All about the ancient tribes
The Monacan Nation, one of the few American Indian nations that still remain in their ancestral homeland, has made significant contributions to Virginia’s history and development, and it continues to be a strong group, dedicated to the survival of Indian people in Virginia and throughout the hemisphere..
The Monacan nation was first recorded by English colonists in 1607 in Virginia. Their native language is a Siouan language which is extinct. The people are related to other Siouan -speaking tribes of the inland in this region, such as the Tutelo, Saponi and Occaneechi.
The major crops that the Monacans grew were maize (corn), beans, squash, and tobacco. They also ate fish, shellfish, deer, rabbit, turkey, nuts, grapes and wild plants.
Although other types of clothing could be made, typically Powhatan men and women wore an apron of deerskin around the waist. Men wore fur cloaks, loose sleeves and leggings. Moccasins were worn on trips into the forest.
Monacan in American English 1. a native or inhabitant of Monaco. adjective. 2. of or pertaining to Monaco.
A number of Indian tribes that spoke dialects of the Siouan language lived in the Piedmont of Virginia. The Manahoac settled on the waters of the Rappahannock River above Fredericksburg. The Monacans lived above the falls of the James River, and the Occaneechi and Saponi lived above the falls of the Roanoke River.
Originally located in the southeastern United States in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, the Cherokee Nation was forced to relocate to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma ) in 1838 after gold was discovered in our homelands.
If the settlers of Southwestern Virginia had been deliberately looking for Indian trouble, they could not have done better than they did, grouping together on centuries-old Indian trails, in a region disputed as a hunting ground by the Cherokee and Shawnee Indians, and overlorded by the Five Nations (the Iroquois ), the
At contact, Virginian tribes belonged to tribes and spoke languages belonging to three major language families: roughly, Algonquian along the coast and Tidewater region, Siouan above the Fall Line, and Iroquoian in the interior.
Traditionally, Monacan people buried the remains of their dead in sacred earthen mounds constructed over time. These mounds, excavated by archaeologists and others, have been the site of secondary burials. In other words, many corpses were exhumed and reburied during periodic ceremonies.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most Monacan Indians were living on a settlement near Bear Mountain in Amherst County. Sometime around 1868, a small log cabin was built and used as a community church.
Leisure activities brought Powhatan people together with games, music and dancing. Men and boys wrestled and ran foot races. Everyone participated in games, similar to soccer or field hockey [stickball]. A popular gambling game, similar to pick-up-sticks, was played with reeds.