EVIDENCE OF INDIAN OCCUPANCY IN ALBEMARLE 



COUNTY, VIRGINIA 



By DAVID I. BUSHNELL, Jr. 



(With ii Plates) 



Early in the seventeenth century, when English colonists reached 

 Virginia, that part of the valley of the James which extends west- 

 ward from the falls to the mountains was claimed by the several 

 tribes of the Monacan confederacy. These belonged to the Siouan 

 linguistic family, inveterate enemies of the Algonquian tribes whose 

 villages stood along the course of the stream from its mouth to the 

 border of the Monacan territory. 



Soon after the settlement of Jamestown, late in the spring of 

 1607, the colonists learned of the existence of five towns or tribal 

 centers occupied by this Siouan group, but not until the autumn of 

 the following year, 1608, did they enter the country of the Monacan.^ 

 During that season a large party of the English ascended the James 

 to the falls, the site of the present city of Richmond, where they left 

 their boats and continued some miles beyond. They discovered two 

 of the native towns, Mowhemcho and Massinacak, both located on 

 the right bank of the James west of the falls and some 14 miles apart. 

 The English did not advance far beyond Massinacak but soon re- 

 turned to Jamestown. 



It is believed the remaining three towns were never visited by 

 Europeans and that all had been abandoned before the region was 

 entered by white settlers. The three villages to which this refers 

 were Rassawek, at the junction of the James and Rivanna Rivers, 

 probably the most important of the settlements; Monahassanugh, 

 on the James between present Norwood and Wingina in Nelson 

 County, believed to have been the Tutelo of early narratives; and 

 Monasukapanough, on the banks of the Rivanna north of the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, in Albemarle County, identified as the ancient 

 settlement of the Saponi. The three native villages thus stood at the 

 angles of a roughly triangular area bounded on two sides by the 

 rivers and on the third by mountains. The evidence of Indian 

 occupancy of this region forms the subject of the present sketch. 



1 Bushnell, David I., Jr., The five Monacan towns in Virginia, 1607. 

 Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 82, no. 12, 1930. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol.89, No. 7 

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