884-88; Mooney (1) Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. 22, B. A. E., 1894, (2) in 19th Rep. B. A. E., 1900; H. Lewis Scaife, History and Condition of the Catawba Indians, 1896.

The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association

Historical Background:

When the first settlers entered the inland areas of Virginia and North Carolina in the mid-1600's, they found the land inhabited by a number of small tribes whom spoke variants of the Siouan family of languages. The Occaneechi co-existed with several related Indian communities in a homeland that ranged from the Roanoke valley in Virginia to the Northern Piedmont of North Carolina. Our ancestors interacted with other Siouan speaking tribes in the region including the Tutelo, Saponi, Stuckenock [the Eno and Shakori Indian peoples] and Cheraw. These semi-autonomous villages spoke mutually intelligible dialects and shared a common culture and historical origin. The Siouan-speaking people of the Northern Piedmont region referred to themselves collectively as Y?sah or "the people". The Occaneechi were one of the smaller of these communities living near what would become the North Carolina-Virginia border.

Prior to Nathaniel Bacon's rebellion of 1676 in the Colony of Virginia, the Occaneechi occupied a position of strategic importance that caused our dialect to become the "lingua Franca" of the entire region. This lingua franca was used as a trade language, for diplomacy, and in religious rituals of this region. Their position on Occoneechee Island in the Roanoke River at the juncture of the Great Trading Path or Occaneechi Trading Path to the Catawbas and Cherokees allowed the Occaneechi to exert great influence over the deerskin trade between the western Indian Nations and the Colony of Virginia. In the year 1672, after being under assault from the Five Nations Iroquois, the Tutelo and Saponi allied with their Occaneechi relatives and joined them on their island homes on the Roanoke River.

After being attacked by Bacon's militia, the Occaneechi and their allies were forced south into the North Carolina. The Occaneechi settled along the Eno River near what is now Hillsborough, NC. It was at this site that the English explorer and colonial surveyor John Lawson visited the Tribe in 1701. In January of 1714, Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood of the Colony of Virginia wrote a letter to the Bishop of London in which he stated that, "I engaged the Saponi, Occoneechee, Stuckanox, and Tottero Indians, being a people speaking much the same language and therefore confederated together . . . . immediately to remove to a place. Which I have named Christ-Anna." By 1715, the Occaneechi had returned to Virginia settling at Fort Christianna, where they were joined by their relatives the Saponi, Tutelo, Stuckanocks, and Meiponski [Cheraw]. The Fort, near present day Lawrenceville, Virginia, was established as a trading fort that would also provide a school for the local Indian children. The Tribes at the Fort were educated and converted to Christianity and served as a barrier between the colonists and the western Tribes such as the Cherokee.

In accordance with their treaty, all of the tribes at Fort Christianna went under the name of the Saponi Nation. From that point on the Occaneechi were always known as Saponi. This confederation remained intact as late as 1728 when Colonel William Byrd visited the reservation. At that time he commented that, "this people . . . . have agreed to unite into one body and all of them now go under the name of the Sapponeys ?. speaking the same language and using the same customs." After 1730, the Saponi Nation reservation was patented out to land hungry local colonists.

Between 1730 and 1748, the Saponi peoples traveled back and forth several times to visit their cousins the Catawbas, never staying more than a few years before returning to the Virginia/North Carolina border region. By the mid-1700's, the Tribe had resettled in what is now Greensville and Brunswick Counties on the VA/NC border. At this time, the tribe was being absorbed into the backwaters of colonial society. Many Tribesmen began to receive title to their ancestral lands, having acquired European family names such as Jeffries, Guy, Stewart, Haithcock, Whitmore, and Watkins. This Saponi Community was still noted as a distinct group as late as 1764, when they were reported by the Indian Superintendent of the South to have "60 gunmen" in combination with their neighbors the Nottoway. At this time, Lt. Governor Fauquier of Virginia reported that, "tho they dwell in peace in the midst of us . . . the Saponi lead in great measure the lives of wild Indians."

A few years later, several of the Saponi, along with several Nottoway, fought on the American side of the Revolution. After the Revolution, the Tribe began to move again. By the 1780's, the Saponi had begun moving southwest into North Carolina to their old lands. Possibly, this migration was in response to increasing pressure then being asserted upon them by neighboring Whites in Virginia, then the most populous State. The Saponi community returned to the area near the Eno and Saxapahaw Rivers where they once lived, settling in the northwest section of Orange County that would later be split into Alamance County. This area eventually became known as the Texas Community or more plainly Little Texas. Surnames of Saponi families that previously appeared in the area near Fort Christianna appeared on Orange County, North Carolina censuses and tax listings by the 1780's. Some of these families were Jeffries, Guys, Stewarts, Whitmores, and Watkins. These names are still common in the Indian community in Alamance, Caswell, and Orange Counties of North Carolina.

