pip. No!' 2^5T' JO^E^^ ^- KERR RESERVOIR BASIN MILLER 9 



tentatively identified as probably belonging to the Algonquian 

 linguistic stock (Miller, 1957), which comprises the Hassinunga, 

 Manahoac, Ontponea, Shackaconia, Stegarakes, Tenxnitanic, Tegni- 

 natee, and Whonkenti, all of which constituted the Manahoac Con- 

 federacy (Douglas, 1933) and were supposed to have occupied that 

 section of northern Virginia from the fall line of the rivers to the 

 mountains, and from the Potomac south to the North Anna River 

 just north of Charlottesville. The Masisinicac, Mowenicho or 

 Mohemencho, Monacan, Monahassano, and the ]\Ionasiccapano con- 

 stituted tlie Monacan Confederacy and they were reported to have 

 occupied the upper valley of the James River and its tributaries 

 from the Falls west to the Blue Ridge Mountains; while the Nahys- 

 sans, the Tutelo, or Totero as they were earlier called, the Saponi, 

 and the Occaneechi occupied roughly the southern section of the State. 



1608. — This southern group was first contacted by a small party of 

 Jamestown colonists in the fall of 1608 when a party led by Captain 

 Newport ascended the James River to the Falls. Here they left their 

 boats and traveled overland westward "into the land called the 

 Monscome 'Monacan' " (Bushnell, 1920, p. 122). 



1609.— In 1609 Capt. John Smith (1624) first mentioned the Tutelo, 

 under the names of Monacan and Mannahoac, as occupying the upper 

 waters of the James and Rappahannock Rivers. They were rather 

 barbarous in nature and their economy was a food-gathering-hunting 

 one. 



1650. — The Occaneechi were first reported in 1650 by Bland (1911) 

 while exploring the Roanoke River in the vicinity of the Falls. His 

 "Appamatuck" Indian guide told him that farther up the Blandina 

 River — 



about three days jonrnpy further to the South West there was a far greater 

 Branch so broad that a man could hardly see over it, and bended it selfe to the 

 Northward above the head of the James River unto the foot of the great Moun- 

 tains, on which river there lived many people upwards, being the Occanacheans 

 and the Nessoneicks, and that where some of the Occanacheans lived, there is 

 an island within the river three days journy about, which is very rich and fertile 

 soile, and that the upper end of the Island is fordable, not above knee deepe, of 

 a stone bottome, running very swift, and on the other side very deepe and 

 navigable. [Alvord and Bidgood, 1912, p. 126.] 



Speck (1935, x^p. 211-212) in speaking about the Occaneechi stated 

 that: 



It is undoubtedly, as Mooney has shown, the designation of a Siouan-speaking 

 tribe affiliated with the Saponi and Tutelo. Yet we have vo linguistic proof of 

 such an affinity beyond the statement that their languages loere similar [writer's 

 italics], which is supported by testimony given to Hale by Nikonha, the Tutelo 

 (Hale, 1883, p. 10). Nor is it possible to add anything to its meaning or history 

 from Catawba sources. Its connections were, however, definitely with the 

 northern Siouan tribes with whom they finally combined. Bland (1911, p. 16) 



