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About UsThe Monacan Indian Nation of Virginia is currently composed of about 1,400 people, located in the Amherst County area near Lynchburg and recognized as a tribe by the State of Virginia. Indigenous presence in this region dates back more than 10,000 years, and the pre-contact territory of the tribe comprised more than half of what is now the state of Virginia, including most of the Piedmont region. The Monacan are one of the oldest indigenous peoples still existing in their ancestral homeland and the only surviving group of Eastern Siouan people in the state. Some anthropologists believe that the Siouan people were united thousands of years ago, in the Ohio River Valley, and that the tribes moved both east and west, separating into Eastern and Western Siouan language speakers. Eastern Siouan languages are closely related to one another and are distantly related to Western Siouan languages such as Omaha, Mandan, Crow, and Lakota. Like other Woodland groups, pre-contact Monacan people were agricultural and stayed in one community area for a generation or more, cultivating the "Three Sisters" crops of corn, beans and squash. The Monacan depended largely on venison, supplemented by buffalo, bear, elk, small game, and many varieties of birds, and they constructed elaborate fishing weirs to catch fish in the rivers. The Monacan were also known to mine copper, and they became proficient traders with other tribes, trading copper for items such as shell beads. They were also skilled basket makers whose designs incorporated figures of animals and floral patterns into the weave. Additionally, they were potters, employing the coil method to create durable, beautiful products. For thousands of years, Monacan people buried the remains of their dead in sacred mounds constructed for this purpose. Archaeologists have documented thirteen mounds ranging through the Blue Ridge and Piedmont regions of Virginia, similarly constructed and dating back more than a thousand years. Dr. Jeffrey Hantman, of the University of Virginia, has been able to learn a great deal about Monacan culture by studying these mounds. The first known encounter between Monacans and Europeans occurred in 1608, when Captain John Smith and his men engaged in hostilities with a Monacan group while exploring the upper reaches of the Rappahannock River. The English captured a wounded man named Amorolek. When John Smith asked him why his people had been hostile toward the English, he replied, "We heard that you were a people come from under the world, to take our world from us." The Monacan community today centers around Bear Mountain in Amherst County. At this site, a log cabin was built in the late 1870s and used as a church for the Indian people. Later, it functioned as a school. Today, the log cabin is a recognized National Historic Landmark. The Episcopal Church has operated an Indian Mission here since 1908, called the Falling Rock mission. In 1995, the Episcopal Diocese returned 7.5 acres of land to the Monacan Nation. In 1963, the school conducted there was discontinued after Monacans petitioned to attend public schools. The Monacan Nation was officially recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1989 and continues to work for federal acknowledgment through Congress. |
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