NO. 8 MANAHOAC TRIBES IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL Q 



TANXSNITANIA 



This name appears on the 1624 map far up the stream that corre- 

 sponds to the present Rappahannock River. The region so vaguely 

 indicated on the map was settled during the early years of the eight- 

 eenth century. " In a grant of 17 17, relating to lands ahove the mouth 

 of Great Run, there is mention of a ' poison field where an Indian 

 town had formerly stood.' This was douhtless the Manahoac town 

 laid down on Capt. John Smith's map as Tanxsnitania." ' The " poison 

 fields " were identified as the area adjoining the Fauquier White Sul- 

 phur Springs. The site would he hetween 2 and 3 miles ahove the 

 mouth of Great Run, which joins the Rappahannock on the left bank ; 

 Great Run is some 5 miles above the mouth of Hazel River. 



SHACKACONIA 



As indicated on the 1624 map, Shackaconia was the first settlement 

 on the Rapidan above its mouth. The exact position may never be 

 known, but the village probably occupied one of the sites later to 

 be described. 



Stegara may have stood on the banks of the Rapidan in Orange 

 County, a mile or more east of the Greene County line. However, 

 that would have been a long distance from the falls, near which the 

 " King of Stegora " was met by the English in August 1608. Such 

 long journeys, however, were often undertaken by an entire village, 

 and, as will be told later, dugout canoes were used by Indians on the 

 Rapidan as late as 1682, when they went from the foothills of the Blue 

 Ridge to visit the English outpost at the falls of the Rappahannock. 



One of the most extensive level tracts in the valley of the Rapidan 

 borders the right bank of the river at the locality mentioned, and when 

 partly covered with timber, as it probably was until cleared for culti- 

 vation, would have been a beautiful site for a native settlement. 



Part of a large burial mound that belonged to the village is still 

 standing on the immediate bank of the stream. The mound was par- 

 tially examined by Fowke* and found to contain many burials. Quanti- 

 ties of arrowpoints, axes, and other objects of native origin have been 

 discovered scattered over the surface in the vicinity of the mound, 



' Harrison, Fairfax, Landmarks of Old Prince William, vol. i, p. 202. Privatel}' 

 printed, Richmond, 1924. 



*• Fowke, Gerard, Archeologic investigations in James and Potomac Valleys. 

 Bull. 23, Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1894. 