The earliest census for Orange County, which included Alamance County until 1849, listed Charles and Jesse Whitmore, as well as Jacob Jeffries, as heads of households. Within a few years the bulk of the Tribe had joined them. Oral history of the Texas community tells us that the Saponi language was still actively spoken in the community as late as the beginning of the American Civil War.

A few families moved further west to Indiana and Ohio, following the Quakers. These families formed a small Indian community near Xenia, Ohio identified at various times as Catawba. Several families from the Orange County community moved in the 1820's to what became Macon County, North Carolina. While there, they became the subject of an 1897 United States Senate Document that identified them as Catawba Indians.

The majority of the Saponi remained in the Texas community, forming an independent Indian settlement based on small-scale farming. Churches such as Martin's Chapel and Jeffries Cross provided religious and social structure for the community. Schools like the Martin's School tended to the educational needs of youth. Community activities such as church revivals, family reunions, and group labor parties served to keep the community members united. One of the elders of the community, Goetha Whitmore, remembered his grandfather speaking the old language and his father having to translate to him as a child. During the 1930's, Clayton Jeffries and other community leaders made contact with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to ask for assistance with their school, and also contacted other local Indian groups for support.

The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association was formed in 1984 with a Tribal Council to represent the Tribe at the local, State, and Federal levels to better serve the social and economic needs of the Indian people of the region. The name was amended to Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation to more appropriately represent the Tribal background of the Indian people of this area. Historical evidence clearly shows that the Occaneechi became part of the Saponi Nation, so the Tribal name was revised to more clearly reflect this historic fact. Currently the Occaneechi Tribal Office is located in Mebane, North Carolina which is the geographical center of the tribe's community.

The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation - OBSN for short - is a small Indian community located primarily in the old settlement of Little Texas, Pleasant Grove Township, Alamance County, North Carolina.

Until the middle part of the 20th century, the community was largely occupied in agricultural pursuits, sometimes supplemented by day wage labor jobs or jobs in nearby factories. In recent decades the numbers of people engaged full or part time in agriculture has declined significantly, and most working adults in the community now work in offices, or as skilled workers and craftsmen, or in the few remaining factories in the area.

The OBSN community is a lineal descendant of the Saponi and related Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia in pre-contact times, and specifically of those Saponi and related Indians who formally became tributary to Virginia under the Treaties of Middle Plantation in 1677 and 1680, and, who under the subsequent treaty of 1713 with the Colony of Virginia agreed to join together as a single community. This confederation formed a settlement at Fort Christianna along the Virginia/North Carolina border in what is now Brunswick County, Virginia. The confederation included the Saponi proper, the Occaneechi, the Eno, the Tutelo, and elements of other related communities such as the Cheraw. All of these communities were remnants of much larger Siouan communities that had lived in North Carolina and Virginia in prehistoric times.

The Saponi confederation was closely allied with the Catawba confederation, and occupied several forts and settlements located in what are now Greensville County and Brunswick Counties, Virginia from about 1680 until the mid-18th century, when the last Virginia fort, Christianna, fell into disuse. They also continued to occupy fortified villages and other settlements in North Carolina into the mid-1700s during this period.

While maintaining distinctions among themselves (sometimes exaggerated by non-Indian contemporaries and by later historians), the various elements within the Saponi confederation had a common origin and were closely related, linguistically and culturally. Their final treaty with Virginia included an agreement among the four signatory groups to formally incorporate as one tribe under the name "Sapony". In January, 1715, Virginia?s Governor Spotswood wrote a letter to the Bishop of London describing how he had "engaged the Saponie, Oconeechee, Stuckanox [Eno] and Tottero Indians (being a people speaking much the same language, and therefore confederated together, tho? preserving their different Rules) immediately to remove to y?t place, which I have named Christ-Anna." In June of that year, Spotswood wrote to the Commisioners of Trade in London that he had ". . . been for a good part of last Spring, employ?d in finishing the fortifications of Christanna, and in settling there a Body of our Tributary Indians to ye number of 300 men, women and children, who go under the general name of Saponies . . .".

