Nottoway Tribe

The Nottoway, "adders," in their own language Cheroenhaka (Čiruˀęhá•ka•ˀ [Rudes, B. "Tuscarora English Dictionary" Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999] in Tuscarora), "fork of a stream," are an Iroquoian tribe native to Virginia, now occupying areas around Southampton, Virginia. Although neither federally nor state recognized, the tribe has been recognized by the colonial government to the state government until the present day as an Indian tribe, and numerous treaties attest to this fact. The tribe is currently seeking both state and federal recognition. The Cheroenhaka, like other Iroquoian tribes of the south, lived west of the fall line. Their neighbours and relatives included the Tuscarora and Meherrin.

Although never a large tribe in number, the Nottoway were somehow able to keep their organization and not disappear off the record, merge into other tribes, or get pushed too far from their original homeland. From what is known about the Nottoway, it can be assumed that they were very similar to the Tuscarora and Meherrin. Thomas Jefferson, former president and a man greatly interested in Native American languages, concluded it was Iroquoian after receiving notes on the language in 1820. The tribe depended on the farming of staples such as maize, squash, and beans (usually done by women), while the men hunted the rich and bountiful game and fished the rivers. Dwellings consisted mostly of longhouses in fenced communities.

Their numbers were first reduced by various epidemics that arrived with the English colonists. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also lowered their numbers. When the Tuscarora fled northward to join the Iroquois Confederacy in New York or the Conestoga of Pennsylvania, some Nottoway also embarked on the journey, but some remained. It is likely that some descendants of the Iroquois, especially the Tuscarora, in New York and Canada may contain some Nottoway blood. Interestingly enough, some Nottoway returned from the north with bands of Tuscarora and Meherrin joining and merging with them. These groups went to South Carolina.

References

* [http://www.cheroenhaka-nottoway.org/nottoway-recognition/index-recognition.htm]
* Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
* Hodge, Frederick W. Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1910.