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30-511: The Massawomeck were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now western Maryland and eastern West Virginia during the early 17th century. Their territory encompassed the headwaters of the Monongahela , Youghiogheny and Potomac rivers. The first documented European contact with the Massawomeck occurred during John Smith 's second exploration of Chesapeake Bay in 1608. While crossing

60-565: A defence against enemy attack, these settlements were referred to as “towns” by early Europeans and supplemented their diet with additional hunting and gathering activities. Longhouses were also common. Meherrin The Meherrin people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands , who spoke an Iroquian language . They lived between the Piedmont and coastal plains at

90-710: A harsh reprimand to leaders of Carolina. From 1711 to 1712, the Meherrin allied with the Tuscarora against British colonists in the Carolinas and their Indian allies during the Tuscarora War . In 1713, they delivered two of their paramount chief’s sons as hostages to be kept by the colonists at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia to ensure that they would keep

120-587: A word of greeting (quo). Four of the words were names of Massawomeck settlements (Skaunetowa, Touhoga, Usserahak, Mosticum), and one name was of a non-Massawomeck group (Herecheenes). Historical writers in the 19th and the early 20th centuries identified the Massawomeck as either the Haudenosaunee , specifically the Seneca , or the Erie. However, it is now accepted that the Massawomeck were Iroquoian but culturally distinct from

150-484: Is archaeological evidence for Iroquoian peoples "in the area around present-day New York state by approximately 500 to 600 CE, and possibly as far back as 4000 BCE. Their distinctive culture seems to have developed by about 1000 CE. Iroquois mythology tells that the Iroquoian people have their origin in a woman who fell from the sky, and that they have always been on Turtle Island. Iroquoian societies were affected by

180-562: The Meherrin language , which is most likely an Iroquian language . This designation is based on their close relationships to the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora and Nottoway . Linguistic evidence indicates that these three groups share a common ancestry and likely all spoke the same Iroquoian language or similar dialects. Tuscarora oral history also indicates common origins. American anthropologist James Mooney estimated that

210-570: The Province of North Carolina in 1726. The British colonists established a reservation in what is now Hertford County, North Carolina . The 7-square-mile reservation was located between the Meherrin River and the Chowan River . The Province of North Carolina confirmed in a treaty that the reservation land belonged to the Meherrin. In 1731, fewer than 20 surviving Meherrin families lived east of

240-558: The Chesapeake. Smith had previously heard of the Massawomeck from Wahunsenacawh , leader of the Powhatan . Wahunsenacawh told Smith that the Massawomeck were a fierce people who lived on a sea beyond the mountains, "that did eate men," and had slain many during attacks against the Piscataway , and Patawomeck a year earlier. Smith later interrogated a Manahoac prisoner who also reported that

270-631: The Chowan River in North Carolina. They moved to what is now Northampton County, North Carolina by 1755, when only 8 fighting men were recorded. By 1761, an estimated 20 Meherrin fighting men and their families lived along the Roanoke River , along with Saponi , Tuscarora, and Machapunga people. By 1768 their reservation had been dissolved. They likely migrated north with last bands of Tuscarora in 1802. The State of North Carolina designated

300-704: The Dutch as the Black Minqua. Other Massawomeck refugees may have pushed southward into Virginia where they were absorbed by the Meherrin . Iroquoian peoples Historical Iroquoian people were the Five nations of the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee , Huron or Wendat , Petun , Neutral or Attawandaron , Erie people , Wenro , Susquehannock and the St. Lawrence Iroquoians . The Cherokee are also an Iroquoian-speaking people. There

330-723: The Erie and Haudenosaunee. In 1991, James Pendergast of the Canadian Museum of History proposed that the Massawomeck were the Antouhonorons who Samuel de Champlain placed south of Lake Ontario on his map of 1632. Pendergast hypothesized that the Massawomeck had lived east of the Niagara River until conflict with the Haudenosaunee forced them to migrate south in the mid-1620s. This theory, however, fails to explain Smith's encounter with

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360-548: The Massawomeck lived on a great water. On the Carte de la Nouvelle-France , dated c.  1641 and attributed to Jean Bourdon , and on Nicolas Sanson 's 1656 map Le Canada ou Nouvelle France , a people called the "Antiovandarons" are located to the west of the Appalachians that may represent the Massawomeck. The Massawomeck appear in the journal of English fur trader Henry Fleet. In June 1632, Fleet sent his brother Edward up

390-481: The Massawomeck on Chesapeake Bay in 1608, nor does it account for the significant Massawomeck aggression against the Algonquian peoples on the upper Chesapeake well before 1620. It also ignores the likelihood that when Champlain wrote about the Antouhonorons he was referring to the non-Mohawk tribes of the Haudenosaunee. Recent research has identified the Massawomeck as the protohistoric Monongahela people who inhabited

420-560: The Mehirren population was 700 in 1600. They lived in dispersed villages, where they farmed, hunted, and gathered wild foods. British colonist Edward Bland encountered the Meherrin in 1650 and first wrote about them. Their village Cowinchahawkon was on an early British trade route. A 1669 Virginia Indian census said they had two villages and 50 fighting men, for an estimated total of 180 Meherrin. By 1675, they had absorbed Susquehanna refugees fleeing Pennsylvania. In 1681 they moved south to

450-579: The Potomac River to invite the Massawomeck bring their furs to the Great Falls of the Potomac River and trade directly with him rather than through Nacotchtank (Anacostan) intermediaries. Edward was successful and several groups of Massawomeck arrived at the falls that summer. Fleet recorded that the Massawomeck were a confederacy who lived in palisaded towns, one of which contained over 300 houses. Fleet's journal includes six Massawomeck words, five names and

