While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Occaneechi.
A small tribe of the eastern Siouan group formerly residing in south
Virginia and northern North Carolina. Their history is closely interwoven
with that of the Saponi and
Tutelo, and there is historical evidence
that their language was similar. The first known notice of the Occaneechi
is that of Lederer, who visited them in 1670. They then dwelt on the
middle and largest island in Roanoke river, just below the confluence of
the Staunton and the Dan, near the site of Clarksville, Mecklenburg
county, Va. Their fields were on the north bank of the river, where they
raised large crops of corn, having always on hand as a reserve a year's
supply. Between the date of this visit and 1676 they were joined by the
Saponi and Tutelo, who settled on two neighboring islands. In 1676 the
Conestoga sought shelter with them from the attacks of the
Iroquois and English. They were
hospitably received, but soon attempted to dispossess their benefactors,
and, after a battle, were driven out. Being harassed by the Virginians and
Iroquois, they left their island and fled south into Carolina. In 1701
Lawson found them in a village on Eno river, about the present Hillsboro,
Orange county, N. C. They combined later with the Saponi, Tutelo, and
others. They were cultivators of the soil and traders. We are assured by
Beverley that their dialect was the common language of trade and also of
religion over a considerable region. They divided the year into the five
seasons of budding or blossoming, ripening, mid-summer, harvest, and
winter. They were governed by two chiefs, one presiding in war, the other
having charge of their hunting and agriculture. Ceremonial feasting was an
important feature of their social life. Their tribal totem was a serpent.
Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the
East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894.
