Manahoac

Manahoac

Total population
Extinct
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Probably Tutelo-Saponi (extinct)
Religion
Indigenous Religion
Related ethnic groups
Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan, Saponi, possibly Saura, other eastern Siouan tribes

The Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan American Indians. They numbered approximately 1,000 by the time of European contact and lived in northern Virginia, primarily along the Rappahannock River west of modern Fredericksburg and the fall line and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They united with the Monacan, the Occaneechi, the Saponi and the Tutelo, and nothing else seems to have been heard of them specifically since 1728. According to William W. Tooker, the name Manahoac is Algonquin for "they are very merry", but John R. Swanton considers this dubious.

History

John Smith met with a sizable group of Manahoac in 1608 above the falls of the Rappahannock River. He recorded that they were living in at least 7 villages to the west of where he had met them. He also noted that they were allied with the Monacan, but opposed to the Powhatan. By 1667 there were no natives in the area which had previously been occupied by the Manahoac. It is theorised that Iroquois or Susquehanna invasions from the north, disease, and conflicts with ever-encroaching European colonists led the Manahoac to join their Monacan allies to the south. This is supported by the fact that John Lederer encountered a tribe that he recorded as the "Mahock" along the James River in 1670.

In 1700, the Governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood recorded that the Stegaraki subtribe of the Manahoac was present at Fort Christanna in Brunswick County. The fort was created by Spotswood and sponsored by the College of William and Mary in order to teach the natives of Christianity and the English language. The other known Siouan tribes of Virginia were all represented there. John Swanton suspects that another group at Fort Christanna called the Mepontsky are perhaps the Ontponea subtribe of the Manahoacs. The last mention of the Ontponea was in 1723, and it is likely that they joined the Tutelo and Saponi and became more or less absorbed into their tribes.

Culture

Like the other Siouan tribes of Virginia's Piedmont region (i.e the Monacan, Tutelo and Saponi), their members lived in various independent villages. It is assumed that the Siouan tribes interacted in various ways, such as through trade, cultural celebrations, and also intermarriage. Manahoac villages were usually along the Rappahannock River where the soil was most fertile. They practised a mixture of hunting and gathering as well as farming. Along the James River where the closely related Monacan tribe was located, remnants of corn and squash have been found in cooking pits. Also found along the James are the outlines of 3 oval houses at a site outside the town of Wingina in Nelson County, Virginia. Given the close relations of the Monacans and the Manahoacs, it is often assumed these aspects of their cultures were similar or identical. Many stone tools have be unearthed in the areas the Manahoac inhabited, usually made of the milky quartz common in the region. Their pottery was tempered with quartz and sand and often featured fabric, net, or cord motifs as decoration.

Archaeological evidence shows that an earthen mound burial culture existed in the Piedmont from 950 AD to the time of European contact, more or less spanning the so-called Late Woodland Period. These burial mounds, some of them reaching heights of at least 6 meters (20 feet), are believed to have been made by the ancestors of the Manahoac and other eastern Siouan groups. They are unique in that they contained hundreds to thousands of corpses. They are sometimes called "accretional mounds" due to the practice of adding more soil to them as more individuals were buried within. Most of these have been either completely destroyed by plowing or significantly reduced in size by erosion and flooding.

Organization

The Manahoac are sometimes viewed as a confederacy of tribes, or as a single tribe composed of several subtribes. These include:

• The Hassinunga, who were at the headwaters of the Rappahannock River
• The Manahoac proper, who, according to Thomas Jefferson, were present in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties
• The Ontponea, who were located in Orange County
• The Shackaconia, who were found in Spotsylvania county on the southern bank of the Rappahannock
• The Stegaraki, who were in Orange County along the Rapidan River
• The Tegninateo, who were located in Culpeper County at the head of the Rappahannock
• The Whonkentia, who were present in Fauquier County near the head of the Rappahannock

In addition to these organizational units, the name of a single village is known. It was called Mahaskahod and was most likely located near modern Fredericksburg.

Language

The language of the Manahoac is not known although John Smith states that they spoke a language different from that of the Monacan. James Mooney speculated that Manahoac spoke a Siouan language based on his speculation that the town called Monasickapanough was related to Saponi. He also claimed that the town Monahassanugh was the same as the name Nahyssan, Hanohaskie (a variant spelling of a Saponi town), and Yesaⁿ (Yesaⁿ is the autonym of the Tutelo). His evidence is based on the assumption that the initial syllable ma- or mo- is a prefix related to the Siouan locative root mo-/ma- meaning "place, earth, country". This evidence is now evaluated as dubious. It is probably that these town names are actually from the Virginia Algonquian language, which was the language of John Smith's guides. Additionally one town appears to be from Algonquian pidgin.

Because John Lederer stated that two of the tribes he listed spoke the same language, Mooney assumed Lederer's Managog was a misspelled Monahoac and therefore Monahoac and Saponi must be the two tribes with a common language. The common language may, in fact, be Virginia Siouan which was used as a lingua franca spoken by both Siouan and Iroquoian peoples. Thus, Mooney's interpretation is not supported by the primary sources. It may also be possible that the Manahoac were a group of peoples who spoke more than language.

External Links

• Manahoac Saponi Mattamuskeet Nation