The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation are a

state-recognized tribe 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 unde ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. They were previously named the Eno Occaneechi Indian Association but changed their name in 1994. They claim descent from the historic

Occaneechi The Occaneechi (also Occoneechee and Akenatzy) are Native Americans who lived in the 17th century primarily on the large, long Occoneechee Island and east of the confluence of the Dan and Roanoke rivers, near current-day Clarksville, Virginia. ...

Saponi The Saponi or Sappony are a Native American tribe historically based in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia.Raymond D. DeMaillie, "Tutelo and Neighboring Groups," pages 286–87. They spoke a Siouan language, related to the languages of ...

, and other Eastern

Siouan language Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the entire ...

-speaking Indians who occupied the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. The tribe maintains an office in

Mebane Mebane is a city located mostly in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States, and partly in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County. The town was named for Alexander Mebane, an American Revolutionary War general and member of the Unite ...

, where it carries out programs to benefit the roughly 1,100 enrolled tribal members.

Historical tribes

Limited documentation exists linking members of the tribe to the historical Occaneechi and Saponi tribes. After warfare in the Southeast in the 18th century, most of the remaining Saponi tribe members went north in 1740 for protection with the

Haudenosaunee 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 ...

. After the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, they relocated with the Iroquois in Canada, as they had been allies of the British. After the war and migration, the Saponi disappeared from the historical record in the Southeast, in part because of racial discrimination that often included them in records only as

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

, when the states and federal government had no category in censuses for American Indian. This was especially true in the late 19th and early 20th century, after white Democrats regained control of state legislatures across the South and imposed a binary system of

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

. Remnant Saponi who stayed in North Carolina were mostly acculturated. The community was traditionally located at the old "Little Texas" community of Pleasant Grove Township, where the tribe owns of land. In the twentieth century, the tribe worked to revive its cultural traditions. It is developing a tribal center facility. This will include a reconstructed 18th-century Occaneechi village, museum, log farm from the 1880s, community meeting space, and classroom areas.

Nonprofit organization

In 1996, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation formed a

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

, and Vickie Jeffries serves as the organization's principal officer. Its mission is "to bring awareness and recognition of the Occaneechi Indians."

State-recognition

The state of

formalized its recognition process for Native American tribes and created the

North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

(NCCIA) in 1971. In 1990, as the Eno Occaneechi Indian Association, the Occaneechi Band petitioned the NC Commission of Indian Affairs for state recognition but were denied based on lack of evidence of its connection to the historical tribes it claims; however, in 2001 the group successfully sued the commission for state recognition. The case was decided when the NCCIA failed to issue a final decision within the time limits set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 150B-44 (1991). The NCCIA appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court of North Carolina denied review and dissolved a temporary stay in 2001. (see 354 N.C. 365, 556 S.E.2d 575 (2001). This meant that the recommendation of the administrative judge held.

Federal recognition

The Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation, represented by Lawrence Dunmore III, sent a letter of interior to petition for U.S.

federal recognition 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 ...

in 1995, and the Eno-Occaneechi Tribe of Indians sent a letter in 1997; however, neither submitted complete petitions to the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

Activities

The tribe holds an annual powwow on the second weekend in June on its tribal property on Dailey Store Road, ten miles (16 km) north of Mebane.

Notes

References

External links

The Voice of the Occaneechi Nation, Official website

North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Occaneechi Band Of The Saponi Nation Cultural organizations based in North Carolina Native American tribes in North Carolina Native American history of North Carolina Non-profit organizations based in North Carolina State-recognized tribes in the United States