Nottoway Tribe
Encyclopedia
The Nottoway, in their own language Cheroenhaka, Cherohakah, Cheroohoka or Tcherohaka, are an Iroquoian
-language tribe of Virginia Indians. Two Nottoway groups, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe, have both been recognized as tribes by the state of Virginia. The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia live from Southampton County into Surry County
and the Tidewater region, and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe live in Southampton County and surrounding counties in Virginia and North Carolina. Since colonial times, treaties by regional government with the Nottoway attested to their presence as a distinct people.
Both contemporary tribes received state recognition in February 2010. They do not have reservations or federal recognition.
: Čiruʼęhá·ka·ʼ) is uncertain. The late Iroquoian scholar Dr. Blair Rudes analyzed the second element as -hakaʼ meaning "one or people who is/are characterized in a certain way". He conjectured that the first element was related to Tuscarora čárhuʼ (tobacco). The term has also been interpreted as "People at the Fork of the Stream".
The term Nottoway may derive from Nadawa or Nadowessioux (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an Algonquian
-language term which speakers used for their competitors of the other language families, the Iroquoian- or Siouan-speaking tribes. Because the Algonquian occupied the coastal areas, they were the first tribes met by the English. The colonists often adopted such Algonquian ethnonyms, names for other tribes, not realizing at first that these differed from the autonyms, or the tribes' names for themselves.
Frank Siebert suggests the term "natowewa" stems from Proto-Algonquian *na:tawe:wa and references the eastern massasauga or pit viper in the Great Lakes region. The extension of the meaning as "Iroquoian speakers" is secondary. In Algonquian languages beyond the geographical range of the viper (i.e. Cree and Southern Algonquian), the term's primary reference continues to focus on *na:t- 'close upon, mover towards, go after, seek out, fetch' and *-awe: 'condition of heat, state of warmth,' but no longer references the viper. Instead, particularly in the south, the 'Iroquoian' designation is primary. The semantic meaning may not relate to snakes at all, but references the cultural trading position of the Virginia-Carolina Iroquois as middle men between Algonquian and Siouan-speakers. Other historical developments in Algonquian languages extend the meaning of *-awe to 'fur or hair' (i.e. Cree, Montagnais, Ojibway, Shawnee) an obvious relationship to 'state of warmth.' Thus, a potential etymology in Virginia of *na:tawe:wa (Nottoway) references *na:t- 'seeker' + -awe: 'fur,' or literally 'traders'The earliest Virginia reference to "Nottoway" also frames Algonquian/Iroquoian exchanges in terms of trade: roanoke (shell beads) for skins (deer and otter)
The Algonquian speakers also called the Nottoway, Meherrin
and Tuscarora
(also of the Iroquoian-language family) — Mangoak or Mangoags, a term which the English used in their records from 1584 to 1650. This term, Mengwe or Mingwe, was also transliterated by the Dutch and applied to the Iroquoian Susquehannock
("White Minquas") and Eries
("Black Minquas"). Another variation was the later Mingo
, which referred to descendants of the tribes who had been partly assimilated into the Six Nations and moved into Ohio and the Midwest.
, as well as the Nansemond
, who spoke Nottoway in addition to their own Algonquian dialect of Powhatan
. The last two interpreters were dismissed in 1735, since the Nottoway by then were using English.
By 1820, there were said to be only three elderly speakers of Nottoway remaining. In that year John Wood collected over 250 word samples from one of these, Chief "Queen" Edie Turner. He sent them to Thomas Jefferson
, who shared them with Peter DuPonceau. In their correspondence, these two men quickly confirmed the Nottoway language as of the Iroquoian family. Several additional words, for a total of about 275, were collected by James Trezvant
after 1831, and published by Albert Gallatin
in 1836.
In the early 20th century, Hewitt
(1910) and Hoffman (1959) analyzed the Nottoway vocabulary in comparison with Tuscarora, and found them closely related. The Tuscarora had lived in North Carolina
at one time. Due to warfare and colonial pressure, they migrated north to New York in the eighteenth century to seek protection by alliance with the Iroquois Confederacy.
