Nottoway

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Living and hunting area of ​​the Nottoway and neighboring tribes around 1650

The Nottoway or Cheroenhaka (their own name) belong to the Iroquois- speaking Indian peoples of North America who lived in the southeast of what is now the US state of Virginia at the beginning of European contact around 1600 . The Nottaway Indian Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka Indian Tribe have both been officially recognized as the Virginia Indian Tribe since 2010.

Language, area of ​​residence and population

In the 15th century, there were several Iroquois-speaking tribes in what is now the US states of Virginia and North Carolina . The Tuscarora were the largest and best known of these tribes, with which they were linguistically closely related. Other probably Iroquois speaking tribes were the rather unknown Meherrin and Neusiok . The Nottoway's living and hunting area was in southeastern Virginia. Their southern neighbors were the Meherrin and Tuscarora. In the north and east to the living Algonquian belonging Weanock and Nansemond , while in the West stems of siouxsprachigen tutelo were found. The tribal area of ​​the Nottoway was around 1650 on the upper Nottoway River on the fall line of the Appalachians in today's Sussex County , about 30 km south of Petersburg in Virginia.

Traditional records show that in 1669 their population was estimated at 90 warriors in three villages. In 1709 the number was 30 warriors in a village and in 1729 200 tribal members. There are further numbers from 1774 (35), 1818 (26), 1821 (30), 1837 (25), 1852 (12), 1854 (9) and 1963 (1). From 1837 onwards there are no tribal members who had lost their legal status as Indians because they were allocated a piece of reservation land. In 2010, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia had 110 and the Cheroenhaka Indian Tribe 272 enrolled members.

history

After the arrival of the Europeans at the beginning of the 17th century, the Nottoway and Meherrin initially remained relatively undisturbed by the English colony expanding westward from Jamestown . After 1650, more and more English traders came to the country and visited the villages of the Nottoway, such as Rowantee , Tonnatorah and Cohanahanhaka . They were probably on the main trade route, called Weecacana , which led further south to the Meherrin and Tuscarora. At that time, Indians were not allowed to enter colonist settlements without permission, but white people were also prohibited from entering the villages of Meherrin and Nottoway, except for British traders with a license.

During the Bacon's Rebellion (1675–1676), the Nottoway, Meherrin and other neighboring tribes were repeatedly attacked. Was responsible Nathaniel Bacon , who was considered outspoken Indian hater. Although most of the tribes in Virginia were peaceful and balanced, he had raided them with his troops and then sparked an uprising against Governor William Berkeley and the colonial government, whose policies were viewed as too lax towards the Indians. When Bacon fell ill with dysentery and died in October 1676 , the rebellion collapsed. After the war in 1677 there was a meeting with the new governor of Virginia and the tribal leaders to conclude a treaty ( Treaty of Middle Plantation of 1677) between the Virginia colony and neighboring tribes including the Nottoway, Meherrin and Tuscarora. In it, the Indians were declared allies who were to form a military vanguard to protect the white settlements from raids by hostile Indians such as the Iroquois League , the Susquehannock and other more distant living tribes. In return, the colonists should stop invading Indian land, occupying and hunting the game.

During this time, the lucrative fur trade collapsed with the Europeans, who had found more efficient suppliers in the west and south, such as the Ocaneechee , Tuscarora, Catawba and Cherokee . The Nottoway and Meherrin responded by moving southeast around 1681 along the rivers that now bear their names. During the rest of the 18th century, reservations for the Nottoway were made and gradually sold to individual families. The reservations comprised two areas of first six square miles (15.3 km²) and secondly a circular area with a diameter of six miles (30.2 km²). The land lay south and north of the Nottoway River roughly in the area of ​​today's cities of Courtland and Capron in Southampton County in Virginia. The assimilation of the Indians made rapid progress and in 1824 the Parliament in Virginia voted for a distribution of the reservation land to individual members of the Nottoway. In the period that followed, the Nottoway reservation was legally dissolved, which is considered the second official liquidation of a reservation in US history. All government services were stopped and legal tribe status ended. Mixed marriages of members of the Nottoway with free blacks, their alleged predilection for alcohol and their supposed refusal to work displeased their white neighbors, who envied them for the country. But until 1878 some Nottoway resisted the division of land because they did not want to lose their Indian status.

In 1883 a Tuscarora member reported that there were Nottoway in Canada in the Grand River Reservation who spoke Iroquois and were darker than others, presumably mixed with blacks . It is unknown when these Nottoway moved to Canada. It is possible that some Nottoway accompanied the Tuscarora, who left North Carolina in large numbers around 1766 and migrated north. The fate of the Nottoway remaining in Virginia can be traced through Southampton County's records. The last person with a Nottoway identity was William Lands, born in 1875 and died in 1963.

Todays situation

In February 2010, Virginia state recognized the Nottoway Indian Tribe and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe . The members of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia live in Southampton and Surry Counties, as well as in the coastal Tidewater region . Members of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe can be found in Southampton County and surrounding counties in Virginia and North Carolina. 2010, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia had 110 and the Cheroenhaka Indian Tribe 272 enrolled members.

See also

List of North American Indian tribes

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Douglas W. Boyce: Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 15: Northeast, Iroquoian Tribes of the Virginia-North Carolina Coastal Plain , pp. 286-287.
  2. ↑ SJ12 Nottoway Indian Tribe , Legislative Information System
  3. ↑ SJ127 Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe , Legislative Information System

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