ARCHEOLOGIC INVESTIGATIONS IN JAMES AND 

 POTOMAC VALLEYS 



1>Y Gerard Fowke 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Ill the following i)ai)er;ue given the results of a careful examination 

 of the area drained ])y James and Potomac rivers, in Maryland, Vir- 

 ginia, and West Virginia. Constant inquiry and diligent search were 

 made at every point for aboriginal remains of any character. No 

 reference is made herein to scores of places at which such remains were 

 rejiorted to exist, but which failed to reveal anythingfalling within the 

 scope of the work; only those localities are mentioned in Avliich definite 

 discoveries were made. 



Along the James and Potomac probal)ly exist many village sites 

 and cemeteries covered by a thickness of soil that has hitherto con- 

 cealed them; these will gradually be disclosed through excavations, 

 freshets, and other agencies, for the benetlt of future exi)lorers. 



From various causes a few mounds and other indications of aboriginal 

 occupancy, which have been reported, could not be visited, but from the 

 descriptions given there is no reason to believe that an examination of 

 them would materially modify the conclusions derived from a study 

 of those here treated. 



THE JAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 

 roWIIATAN COITNTY. 



At the first settlement of Virginia in 1007, James river, between 

 tidewater and the Blue ridge, was claimed by the Monacan, known 

 later as the Tuskarora.' They removed soon after to North Carolina, 

 where they lived until 11 V2, when they migrated northward and were 

 incorporated with the Kew York Indians as the Sixth Nation. 



In 1008 an expedition ascended the river 40 miles above the falls, 

 discovering 2 villages — Mowhemenchouch (or Mohemanco) and Mas- 



' Jefferson, Thom.as, Notes ou Virginia, p. 156. John Haywood (Nat. & Abor. Hist, 

 of Tennessee) says that in 1730 a part of the Irotiuois were at the loot of tlie moun- 

 tains between Tennessee and North Carolina, the king's town less than a day's 

 jonrney from the foot of the monntains. He also identities them with the Monacan. 



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