. They were first visited and described by explorer Edward Bland
on an expedition from Fort Henry
, as he noted in his journal for August 27, 1650. At the time, the people numbered no more than 400-500. Bland visited two of their three towns, on Stoney Creek and the Rowantee Branch of Nottoway River
, in what is now Sussex County
. These towns were led by the brothers Oyeocker and Chounerounte.
The Nottoway and Meherrin became friendly to the English. They were the only tribes to send warrior
s to help the English against the Susquehannock
(also Iroquoian speakers) in 1675. Following Bacon's Rebellion
, both tribes signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677, thereby becoming Tributary Nations to the Virginia Colony.
By 1681, hostile tribes caused the Nottoway to relocate southward to Assamoosick Swamp in modern Surry County
. In 1694 they moved again, to the mouth of a swamp in what is now Southampton County
. Around this time, they absorbed the remnants of the Weyanoke — an Algonquian
-language tribe that had formerly been part of the Powhatan Confederacy.
Although never numerous, the Nottoway were able to keep their organization. They did not disappear from records, merge into other tribes, or get pushed too far from their original homeland. Scholars believe the early Nottoway were similar in culture to the Tuscarora and Meherrin. The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the three sisters
— maize
, squash, and beans. This cultivation was typically done by women, while the men hunted game and fished in the rivers. They built multi-family dwellings known as longhouses, in communities protected by stockade
fences.
The Nottoway population was first reduced by epidemics of new Eurasia
n infectious diseases, such as measles
and smallpox
, to which they had no natural immunity
. These had been brought about by European contact, as the diseases were by then endemic
among Europeans. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also lowered their numbers. When the Tuscarora migrated northward ca. 1720 to become the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York, some Nottoway also migrated there, while others remained in Virginia. It is probable that some Iroquois descendants, especially among the Tuscarora in New York and Canada, also have Nottoway ancestry.
Some Nottoway returned to the South, with bands of Tuscarora and Meherrin joining and merging with them. These groups went to South Carolina
.
Iroquoian languages
The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native American language family.-Family division:*Ruttenber, Edward Manning. 1992 [1872]. History of the Indian tribes of Hudson's River. Hope Farm Press....
-language tribe of Virginia Indians. Two Nottoway groups, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe, have both been recognized as tribes by the state of Virginia. The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia live from Southampton County into Surry County
Surry County
Surry County is the name of two counties in the United States:* Surry County, North Carolina* Surry County, Virginia...
and the Tidewater region, and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe live in Southampton County and surrounding counties in Virginia and North Carolina. Since colonial times, treaties by regional government with the Nottoway attested to their presence as a distinct people.
Both contemporary tribes received state recognition in February 2010. They do not have reservations or federal recognition.
Name
The meaning of the name Cheroenhaka (TuscaroraTuscarora language
Tuscarora, sometimes called Ska:rù:rę, is an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people, spoken in southern Ontario, Canada, and northwestern New York around Niagara Falls, in the United States. The historic homeland of the Tuscarora was in eastern North Carolina, in and around the Goldsboro,...
: Čiruʼęhá·ka·ʼ) is uncertain. The late Iroquoian scholar Dr. Blair Rudes analyzed the second element as -hakaʼ meaning "one or people who is/are characterized in a certain way". He conjectured that the first element was related to Tuscarora čárhuʼ (tobacco). The term has also been interpreted as "People at the Fork of the Stream".
The term Nottoway may derive from Nadawa or Nadowessioux (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
-language term which speakers used for their competitors of the other language families, the Iroquoian- or Siouan-speaking tribes. Because the Algonquian occupied the coastal areas, they were the first tribes met by the English. The colonists often adopted such Algonquian ethnonyms, names for other tribes, not realizing at first that these differed from the autonyms, or the tribes' names for themselves.
