Saponi
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| unknown | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Originally from Virginia and North Carolina, many later relocated to Ontario, Canada, and Georgia, Tennessee, and Ohio | |
| Languages | |
| Tutelo-Saponi (extinct), English | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous Religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan, Manahoac, possibly Saura, other eastern Siouan tribes |
Saponi, is the name of one of the eastern Siouan tribes related to the Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan, Manahoac and other eastern Siouan peoples, whose ancestral homeland is in North Carolina and Virginia.
The people known as the Indians of Person County were formally recognized by North Carolina in 1911 as an American Indian tribe. In 2003 they formally changed their name to Sappony. The Haliwa-Saponi, a group based chiefly in Halifax County, is another Native American band formally recognized by North Carolina (1965). They also changed their name to include a reference to Saponi.
No documentation has established descent for members of either group from the historical Saponi tribe. Neither group has been recognized formally as a Native American tribe by the federal government.
History
Swanton agrees with Mooney and Bushnell that the Saponi were probably the same as the Monasuccapanough, a people mentioned as tributary to the Monacans in 1608. Their main village as described then is believed to be in the vicinity of Charlottesville, Virginia.
The first known contact between a European explorer and the Saponi was in 1670 when John Lederer found their village on the Staunton River at Otter Creek, southwest of Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1671 Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam led an expedition that passed through the same village as well as a second in Long Island in Campbell County, Virginia. Here the Saponi, as well as the closely related Occaneechi, were unjustifiably attacked by settlers during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 in retaliation for raids on colonists from the unrelated Doeg tribe.
Nearly decimated, the Saponis relocated to three islands at the confluence of the Dan River and the Staunton River in Clarksville with their allies, the Occaneechis, Tutelos, and Nahyssans.[1]
By 1701, the Saponi and allied tribes, often collectively referred to as "Saponi" or "Tutelo", had begun moving to the location of present-day Salisbury, North Carolina in an attempt to distance themselves from the colonial frontier. However by 1711 they were just east of the Roanoke, and west of modern Windsor, North Carolina. In 1714, Governor Spotswood resettled them around Fort Christanna in Virginia[2], which they agreed to for their own protection from hostile tribes. This Fort and school were abandoned by vote of the House of Burgesses in 1718, but the Siouan tribes continued to stay in that area for some time, moving away in small groups over the years 1730-1750.
One record from 1728 indicated that Colonel William Byrd II made a survey of the border between Virginia and North Carolina with a Saponi hunter named Ned Bearskin as his guide. Byrd noted several abandoned fields of corn, indicating serious disturbance among the local tribes. In 1740, the majority of Saponis and Tutelos moved to Shamokin, Pennsylvania and surrendered to the Iroquois, joining them in New York where they were formally adopted by the Cayuga in 1753. However, smaller bands in Pennsylvania as late as 1778, and some were still in North Carolina much later[3]. Since most of the Iroquois sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War, after the victory by the Americans, the Saponis and Tutelos who had joined the Iroquois were forced into exile in Canada along with their new allies. After that point, recorded history was silent about the tribe.[1]
Language
There is little information on the now-extinct Saponi language. According to William Byrd II, the Saponi spoke the same language as the Occaneechi and the Stenkenock. It was probably the same as that spoken by the Meipontsky.[citation needed] By the time linguistic data was recorded, these related eastern Siouan tribes had settled together at Fort Christianna in Brunswick County, Virginia. While the language of the Tutelos was fairly well recorded by Horatio Hale, that of the Saponi is known from only two sources. It is unclear how the language spoken by the Saponi differed from that of the Tutelo, if at all.
One source is a word list of 46 terms and phrases recorded by John Fontaine at Fort Christianna in 1716. The other is a few translated creek names noted by William Byrd in his History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina in 1728. Of Fontaine's list, only 16 to 20 entries are Siouan, while the others are Iroquoian and Algonquian. Bryd's scant list also proved to include several names from unrelated Indian tribes.[4]
20th century state recognition
Both the Indians of Person County/Sappony and the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina have been classified by some anthropological researchers as among groups known as tri-racial isolates, with European, African and Native American ancestry, to varying degree. They had settled and created communities in frontier and border areas of the southern states. Like the Seminoles, these two communities stressed identification with American Indians and acculturated members of the groups in the 19th century, a process known as ethnogenesis. Their applications for recognition as American Indian tribes were approved by the state of North Carolina in 1911 and 1965, respectively.
Late 20th century history and genealogical researchers have found that eighty percent of people identified as "free people of color" in federal censuses from 1790-1810 (when there was no designation for Indian) in North Carolina (who included ancestors of individuals who later identified as Indian) were descended from families of African Americans free in colonial Virginia. This was documented through extensive research in colonial records of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Colony, including court records, land deeds, wills and manumissions. Some free African Americans were descended from enslaved Africans freed as early as the mid-17th century. By the early decades of the 19th century, free families had any descendants.[5]
Most of the free African Americans were descended from unions of white women, indentured or free, and African or African-European/American men, indentured, free or slave. In many cases these free families migrated to frontier areas of Virginia and North Carolina before the end of the eighteenth century. Later some moved on to settle in frontier areas of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Migrating to the frontier gave them the chance to purchase affordable land and avoid the social strictures of the coastal plantation areas. They were generally well accepted by neighbors. In some areas, the lighter-skinned descendants formed close communities in which they called themselves or were known as Indian, Portuguese or one of a variety of terms, such as Melungeon.[6]
Several other groups and organizations to claim Saponi ancestry include the Mahenips Band of the Saponi Nation in the remote Ozark Hills, with headquarters in West Plains, Missouri; the Saponi Descendants Association based in Texas; Manahoac Saponi Mattamuskeet Naton based in Georgia; and the Saponi Nation of Ohio. Communities such as the Carmel Indians of Carmel, Ohio; and a group in Magoffin County, Kentucky claim to be Native American descendants of the Saponi through Melungeon lines.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b Mitchell, Henry H. (1997), "Rediscovering Pittsylvania's "Missing" Native Americans", The Pittsylvania Packet (Pittsylvania Historical Society), Chatham, Virginia: 4–8
- ^ Swanton, p. 72
- ^ Swanton p. 73
- ^ Salvucci, Claudio R.; et al. (2002), Minor Vocabularies of Tutelo and Saponi, Evolution Publishing, p. 1-7, ISBN 1 889758 24 8
{{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|first=(help) - ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, accessed 15 Feb 2008
- ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, accessed 15 Feb 2008