Edith Turner (ca. 1754 – February or March 1838), sometimes known as Edy Turner or Edie Turner, or by her personal name Wané Roonseraw, was a leader – often styled "chief" or "queen"
– among the
Nottoway people
The Nottoway are an Iroquoian Native American tribe in Virginia. The Nottoway spoke a Nottoway language in the Iroquoian language family.
Names
The term ''Nottoway'' may derive from ''Nadawa'' or ''Nadowessioux'' (widely translated as "poison ...
of Virginia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Life
Turner lived in
Southampton County, Virginia
Southampton County is a county located on the southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. North Carolina is to the south. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,996. Its county seat is Courtland.
History
In the early 17th century ...
, and had been active in land transactions since 1794,
although her name first appears on a petition to the
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...
dating to 1792, marking her earliest appearance in the historical record.
She married one William Green, who appears to have been a non-Indian,
in 1819.
A tribal census of 1808 listed her employments as "knitting, sewing, and what is usual in common housewifery", and stated that she had two black workers hired for her by white trustees.
She is said to have been intelligent, thought not highly educated, and a fluent and skilled conversationalist in both English and
Nottoway.
Little else of her personal life is recorded, and it is not known if she had children, or if she had been married to anyone other than Green.
She owned a prosperous farm, and as a leader among her people attempted to convince them to adopt the farming practices used by whites. At the time many refused to participate in intensive farming, and as a result they were forced to sell off reservation land to pay debts; she attempted to divide tracts among individuals instead of treating them collectively.
To that end, on October 27, 1821 Turner, acting in her role as chief, petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to parcel out the remaining portion of the reservation among individual residents.
Turner was also active as a foster mother and advocate for Nottoway children, successfully petitioning white trustees to return four to the reservation.
She is known to have met
Jedidiah Morse
Jedidiah Morse (August 23, 1761June 9, 1826) was a geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He was the father of the telegraphy pioneer and painter Samuel Morse, and his textbooks earned him the sobriquet of "f ...
in 1820 as he traveled the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
studying Indians at the President's request; he described her as the "reigning Queen" of the tribe and praised her intelligence and business sense.
She is also remembered as one of the last three speakers
of the
Nottoway language
Nottoway , also called ''Cheroenhaka'', was a language spoken by the Nottoway people. Nottoway is closely related to Tuscarora within the Iroquoian language family. Two tribes of Nottoway are recognized by the state of Virginia: the Nottoway Indi ...
, which became extinct sometime before 1900. A wordlist which she provided to surveyor John Wood in 1820 found its way to
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, who shared it with
Peter Stephen Du Ponceau
Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (born Pierre-Étienne du Ponceau, June 3, 1760 – April 1, 1844) was a French-American linguist, philosopher, and jurist. After emigrating to the colonies in 1777, he served in the American Revolutionary War. Afterward, ...
; it is one of the best surviving sources of information about the language. She knew the tribe's legends, and provided an account of one of them to an anonymous writer who submitted it to ''
The Gentleman's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...
'' of London, which published it in 1821.
She taught children Nottoway traditions, as well as how to exist in a white-dominated society. She was also the only member of the tribe, at the time, to write a will,
a brief document which makes no mention of relatives and which leaves the bulk of the estate to one Edwin Turner, whose relationship to her is unknown.
At least one later chief of the tribe, Walter David "Red Hawk" Brown III, is descended from one of her foster children.
Turner was named one of the
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and i ...
's
Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...
for 2008.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Edith
1750s births
Year of birth uncertain
1838 deaths
Women in Virginia
Native American leaders
Female Native American leaders
18th-century Native Americans
19th-century Native Americans
People from Southampton County, Virginia
18th-century American landowners
American women landowners
19th-century women landowners
18th-century Native American women
19th-century Native American women
19th-century American landowners