Frank Siebert suggests the term "natowewa" stems from Proto-Algonquian *na:tawe:wa and references the eastern massasauga or pit viper in the Great Lakes region. The extension of the meaning as "Iroquoian speakers" is secondary. In Algonquian languages beyond the geographical range of the viper (i.e. Cree and Southern Algonquian), the term's primary reference continues to focus on *na:t- 'close upon, mover towards, go after, seek out, fetch' and *-awe: 'condition of heat, state of warmth,' but no longer references the viper. Instead, particularly in the south, the 'Iroquoian' designation is primary. The semantic meaning may not relate to snakes at all, but references the cultural trading position of the Virginia-Carolina Iroquois as middle men between Algonquian and Siouan-speakers. Other historical developments in Algonquian languages extend the meaning of *-awe to 'fur or hair' (i.e. Cree, Montagnais, Ojibway, Shawnee) an obvious relationship to 'state of warmth.' Thus, a potential etymology in Virginia of *na:tawe:wa (Nottoway) references *na:t- 'seeker' + -awe: 'fur,' or literally 'traders'The earliest Virginia reference to "Nottoway" also frames Algonquian/Iroquoian exchanges in terms of trade: roanoke (shell beads) for skins (deer and otter)
The Algonquian speakers also called the Nottoway, Meherrin
Meherrin
The Meherrin Nation is one of eight state-recognized Nations of Native Americans in North Carolina. They reside in rural northeastern North Carolina, near the river of the same name on the Virginia-North Carolina border. They received formal state recognition in 1986. The Meherrin have an...
and Tuscarora
Tuscarora (tribe)
The Tuscarora are a Native American people of the Iroquoian-language family, with members in New York, Canada, and North Carolina...
(also of the Iroquoian-language family) — Mangoak or Mangoags, a term which the English used in their records from 1584 to 1650. This term, Mengwe or Mingwe, was also transliterated by the Dutch and applied to the Iroquoian Susquehannock
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...
("White Minquas") and Eries
Erie (tribe)
The Erie were an Native American people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio...
("Black Minquas"). Another variation was the later Mingo
Mingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
, which referred to descendants of the tribes who had been partly assimilated into the Six Nations and moved into Ohio and the Midwest.
Language
The Nottoway language became extinct well before 1900. At the time of European contact (1650), speakers numbered only in the hundreds. From then until 1735, a number of colonists learned the language and acted as official interpreters for the Virginia Colony, including Thomas Blunt, Henry Briggs and Thomas Wynn. These interpreters also served the adjacent MeherrinMeherrin
The Meherrin Nation is one of eight state-recognized Nations of Native Americans in North Carolina. They reside in rural northeastern North Carolina, near the river of the same name on the Virginia-North Carolina border. They received formal state recognition in 1986. The Meherrin have an...
, as well as the Nansemond
Nansemond
The Nansemond have been recognized as a Native American tribe by the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with ten other Virginia Indian tribes. They are not Federally recognized but are one of six Virginia tribes without reservations that are included in a bill for Federal recognition under...
, who spoke Nottoway in addition to their own Algonquian dialect of Powhatan
Powhatan language
Powhatan or Virginia Algonquian is an extinct language belonging to the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian languages. It was spoken by the Powhatan people of tidewater Virginia. It became extinct around the 1790s after speakers switched to English. The sole documentary evidence for this...
. The last two interpreters were dismissed in 1735, since the Nottoway by then were using English.
By 1820, there were said to be only three elderly speakers of Nottoway remaining. In that year John Wood collected over 250 word samples from one of these, Chief "Queen" Edie Turner. He sent them to Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, who shared them with Peter DuPonceau. In their correspondence, these two men quickly confirmed the Nottoway language as of the Iroquoian family. Several additional words, for a total of about 275, were collected by James Trezvant
James Trezvant
James Trezvant was a U.S. Representative from Virginia.Born in Sussex County, Virginia, Trezvant studied law after college...
after 1831, and published by Albert Gallatin
Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York...
in 1836.
In the early 20th century, Hewitt
John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt
John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt was a linguist and ethnographer who specialized in Iroquoian and other Native American languages....
