THE OCCANEECHI

SIOTTAN

MDONEYJ

LAST OF THE TUTELO.

^-

53

their lan^iage.

From

a letter obtained

by him two

or three years later, however,it appears that there

was

then at leastone other Tutelo living'

somewhere

else in Canada, probably with the

Canghnawaga Mohawk

or the Moravian Delaware,

and

still claiming title to lands in Virginia.

As

already stated there areprobablya few Saponi ^still with the

Caynga

in

New

^York.

To

this i>itifiil handful have

come

atlast"thehonestest

and

bravest Indians Yirginia ever knew."

54 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE

EAST. _[I^[TREAU_ruNOLOoy^«F of corn, liaving always ou liaud a year's supi)]y of ])rovisioiis as a reservein case of attack by hostile tribes.

They

were governed

by two

chiefs,onepresiding in war, the otherhaving chargeof theirImnt- ing

and

agricnlture.

They

held all property in

common.

Ceremonial feasting

was

an important featnre of their daily life,each

man

in turn feasting his friends, the giver ofthe feast haring the seat of honor between thetwo chiefs during the entertainment. Their tribaltotem

was

a serpent.

Here

Lederer

met

four strangersfrom a tribeliving at two months' distancenorthwestward, being^all that survived of a j)arty ot 50

who had

started to visitthe0<*caneechi, the rest having been

drowned

in crossingagreatwater ^orhaving died later from hunger

and

e\i>osure on the journey.

While

Lederer

was

stopping here six Eickohockan (Cherokee) also

came down

from the mountains farther

westward

to visitthe Occaneechi, perhapsto arrange a treaty ofjieacebetweenthe

two

tribes.

They

were received with great vshow of friendship

and

a dance

was

arranged in theirhonor that night, but inthe midst of the festivities the falseOccaneechi suddenly darkened the place

by means

of

smoke and murdered

all the llickohockan. This act of bloody treachery so frightenedthetraveler thatheleftsecretlywithhisIndian companion

and went

on to the

Oenock

^(Eno) territory (Lederer, 0).

It

must

have been shortly afterthe expedition of Batts in 1071 that the Saponi and Tutelo

moved

in

and

joined the Occaneechi, the Sapoui fixing on an island just below

and

the Tutelo on another island just above the Occaneechi.

From

all accounts of the early travelersit

must

have been an ideal place for Iiidiau settlement, with rich soil

and

tinetimber on all three islands,

and

well defended from enemies

by

the river

and

from storms

by

tlic hills. Situated at the confluence oftwo largerivers,

midway

between the mountains andthe sea,

and

between the tribes of Virginia

and

Carolina, the Occaneechi were an importantpeople, if not a

numerous

one, and theirisland

was

the great trading mart, according to a writer of this period, "forall

the Indians forat least500 miles" (Mass., _1). Theirlanguage

was

the general tradelanguage for all the tril)es of that region

—

^{as Algonkin}

was

ⁱⁿ the north, asMobilian

was

in the gulfstates,

and

as Oomanc*he

isin the southern prairies

— ^and

^Avas used

by

the medicine-men of the various tribesin alltheir sacred ceremonies, as Latinis

by

thepriests of the Catholic church (Beverley,5).

But

their wealth proved their destruction. In 1C7G the Susque-

hanna

(Conestoga),

who had

beendriven out from the head of Chesa- peake

bay by

the combined attacks of the Iroquois and t^he English of

Maryland and

Virginia, fled to the Occaneechi, with who-m they

had

longbeen on friendlyterms.

They

werereceived

by

the latter,

but repaid thehospitality

by

endeavoring to dispossess their hosts.

The

result

was

a battlethrough

which

the

Susquehanna

were driven out of the island.

At

this juncture, in

May,

1070,

Bacon

with 200 Virginians

came up

in pursuit of the Suscpiehanna and engaged the

Slot

MOONEYj^^ey]

occaneechi early

history.

65

assistance ^of the OccaiieecLi against their late ungrateful friends.

The

Occaueechijoined forceswith thewhites,

and

inthenext encounter killed the

Susquehanna

chief

and

toolv a

number

of prisoners.

The

Virginians, however,

had

seen therich stores of beaver skins in the village,

and

with a treachery equal to tliatof

any

savages,afterhaving defeated the

Snsquehanna

theyturned

upon

the friendlyOccaneechi.

Over

50 of the Indianswere killed, a terribleloss for an Indiantribe,

butthe Virginians were unableto force the palisades

and

wei-e finally obliged to retirewith considerableloss after adesiderate battle, lasting thewhole

day

(Mass., 2).

Although

the Occaneechi

had

beaten off the Virginians, they felt

themselves nolonger secure in thevicinityof ^su(;h treacherous neigh- bors, whiletheir

heavy

lossrendered

them

lessabletomeettheincreas- ing fury of the Iroquoisattacks. Itis probable alsothat they shared the general Indian dislike toremain in a locatio'n

where

their friends

had

died.

They abandoned

theirbeautiful island

home and

tiedsouth-

ward

into Carolina. Nearly sixtyyears later

some

of the peach trees they

had

plantedwere still remainingin the old fields on the island (Byrd, 14).

Twenty-fiveyearslater (in 1701)

Lawsou

found

them

pleasantlysitu- atedin avillageon

Eno

river, about the present Ilillsboro in

Orange

county, North Carolina, on the line of the great trading]>ath tothe

Catawba

^alreadymentioned (the Occaneeche ^hills at this place still

preservetheirname).

They

werewellsuppliedwithprovision ofgame,

and

received the traveler kindly, in s^nte of theirformer experience of the English.

They

were on good terms with all the lUMghboring tribes

and had some

littletrade with the Tiiskarora living lower

down

the Neuse,

who

were jealous of their dealingswith the wliite traders.

At

this time theywere

much

wasted and wereconsolidating with the otherreduced tribes

and moving

intoward the settlementsforgreater security. Later on theycombinedwith the Saponi,Tutelo,

and

others, the whole

body numbering

only about ToO souls (Lawson,4).

They

arenext

known

(in 1722)as living inconnectionwiththetribes just

named

atFortChristanna,

when

Governor

Spotswood made

peace in theirbehalf with the Iroquois(N. Y., 15).

Another

incidentalmen- tion is

made

(Byrd, 15) of oneof the tribe in the

same

neighborhood"

in 1729 (for 1728). This seems tobetheir lastappearancein history.

Their separateidentity

was

lost

and

the

remnant

probably

moved

north-

ward

later onwith theSaponi

and

TutelointoPennsylvania

and

after- Avard into

New

York.

The

lastclewto theirultimatefateis contained in thestatement

made

toHale

by

thesolesurviving Tuteloin1870 that

when

he

was

a boy, probably just before the Kevolution, the Saponi

and

"Patshenins,"or "Potshenins"were living with hispeople,

who

were thenlocatednear the

Cayuga

tribe in

New

York.

Although

Hale did not inquire astothelangnage of these Patshenin, heisinclined to identify

them

with the Occaneechi (Hale, _8),

and

from all the circum- stances this seems a probable supposition. If thisbetrue, and they