480-641: The Virginia colonists to make their case. Virginia took their side in the quarrel, but in August 1707 Carolinian official Thomas Pollock , leading a troop of 60 men, attacked Meherrin Town, destroying crops, homes, and all belongings; his forces seized 36 men, depriving them of water for two days. In September the Virginia militia met with the chiefs, promising Virginia’s protection to prevent them from retaliating against Carolina. Col. Edmond Jennings, Virginia Council President, wrote

510-546: The banks of the Meherrin River . In 1705 the Virginia Colony established a reservation for the Meherrin at Maherrin Neck (later renamed Manley’s Neck), in an area claimed by both Virginia and Carolina. It was finally assigned to Carolina, and in 1706 Carolina ordered the Meherrin out of her territory, threatening violence to expel them. The Meherrin asked for more time, a year in order to harvest their crops, and asked for help from

540-519: The beginning of the 14th century, and detectable differences between the Glen Meyer and Pickering cultures disappeared. The Middle Ontario Iroquois stage is divided into chronological Uren and Middleport substages, which are sometimes termed as cultures. Wright controversially attributed the increase in homogeneity to a "conquest theory", whereby the Pickering culture became dominant over the Glen Meyer and

570-527: The border of Virginia and North Carolina . The Meherrin Indian Tribe is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina. The meaning of Meherrin is unknown. Their name was first written as Maharineck. It was also spelled Maherin, Maherring, Meherries, Meherron, and Menchaerink. The Meherrin Indian Tribe says their autonym is Kauwets'a:ka, which translates to "People of the Water." The Meherrin spoke

600-421: The former became the predecessor of the later Uren and Middleport substages. Archaeologists opposed to Wright's theory have criticized it on a number of levels, such as questioning whether the Glen Meyer and Pickering cultures were meaningfully distinct from each other, reclassifying some Uren and Middleport sites as Glen Meyer, and, by the 1990s, becoming increasingly reluctant to classify sub-groups of sites from

630-644: The mouth of the Elk River , Smith encountered a party of Massawomeck in canoes returning from a raid on the Tockwogh, an Algonquian people who lived on the east side of the Chesapeake. The Massawomeck cautiously approached Smith's boat which eventually led to an exchange of gifts. The Tockwogh later reported that the Massawomeck were the "mortal enemies" of the Susquehannock who lived on the Susquehanna River north of

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660-698: The northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to 500 CE , in the Middle Woodland period . The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society, but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network of trade routes . This is known as the Hopewell exchange system. There is archaeological evidence for Iroquoian peoples "in the area around present-day New York state by approximately 500 to 600 CE, and possibly as far back as 4000 BCE. Their distinctive culture seems to have developed by about 1000 CE." The Ontario Iroquois tradition

690-544: The peace. In 1720 they made a treaty of peace with the Susquehanna , another Iroquoian tribe. In 1717 the Meherrin were given a reservation along the western shore of lower Chowanoc River, not far from its mouth in Albemarle Sound , near modern Colerain (Bertie County, N.C.). At the time, Governor Charles Eden thought that the reservation only contained 10,000 acres, but Surveyor Col. Edward Moseley later discovered that

720-474: The period in Ontario into distinct archaeological cultures at all. In one 1990 paper, Ronald Williamson stated that Glen Meyer and Pickering cultures might represent "two ends of a continuum of spatial variability extending across southern Ontario," in his arguments against the classification of Ontario Iroquoian sites into groups based on material culture. This dispute paralleled other contemporary discussions over

750-516: The reservation contained more than 40,000 acres. In 1723, the Virginia Colony confirmed the Meherrin right to the reservation land and severely criticized North Carolina for illegally taking Meherrin land. Most of the Tuscarora were driven off after many were killed and taken captive in the above war. The North Carolina authorities reviewed petitions from both the Meherrin and British colonists squatting on their land. The Meherrin became tributaries of

780-554: The upper Youghiogheny River and Monongahela River watersheds,. Some early 16th century movement into the upper Potomac River watershed may also have occurred. Attacks by the Seneca displaced the Massawomeck from their territory c.  1635 , although drought may also have been a factor. Many Massawomeck refugees were absorbed by the Susquehannock where they became known to the Swedes and

810-411: The usefulness of the older system of material culture classification which had mostly been devised in the 1960s and 1970s, such as criticism of the usefulness of the pre-Ontario Iroquoian Saugeen complex as a conceptual model. In a 1995 article, Dean Snow took a more middling view, supporting the idea of Glen Meyer and Pickering cultures being distinct, but also acknowledging that the "conquest theory"

840-523: The wave of infectious diseases resulting from the arrival of Europeans. For example, it is estimated that by the mid-17th century, the Huron population had decreased from 20,000–30,000 to about 9000, while the Petun population dropped from around 8000 to 3000. The Hopewell tradition describes the common aspects of an ancient pre-Columbian Native American civilization that flourished in settlements along rivers in

870-599: Was conceptualized by the archaeologist J. V. Wright in 1966. It encompasses a group of archaeological cultures considered by archaeologists to be Iroquoian or proto-Iroquoian in character. In the Early Ontario Iroquois stage (likely beginning around AD 900), these comprised the Glen Meyer and Pickering cultures, which clustered in southwestern and eastern Ontario respectively. During the Middle Ontario Iroquois stage, rapid cultural change took place near

900-662: Was not generally accepted by archaeologists by that point. The Point Peninsula complex was an indigenous culture located in Ontario and New York from 600 BCE to 700 CE (during the Middle Woodland period ). This culture, perhaps in interaction with other complexes eventually developed into the several Iroquoian -speaking nations of Pennsylvania and New York. The Iroquoian peoples had matrilineal kinship systems. They were historically sedentary farmers who lived in large fortified villages enclosed by palisades thirty feet high as

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