(1910) and Hoffman (1959) analyzed the Nottoway vocabulary in comparison with Tuscarora, and found them closely related. The Tuscarora had lived in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
at one time. Due to warfare and colonial pressure, they migrated north to New York in the eighteenth century to seek protection by alliance with the Iroquois Confederacy.
History
The Cheroenhaka, like their close Iroquoian neighbours, the Meherrin and Tuscarora, lived just west of the fall lineFall line
A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...
. They were first visited and described by explorer Edward Bland
Edward Bland
Edward Bland is an American composer and musical director. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Among his compositions is a concerto for electric violin and chamber orchestra. He has composed scores for A Raisin in the Sun and A Soldier's Story , made-for-television...
on an expedition from Fort Henry
Fort Henry (Virginia)
Fort Henry was an English frontier fort in 17th century colonial Virginia near the falls of the Appomattox River. Its exact location has been debated, but the most popular one is on a bluff about four blocks north of the corner of W. Washington and N...
, as he noted in his journal for August 27, 1650. At the time, the people numbered no more than 400-500. Bland visited two of their three towns, on Stoney Creek and the Rowantee Branch of Nottoway River
Nottoway River
The Nottoway River is in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. It is part of the Chowan River system, which flows into Albemarle Sound in North Carolina.-Cities and towns:Cities and towns along the river include:* Courtland, Virginia...
, in what is now Sussex County
Sussex County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 12,504 people, 4,126 households, and 2,809 families residing in the county. The population density was 26 people per square mile . There were 4,653 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile...
. These towns were led by the brothers Oyeocker and Chounerounte.
The Nottoway and Meherrin became friendly to the English. They were the only tribes to send warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
s to help the English against the Susquehannock
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...
(also Iroquoian speakers) in 1675. Following Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony in North America, led by a 29-year-old planter, Nathaniel Bacon.About a thousand Virginians rose because they resented Virginia Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies towards the Native Americans...
, both tribes signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677, thereby becoming Tributary Nations to the Virginia Colony.
By 1681, hostile tribes caused the Nottoway to relocate southward to Assamoosick Swamp in modern Surry County
Surry County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 7,058 people, 2,619 households, and 1,917 families residing in the county. The population density was 24 people per square mile . There were 3,294 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
. In 1694 they moved again, to the mouth of a swamp in what is now Southampton County
Southampton County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 18,570 people, 6,279 households, and 4,502 families residing in the county. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 7,058 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
. Around this time, they absorbed the remnants of the Weyanoke — an Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
-language tribe that had formerly been part of the Powhatan Confederacy.
Although never numerous, the Nottoway were able to keep their organization. They did not disappear from records, merge into other tribes, or get pushed too far from their original homeland. Scholars believe the early Nottoway were similar in culture to the Tuscarora and Meherrin. The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the three sisters
Three Sisters (agriculture)
The Three Sisters are the three main agricultural crops of various Native American groups in North America: squash, maize, and climbing beans ....
— maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, squash, and beans. This cultivation was typically done by women, while the men hunted game and fished in the rivers. They built multi-family dwellings known as longhouses, in communities protected by stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
fences.
The Nottoway population was first reduced by epidemics of new Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n infectious diseases, such as measles
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
and smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, to which they had no natural immunity
Immunity (medical)
Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide...
. These had been brought about by European contact, as the diseases were by then endemic
Endemic (epidemiology)
In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a population when that infection is maintained in the population without the need for external inputs. For example, chickenpox is endemic in the UK, but malaria is not...
among Europeans. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also lowered their numbers. When the Tuscarora migrated northward ca. 1720 to become the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York, some Nottoway also migrated there, while others remained in Virginia. It is probable that some Iroquois descendants, especially among the Tuscarora in New York and Canada, also have Nottoway ancestry.
Some Nottoway returned to the South, with bands of Tuscarora and Meherrin joining and merging with them. These groups went to South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
.
Additional reading
- "Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) State and Federal Recognition", Cheroenhaka website
- Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
- Hodge, Frederick W. Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1910.
External links
- Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe, Website
- Nottoway Indians of Virginia, Inc., Website
- Nottoway language Swadesh vocabulary list (from Wiktionary)