The Nottoway are an
Iroquoian
The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking.
As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian la ...
Native American tribe in Virginia. The Nottoway spoke a
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 Ind ...
in the
Iroquoian language family.
Names
The term ''Nottoway'' may derive from ''Nadawa'' or ''Nadowessioux'' (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an
Algonquian-language term.
Frank Siebert suggested that the term ''natowewa'' stems from
Proto-Algonquian
Proto-Algonquian (commonly abbreviated PA) is the proto-language from which the various Algonquian languages are descended. It is generally estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but there is less agreement on where it was ...
''*na:tawe:wa'' and refers to the
Massasauga
The massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') is a rattlesnake species found in midwestern North America from southern Ontario to northern Mexico and parts of the United States in between. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous.
Th ...
, a
pit viper
The Crotalinae, commonly known as pit vipers,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . crotaline snakes (from grc, κρόταλον ''krotalon'' castanet), or pit adders, are a subfa ...
of the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five 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
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
–
Innu
The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period ( French for "mountain people", English pronunciation: ), are the Indigenous inhabitants of territory in the ...
–
Naskapi
The Naskapi (Nascapi, Naskapee, Nascapee) are an Indigenous people of the Subarctic native to the historical country St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ, meaning 'our nclusiveland'), which is located in northern Quebec and Labrador, neighb ...
and
Eastern Algonquian
The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
), 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 refers to the viper.
A potential etymology in Virginia of ''*na:tawe:wa'' (Nottoway) refers to ''*na:t-'' 'seeker' + ''-awe:'' 'fur,' or literally 'traders' The earliest colonial 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 referred to the Nottoway,
Meherrin
The Meherrin Nation (autonym: Kauwets'a:ka, "People of the Water") is one of seven 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 Virgini ...
and
Tuscarora people
The Tuscarora (in Tuscarora ''Skarù:ręˀ'', "hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People") are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government of the Iroquoian family, with members today in New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada. They c ...
(also of the Iroquoian-language family) as ''Mangoak'' or ''Mangoags'', a term which English colonists used in their records from 1584 to 1650. This term, ''Mengwe'' or ''Mingwe'', was used by the Dutch and applied to the Iroquoian
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...
("White ''Minquas''") and
Erie people
The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvani ...
("Black ''Minquas''").
The name ''Cheroenhaka'' is an
autonym
Autonym may refer to:
* Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym
* Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name
See also
* Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
for Nottoway people.
The meaning of the name ''Cheroenhaka'' (in
Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following:
First nations and Native American people and culture
* Tuscarora people
**''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960)
* Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people
* ...
: ''Čiruʼęhá·ka·ʼ'') is uncertain. (It has been spelled in various ways: ''Cherohakah'', ''Cheroohoka'' or ''Tcherohaka''.) The linguist
Blair A. Rudes
Blair Arnold Rudes (May 18, 1951 – March 16, 2008) was an American linguist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte best known for his expertise in Native American languages. He was hired in 2004 to reconstruct the long e ...
analyzed the second element as ''-hakaʼ'' meaning "one or people who is/are characterized in a certain way." He conjectured that the first element of the name was related to the Tuscarora term ''čárhuʼ'' (meaning "tobacco", as both tribes used this product in ceremonies).
The term has also been interpreted as "People at the Fork of the Stream".
Language
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 Ind ...
is an
Iroquoian language
The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking.
As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian ...
. It became extinct well before 1900.
[ At the time of European contact in 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 ]Colony of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
, including Thomas Blunt, Henry Briggs, and Thomas Wynn. These interpreters also served the adjacent Meherrin
The Meherrin Nation (autonym: Kauwets'a:ka, "People of the Water") is one of seven 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 Virgini ...
, as well as the Nansemond, who spoke Nottoway in addition to their own Algonquian dialect of Powhatan
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
. The last two interpreters were dismissed in 1735 since the Nottoway by then were using English.
By 1820, three elderly people still spoke Nottoway.[ In that year John Wood collected over 250-word samples from one of these, Chief ]Edith Turner
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 of Virginia in the eighteenth ...
(Nottoway, ca. 1754–1838). He sent them 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 them 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 ...
. In their correspondence, these two men quickly confirmed that the Nottoway language was of the Iroquoian family. Several additional words, for a total of about 275, were collected by James Trezvant
James Trezvant (died September 2, 1841) was a U.S. Representative from Virginia. He was also a slave owner.
Biography
Born in Sussex County, Virginia, Trezvant studied law after college. He was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in ...
after 1831 and published by Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan– American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years ...
in 1836.
In the early 20th century, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt
John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt (December 16, 1859 – October 14, 1937) was a linguist and ethnographer who specialized in Iroquoian and other Native American languages.
Hewitt was born on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation near Lewiston, New York. ...
(1910) and Hoffman (1959) analyzed the Nottoway vocabulary in comparison with Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following:
First nations and Native American people and culture
* Tuscarora people
**''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960)
* Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people
* ...
, also Iroquoian, and found them closely related.
History
17th–century
The Nottoway, like their close, fellow Iroquoian neighbors, the Meherrin and Tuscarora, lived just west of the Fall Line
A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coa ...
in the Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
region. English explorer Edward Bland
Edward Osmund Bland (July 25, 1926–March 14, 2013) was an American composer and musical director.
