Volume 13 , Issue 17

The Indians of History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia

In the History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, by Maud Carter Clement, Chapter I, we learn that Pittsylvania county was once the home of the red man, situated in South midland Virginia, touching on the NOrth Carolina line, giving a total area of 1012 square miles.

Indian villages once stood along the banks of the streams and Indian corn firelds once waved over the rich bottom lands. The stillness of the primeval forest had once echoed to the hunter's cry and the returning warrior's shout of victory.

The Indians left their villages deserted and farm land abandoned when the white settlers came into this upland region to make their homes. With the passage of time all knowledge of these local tribes was lost, and it had been only through the research over the years that their identity has been established and their tragic story brought tonight, revealing a people renowned for honor, courage, and bravery, through the vicissitudes of war, were finally overcome by their ancient enemies.

The Indian tribes of Midland Virginia belonged to the great Siouian (Siouian Tribes of the East) race found today on the far western plains. They once lived in the east, along the Ohio River, far back in history a migration took place.

The Sioux is the greatest buffalo hunter of all the American Indians, and it is thought by some (William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 19, page 172) that it was their love of the buffalo chase that lured them from their mountain home to the more level plains of Virginia from the Rappahannock River down into the Carolinas. The eastern part of Virginia was held by the Powhatan Confederacy, who were of the Algonquin race.

Captain John Smith gave us the first account of the Virginia Siouian tribes when he visited the falls of James River in 1607, and found the Monocan Indians living near. Smith said the Powhatan Confederacy extended to the falls while beyond lay the Monocan Confederacy, and between the two, constant war was waged.

The Massowomacks were the Iroquois, or Five Nations of the North, who waged continual war upon the Virginia tribes, especially the Monocans, who lived in mortal dread of the Massowomacks.
v The Five Nations were a confederacy formed in 1575, of the Seneca, Oneida, CAyuga, Onondaga, and Mohawk tribes, hence the name Five Nations.The Virginia government made repeated efforts to protect her tributary Indians from the fury of these northern savages. In 1677 Colonel Henry Causey, representing Virginia and Maryland, met them in conference at Albany, New York. Again in 1679 and 1684 Virginia agents held conferences with them, but their agreements were not kept by the Iroquois. Later treaties were made with them by Virginia in 1722 and 1744. (Virginia Mag. History, Vol. 312, 13.)

Another Sioux tribe, the Manahock Indians who were friends and confederates of the Monocans on the James. The Manahock Indians were found around the Rappahannock River. One of Manahock warriors was captured and questioned by John Smith as to who the English were. The captured warrior replied, "We heard you were a people come from under the world to take our world from us."

The captured warrior wen on to say when asked further how many worlds there were, "No more but that which is under the skies that cover me, which are the Powhatans, Mononcans, and the Massowomacks higher up the mountain." The Monocans were the chiefs of the league or confederacy of the upland Indians against the power and tyranny of the Powhatans.

The Indian tribes of South Midland Virginia were far enough removed from Tidewater not to be disturbed by the constant war waged by the whites against the tribes prior to 1650. The existence of these tribes was known to the English by means of the fur trade.

We may then assume that the Indians of Pittsylvania and the adjacent territory were known to the English through the trader from 1640 onward. Here is another interesting bit of information concerning the Rechahecrians invasion in 1655. The Rechahecrians were thought by some to have been the Cherokees, who lived across the mountains in the Tennessee country, and claimed that their territory extended eastward as far as the Peaks of Otter.

Others (Parkman's Jesuits in America) supposed the Rechahecrians to be the Requa Indians of Erie, who were driven out of their home in 1655. History gives us no reason for the invasion of the Rechahecrians in 1655. History simply states that many western Indians were drawn from the mountains and lately set down near the falls of the James River to the number of six or seven hundred.

Colonists became much alarmed at the close proximity of so many strange Indians and the upper counties were authorized to raise a force under the command of Col. Edward Hill, who lived at Shirley, to treat with these Indians to get them to retire by peaceable means if possible,if not by force.

Allied Inidans were called upon for aid, and 100 Pamunkey warriors marched under their King Totopotomoi. The battle was fought at Bloody Run, where Richmond now stands, in which the English were defeated and King Totopotomoi and the greater part of his warriors were slain. Totopotomoi, the Pamunkey chief, was slain while fighting for the English against the Mahocks and Nahyssans, Indian tribes of this section. It appeared that the Siouian tribes and the REchahecrians were friends and allies, and it is possible that the latter crossed the mountains on the invitation of the Midland Virginia Indians, who thought it an opportune time to attack, with the growing power of the whites and the waning power of the Powhatans.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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