54 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST. [I 



[TREAU «F 



ruNOLOoy 



of corn, liaving always ou liaud a year's supi)]y of ])rovisioiis as a 

 reserve in case of attack by hostile tribes. They were governed by 

 two chiefs, one presiding in war, the other having charge of their Imnt- 

 ing and agricnlture. They held all property in common. Ceremonial 

 feasting was an important featnre of their daily life, each man in turn 

 feasting his friends, the giver of the feast haring the seat of honor 

 between the two chiefs during the entertainment. Their tribal totem 

 was a serpent. 



Here Lederer met four strangers from a tribe living at two months' 

 distance northwestward, being all that survived of a j)arty ot 50 who 

 had started to visit the 0<*caneechi, the rest having been drowned in 

 crossing a great water or having died later from hunger and e\i>osure 

 on the journey. While Lederer was stopping here six Eickohockan 

 (Cherokee) also came down from the mountains farther westward to 

 visit the Occaneechi, perhaps to arrange a treaty of jieace between the 

 two tribes. They were received with great vshow of friendship and a 

 dance was arranged in their honor that night, but in the midst of the 

 festivities the false Occaneechi suddenly darkened the place by means 

 of smoke and murdered all the llickohockan. This act of bloody 

 treachery so frightened the traveler that he left secretly with his Indian 

 companion and went on to the Oenock (Eno) territory (Lederer, 0). 



It must have been shortly after the expedition of Batts in 1071 that 

 the Saponi and Tutelo moved in and joined the Occaneechi, the 

 Sapoui fixing on an island just below and the Tutelo on another 

 island just above the Occaneechi. From all accounts of the early 

 travelers it must have been an ideal place for Iiidiau settlement, with 

 rich soil and tine timber on all three islands, and well defended from 

 enemies by the river and from storms by tlic hills. Situated at the 

 confluence of two large rivers, midway between the mountains and the 

 sea, and between the tribes of Virginia and Carolina, the Occaneechi 

 were an important people, if not a numerous one, and their island was 

 the great trading mart, according to a writer of this period, "for all 

 the Indians for at least 500 miles" (Mass., 1). Their language was the 

 general trade language for all the tril)es of that region — as Algonkin 

 was in the north, as Mobilian was in the gulf states, and as Oomanc*he 

 is in the southern prairies — and Avas used by the medicine-men of the 

 various tribes in all their sacred ceremonies, as Latin is by the priests 

 of the Catholic church (Beverley, 5). 



But their wealth proved their destruction. In 1C7G the Susque- 

 hanna (Conestoga), who had been driven out from the head of Chesa- 

 peake bay by the combined attacks of the Iroquois and t^he English 

 of Maryland and Virginia, fled to the Occaneechi, with who-m they 

 had long been on friendly terms. They were received by the latter, 

 but repaid the hospitality by endeavoring to dispossess their hosts. 

 The result was a battle through which the Susquehanna were driven 

 out of the island. At this juncture, in May, 1070, Bacon with 200 

 Virginians came up in pursuit of the Suscpiehanna and engaged the 