Biography
Bland was born on the South Side of Chicago to Althea and Edward Bland. His father was a postal worker but also a self-taught lite ...
is believed to have been the first European to encounter them when he made an expedition from Fort Henry. He noted meeting them in his journal on August 27, 1650. At the time, the Nottoway numbered no more than 400 to 500. Bland visited two of their three towns, on Stony Creek and the Rowantee Branch of the Nottoway River
The Nottoway River is a river in the U.S. State of Virginia and northeastern North Carolina that is 155 miles (249 kilometers) in length. The river begins in Prince Edward County and merges with the Blackwater River to form the Chowan River in ...
, in what is now Sussex County. These towns were led by the brothers Oyeocker and Chounerounte.
A Nottoway representative signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation of 1677 in 1680, establishing the tribe as a tributary to the Virginia colony.[Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 194.] English squatters encroached on their lands.[
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
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 centur ...
. Around this time, they absorbed the remnants of the Eno, an Algonquian-speaking tribe that had formerly been part of the Powhatan
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
confederacy.
The Nottoway suffered high fatalities from epidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
s of new Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
n diseases, such as measles
Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...
and smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, to which they had no natural immunity
Immunity may refer to:
Medicine
* Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease
* ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press
Biology
* Immune system
Engineering
* Radiofrequence immunity desc ...
. They contracted the diseases from European contact, as these diseases were by then endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
among Europeans. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also reduced the population.
18th-century history
Remnants of the Nansemond and Weyanock joined the Nottoway in the early 18th century.[ In 1705, the Nottoway may have numbered 400, based on colonial historian Robert Beverley Jr.'s observations.][
In 1711, two young Nottoway men attended the ]College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...
. After the Tuscarora War
The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from September 10, 1711 until February 11, 1715 between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamassee, and other allies on the other. This was con ...
(1711–1715), Tuscarora people migrated north, where they became the sixth nation in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
, and some Nottoway left with them.[Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 196.]
The Nottoway who remained in Virginia signed a treaty with the British in 1713, that secured two small tracts of land within their historical territory.[ They sold the smaller of the two tracts in 1734. In 1744, they sold 5,000 acres of their remaining land,][ followed by sales in 1748 and 1756.][Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 197.]
By 1772, only 35 Nottoway lived on their land, of which they leased half. At the end of the 19th century, the Weyanock merged completely into the Nottoway, with the surnames Wynoake and Wineoak appearing on public documents. When the tribe sold more land in 1794, the Nottoway consisted of 7 men and 10 women and children.[Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 200.]
19th-century history
From 1803 to 1809, Southampton County courts heard a protracted land dispute.[ At the time, as historian Helen C. Rountree wrote, "The Nottoway had no formally organized government. European-American trustees tasked with overseeing tribal issues were charged with drafting bylaws for the tribe.][ Tribal members married European-American and African-American spouses.][
In 1808, only 17 Nottoway survived, including Billy Woodson and Edith Turner, who became a chief. They owned 3,900 acres and cultivated 144 acres of corn. Turner, who ran a successful farm on the reservation, successfully advocated for four Nottoway orphans to return to the tribe.
In 1818, tribal members petitioned 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 ...
to be allowed to sell almost half of the remaining 3,912 acres of reservation land. The petition stated that there were only 26 Nottoways. By 1821, 30 Nottoways requested termination and for their land to be allotted in fee simple title. The Virginia General Assembly rejected that request and another in 1822. In 1823, Billy Woodson (Nottoway), an educated son of a European-American, requested termination, and in 1824 Virginia passed a law that would gradually terminate its responsibility and allowed remaining Nottoways to request individual allotment of land. Woodson (under the name Bozeman) and Turner applied for their allotment and shares of a fund in 1830. When Turner died in 1838, her estate went to Edwin Turner (Nottoway), whose children owned the last of the Nottoway reservation. While other tribal members received individual land allotments through the years, Turner kept his and purchased more land. The last tribally held land was allotted in 1878.
Despite an 1833 Virginia law that stated descendants of English and American Indian people were "persons of mixed blood, not being negroes of mulattos"; however, with the end of the reservation, white Virginians considered them to be "free Negroes because of their African ancestry," as Rountree wrote.
Culture
The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the three sisters, varieties of maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
, squash
Squash may refer to:
Sports
* Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets
* Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling
* Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
, and bean
A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...
s. The cultivation and processing of crops were typically done by women, who also selected and preserved varieties of seeds to produce different types of crops. The men hunted game and fished in the rivers. They built multi-family dwellings known as longhouse
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America.
Many were built from timber and often rep ...
s in communities which they protected by stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall.
Etymology
''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived ...
fences known as palisades.
The tribe likely had clans, but ethnographer John R. Swanton
John Reed Swanton (February 19, 1873 – May 2, 1958) was an American anthropologist, folklorist, and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and et ...
wrote, "the fact cannot be established."
In the early 18th century, Nottoway girls wore wampum
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nort ...
necklaces.
State-recognized tribes
The state of Virginia recognized two state-recognized tribes
State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established under ...
, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia
The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in Virginia. The organization identifies as descending from Nottoway people. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe.
State-recogni ...
and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe
The Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in Virginia. The organization identifies as descending from Nottoway people. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe.
The name ''C ...
, in February 2010. Neither is federally recognized
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
as a Native American tribe
In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...
.
Notes
References
* Hodge, Frederick W
''Handbook of North American Indians''
Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1912.
*
* Swanton, John R
''The Indian Tribes of North America''
Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
External links
Website
Nottoway Indians of Virginia, Inc.
Website
Nottoway language Swadesh vocabulary list
(from Wiktionary)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nottoway People
Iroquoian peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands
Native American tribes in Virginia
Native American tribes in South Carolina
Native American tribes in North Carolina
State-recognized tribes in the United States