Rappahannock Tribe
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
Enrolled members: 500 |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Virginia | |
| Essex, Caroline, and King and Queen counties, Virginia | |
| Languages | |
| English, Algonquian (historical) | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Monacan, Chickahominy, Mattaponi |
Enrolled members:
The Rappahannock are one of the ten state-recognized Native American tribes in Virginia. They are made up of descendants of several small Algonquian-speaking tribes who merged in the 17th century.
In 1607, the Rappahannock were the dominant tribe of the Rappahannock River valley, maintaining thirteen villages along the north and south banks of the river named after them. Their capital town was Topahanocke (or Tappahannock). They were a peripheral group within the Powhatan Confederacy. In spring of that year when news spread of explorers sailing on the James River, their weroance took a party and rushed there. They stayed with their cousins the Quiockohannock, and sent word requesting audience with the newcomers. The weroance and explorers met on May 4.
George Percy wrote a vivid description of the weroance, whose body was painted crimson, and face was painted blue sprinkled with silver. He wore a red deer-hair crown tied around his hair knot and a copper plate on the other side, with two feathers arranged like horns, and earrings made of bird-claws fastened with yellow metal. When the weroance came to the shore, he was playing a flute. He escorted the explorers to his camp following a tobacco ceremony. The settlers were confused about the native names, and referred to the Quiockohannocks south of the James by the name of Tappahannocks for some time.
After Captain John Smith was captured in December 1607, he was taken northward to the Rappahannock capital. He was told that they wished to see if he was from the same nation that had attacked them some years earlier (possibly the Spanish); however, they determined that he was not. In 1608 Smith returned to the Rappahannock and mediated a feud between them and their neighbours, the Moraughticunds.
The Rappahannock seldom appeared in early English records. Colonists attacked them in 1623 in retaliation after the Great Massacre of 1622. When the Second Anglo-Powhatan War of 1644-45 broke out, the colonists seem to have viewed the Rappahannock as independent and outside the conflict, and did not attack the people.
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Wikipedia