Acculturated members of the confederation and their descendants gradually formed a settled community that, over time, became geographically and culturally distinct from the traditional community. Formal marriages and common-law relationships between Indians of the community and their European neighbors contributed to divisions between the settled community and more conservative community members. Documentary evidence of the existence of the acculturated community begins to appear in local records as early as the 1720s. As these records involve adults, it is likely the acculturated community dates back into the 17th century. A great majority of the tribe?s members can trace their ancestry back to the individual Indians identified in such records.

The acculturated community occupied a small tri-border area in what are now Greensville County, Virginia, Brunswick County, Virginia, and Northampton County, North Carolina. Their settlement was also midway between two forts built for the Indians by Virginia, and about 10 miles south of a third fort, near modern-day Purdy, Virginia, that was apparently built by the Indians themselves, probably for defense against Iroquois raiders from the north. More precisely, the community?s land was located south of modern Emporia, Virginia (Greensville County), west into Brunswick County, and extending across the State line into the northwestern corner of Northampton County, North Carolina and to the Roanoke River. Researchers for the OBSN have documented the development of this community from the late 17th through the early 19th centuries, by which time emigration to the Midwest and other parts of the South had reduced it to a handful of families.

Beginning just prior to the Revolutionary War, and accelerating rapidly thereafter, individuals and bands of families began migrating from the acculturated settlement to Orange County, North Carolina. These migrants formed the community that was historically called "Little Texas" and that today calls itself the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. Some families also migrated from Virginia to South Carolina (Sumter County), and beginning in the 1820s, most of the families remaining in Virginia or nearby areas of North Carolina emigrated to Ohio and other Midwestern states. Some Indians also migrated from Little Texas to join relatives in Ohio.

While there appear to be few if any descendants today in either Brunswick or Greensville County, Virginia there is a small remnant community still in existence across the State line in Northampton County near the town of Gaston on the Roanoke River. Even this community, called the "Portuguese Settlement" throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, has largely dispersed. Up into the 1950's, however, at least one of the community?s schools, called the "Portuguese" school, was still located in Greensville County.

The Revolutionary War was as key event among the Occaneechi community as it was in the rest of the colonies. Existing records count a sizeable number of men as having served in militia and Continental Line units during the War, service that took them much farther afield than any of the younger men had probably ever been. Pension records indicate that at least a few of them marched as far south as the Catawbas via the old trading routes that traversed Hillsboro and ran just to the south of Pleasant Grove, North Carolina; at least one (William Stewart) was a veteran of Valley Forge; and several served at Yorktown and other eastern Virginia areas.

Veterans of the War and their families were among the founders of Little Texas, including those of Charles Whitmore, John Jeffries, Jr., John Jeffries, Sr., Jacob Jeffries, Simon Jeffries, Holiday Heathcock, and others had moved their families to Little Texas by 1800. The community was also joined by the children of William Guy, a War veteran who was born in the Virginia community and who moved to North Carolina after the War.

Another important early family in Little Texas was that of Robert Brooks Corn, the son of Robert Corn, an Indian who was a veteran of both the French and Indian War and of the Revolutionary War. Robert Brooks Corn was married in 1795 in Greensville County to Jane Jeffries, moving about 1800 to Wake County, North Carolina with his father and their extended family. After his father?s death in 1816, Robert Brooks Corn moved his family to Little Texas, where three of his wife?s siblings, John, Drury and Littleton Jeffries, along with numerous cousins, were already established.

By 1830, census records indicate the population of Little Texas was between 250-300 by that time, at least 80% of it being traceable to the acculturated community in Greensville and Northampton Counties. Those not traceable to the parent community, however, appear to have been of a similar background, i.e., of Indian or partial Indian descent. Virtually all of the members of the Occaneechi Band descend from these original settlers of Little Texas.

In 1984, some of the Indians from Little Texas, and from an offshoot community called "Oaks", communities formally reorganized as the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association with the goal of preserving the Indian heritage of the community and teaching the young about their own history. The group began a concerted effort to conduct research into their history, and to seek to correct the racial mis-classifications on their birth certificates and other official documents that resulted from Jim Crow and other racist laws that had at one time been on North Carolina?s books. In addition, the Indian Association organized an annual Pow-wow, which has been held in August for the past six years, with Indians from many different tribes visiting with the community. In 1995, the Tribal Council amended the name to "The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation" to reflect the historical record more accurately.