The Native American tribes in Virginia are the Indigenous peoples whose tribal nations historically or currently are based in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
Native peoples lived throughout Virginia for at least 12,000 years. At contact, most tribes in what is now Virginia spoke languages from three major language families: Algonquian along the coast and Tidewater region, Siouan in the Piedmont region above the Fall Line, and Iroquoian in the interior, particularly the mountains. About 30 Algonquian tribes were allied in the powerful Powhatan Confederacy along the coast.
During English colonization and the formation of the United States, most Virginia tribes had lost their lands and their populations declined due to introduced diseases and warfare. Assimilationist policies also contributed to Indigenous erasure.
Surviving local tribes reorganized their governments in the late 20th century. Today Virginia has seven federally recognized tribes and eleven state-recognized tribes, four of which lack federal recognition.
Federally recognized tribes in Virginia Virginia has seven federally recognized tribes. These are tribes who can negotiate a government-to-government relationship with the United States.
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe was the first tribe in Virginia to gain federal recognition, which they achieved through the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2015. In 2017, Congress recognized six more tribes through the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act.
The federally recognized tribes in Virginia are: Chickahominy Indian Tribe Chickahominy Indian Tribe–Eastern Division Monacan Indian Nation Nansemond Indian Nation Pamunkey Indian Tribe Rappahannock Tribe, Inc. Upper Mattaponi Tribe.
State-recognized tribes in Virginia The Commonwealth of Virginia recognizes 11 state-recognized tribes. State-recognition is not well defined and does not confer the same rights as federal recognition. The Commonwealth of Virginia has recognized the Mattaponi and Pamunkey since its inception. Virginia recognized the Rappahannock, Upper Mattaponi, Nansemond, and Monacan Indian Nation in the 1980s. Finally, in 2010, Virginia recognized the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway), Nottoway of Virginia, and Patawomeck.
The eleven state-recognized tribes in Virginia are: Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe Chickahominy Indian Tribe, also federally recognized Chickahominy Indian Tribe–Eastern Division, also federally recognized Mattaponi Indian Nation Monacan Indian Nation, also federally recognized Nansemond Indian Nation, also federally recognized Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia Pamunkey Indian Tribe, also federally recognized Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia Rappahannock Indian Tribe, also federally recognized Upper Mattaponi Tribe, also federally recognized
History
16th century
The first European explorers in what is now Virginia were Spaniards, who landed at two separate places several decades before the English founded Jamestown in 1607. By 1525 the Spanish had charted the eastern Atlantic coastline north of Florida. In 1609, Francisco Fernández de Écija, seeking to deny the English claim, asserted that Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's failed colony of San Miguel de Gualdape, which lasted the three months of winter 1526–27, had been near Jamestown. Modern scholars instead place this first Spanish colony within US boundaries as having been on an island off Georgia.
In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in his expedition to the North American continent encountered the Chisca people, who lived in present-day southwestern Virginia. In the spring of 1567, the conquistador Juan Pardo was based at Fort San Juan, built near the Mississippian culture center of Joara in present-day western North Carolina. He sent a detachment under Hernando Moyano de Morales into present-day Virginia. This expedition destroyed the Chisca village of Maniatique. The site was later developed as the present-day town of Saltville, Virginia.
Meanwhile, as early as 1559–60, the Spanish had explored Virginia, which they called Ajacán, from the Chesapeake Bay while they sought a water passage to the west. They captured a Native man, possibly from the Paspahegh or Kiskiack tribe, whom they named Don Luis after they baptized him. They took him to Spain, where he received a Jesuit education. About ten years later, Don Luis returned with Spanish Jesuit missionaries to establish the short-lived Ajacán Mission. Native Americans attacked it in 1571 and killed all the missionaries.
English attempts to settle the Roanoke Colony in 1585–87 failed. Although the island site is located in present-day North Carolina, the English considered it part of the Virginia territory. The English collected ethnological information about the local Croatan tribe, as well as related coastal tribes extending as far north as the Chesapeake Bay.
There were no records of indigenous life before the Europeans started documenting their expeditions and colonization efforts. But scholars have used archaeological, linguistic and anthropological research to learn more about the cultures and lives of Native Americans in the region. Contemporary historians have also learned how to use the Native American oral traditions to explore their history.
According to colonial historian William Strachey, Chief Powhatan had slain the weroance at Kecoughtan in 1597, appointing his own young son Pochins as successor there. Powhatan resettled some of that tribe on the Piankatank River. (He annihilated the adult male inhabitants at Piankatank in fall 1608.)
In 1670 the German explorer John Lederer recorded a Monacan legend. According to their oral history, the Monacan, a Siouan-speaking people, settled in Virginia some 400 years earlier by following "an oracle," after being driven by enemies from the northwest. They found the Algonquian-speaking Tacci tribe (also known as Doeg) already living there. The Monacan told Lederer they had taught the Tacci to plant maize. They said that before that innovation, the Doeg had hunted, fished, and gathered their food.
Another Monacan tradition holds that, centuries prior to European contact, the Monacan and the Powhatan tribes had been contesting part of the mountains in the western areas of today's Virginia. The Powhatan had pursued a band of Monacan as far as the Natural Bridge, where the Monacan ambushed the Powhatan on the narrow formation, routing them. The Natural Bridge became a sacred site to the Monacan known as the Bridge of Mahomny or Mohomny (Creator). The Powhatan withdrew their settlements to below the Fall Line of the Piedmont, far to the east along the coast.
Another tradition relates that the Doeg had once lived in the territory of modern King George County, Virginia. About 50 years before the English arrived at Jamestown (i.e. c. 1557), the Doeg split into three sections, with one part moving to what became organized as colonial Caroline County, one part moving to Prince William, and a third part remaining in King George.
Houses
Another expression of the different cultures of the three major language groups were their practices in constructing dwellings, both in style and materials. The Monacan, who spoke a Siouan language, created dome-shaped structures covered with bark and reed mats.
The tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy spoke Algonquian languages, as did many of the Atlantic coastal peoples all the way up into Canada. They lived in houses they called yihakans/yehakins, and which the English described as "longhouses". They were made from bent saplings lashed together at the top to make a barrel shape. The saplings were covered with woven mats or bark. The 17th-century historian William Strachey thought since bark was harder to acquire, families of higher status likely owned the bark-covered houses. In summer, when the heat and humidity increased, the people could roll up or remove the mat walls for better air circulation.
Inside a Powhatan house, bedsteads were built along both long walls. They were made of posts put in the ground, about a foot high or more, with small cross-poles attached. The framework was about wide, and was covered with reeds. One or more mats was placed on top for bedding, with more mats or skins for blankets. A rolled mat served as a pillow. During the day, the bedding was rolled up and stored so the space could be used for other purposes. There was little need for extra bedding because a fire was kept burning inside the houses to provide heat in the cold months. It would be used to repel insects during the warmer months.
Wildlife was abundant in this area. The buffalo were still plentiful in the Virginia Piedmont up until the 1700s. The Upper Potomac watershed (above Great Falls, Virginia) was once renowned for its unsurpassed abundance of wild geese, earning the Upper Potomac its former Algonquian name, Cohongoruton (Goose River). Men and boys hunted game, and harvested fish and shellfish. Women gathered greens, roots and nuts, and cooked these with the meats. Women were responsible for butchering the meat, gutting and preparing the fish, and cooking shellfish and vegetables for stew. In addition, women were largely responsible for the construction of new houses when the band moved for seasonal resources. Experienced women and older girls worked together to build the houses, with younger children assigned to assist.
17th century In 1607, when the English made their first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, the area of the current state was occupied by numerous tribes of Algonquian, Siouan, and Iroquoian linguistic stock. Captain John Smith made contact with numerous tribes, including the Wicocomico.Bruce 185 More than 30 Algonquian tribes were associated with the politically powerful Powhatan Confederacy, whose homeland occupied much of the area east of the Fall Line along the coast. It spanned 100 by , and covered most of the tidewater Virginia area and parts of the Eastern Shore, an area they called Tsenacommacah. Each of the more than 30 tribes of this confederacy had its own name and chief (weroance or werowance, female weroansqua). All paid tribute to a leader called the Mamanatowick who at the time was Powhatan, whose personal name was Wahunsenecawh. Succession and property inheritance in the tribe was governed by a matrilineal kinship system and passed through the mother's line.
Below the fall line lived related Algonquian tribes, the Chickahominy and the Doeg in Northern Virginia.
The Chickahominy did not immediately join the Powhatan Confederacy, and, instead of being led by a weroance, they were led by a council of elders. If Powhatan wished to use them as warriors, he had pay them in copper as mercenaries. The Accawmacke (including the Gingaskin) of the Eastern Shore, and the Patawomeck of Northern Virginia, were fringe members of the Confederacy. As they were separated by water from Powhatan's domains, the Accawmacke enjoyed some measure of semi-autonomy under their own leader, Debedeavon, aka "The Laughing King".
The Piedmont and area above the fall line were occupied by Siouan-speaking groups, such as the Monacan and Manahoac. The Iroquoian-speaking peoples of the Nottoway and Meherrin lived in what is now Southside Virginia south of the James River. Other tribes occupied mountain and foothill areas. The region beyond the Blue Ridge (including West Virginia) was considered part of the sacred hunting grounds. Like much of the Ohio Valley, it was depopulated during the later Beaver Wars (1670–1700) by attacks from the powerful Five Nations of the Iroquois from New York and Pennsylvania.
French Jesuit maps prior to that were labeled showing that previous inhabitants included the Siouan "Oniasont" (Nahyssan) and the Tutelo or "Totteroy," the former name of Big Sandy River — and another name for the Yesan or Nahyssan.