Saponi: Evidently a corruption of Monasiccapano or Monasukapanough,
which, as shown by Bushnell, is probably derived in part from a native
term "moni-seep" signifying "shallow water." Paanese is a corruption
and in no way connected with the word "Pawnee."
Connections: The Saponi belonged to the Siouan linguistic family,
their nearest relations being the Tutelo.
Location: The earliest known location of the Saponi has been
identified by Bushnell (1930) with high probability with "an extensive
village site on the banks of the Rivanna, in Albemarle County,
directly north of the University of Virginia and about one-half mile
up the river from the bridge of the Southern Railway." This was their
location when, if ever, they formed a part of the Monacan Confederacy.
(See also North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New York.)
Villages: The principal Saponi settlement usually bore the same name
as the tribe or, at least, it has survived to us under that name. In
1670 Lederer reports another which he visited called Pintahae,
situated not far from the main Saponi town after it had been removed
to Otter Creek, southwest of the present Lynchburg (Lederer, 1912),
but this was probably the Nahyssan town.
History: As first pointed out by Mooney (1895), the Saponi tribe is
identical with the Monasukapanough which appears on Smith's map as
though it were a town of the Monacan and may in fact have been such.
Before 1670, and probably between 1650 and 1660, they moved to the
southwest and probably settled on Otter Creek, as above indicated. In
1670 they were visited by Lederer in their new home and by Thomas
Batts (1912) a year later. Not long afterward they and the Tutelo
moved to the junction of the Staunton and Dan Rivers, where each
occupied an island in Roanoke River in Mecklenburg County. This
movement was to enable them to escape the attacks of the Iroquois, and
for the same reason they again moved south before 1701, when Lawson
(1860) found them on Yadkin River near the present site of Salisbury,
N. C. Soon afterward they left this place and gravitated toward the
White settlements in Virginia. They evidently crossed Roanoke River
before the Tuscarora War of 1711, establishing themselves a short
distance east of it and 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie
County, N. C. A little later they, along with the Tutelo and some
other tribes, were placed by Governor Spotswood near Fort Christanna,
10 miles north of Roanoke River about the present Gholsonville,
Brunswick County. The name of Sappony Creek in Dinwiddie County,
dating back to 1733 at least, indicates that they sometimes extended
their excursions north of Nottoway River. By the treaty of Albany
(1722) the Iroquois agreed to stop incursions on the Virginia Indians
and, probably about 1740, the greater part of the Saponi and the
Tutelo moved north stopping for a time at Shamokin, Pa., about the
site of Sunbury. One band, however, remained in the south, in
Granville County, N. C., until at least 1756, when they comprised 14
men and 14 women. In 1753 the Cayuga Iroquois formally adopted this
tribe and the Tutelo. Some of them remained on the upper waters of the
Susquehanna in Pennsylvania until 1778, but in 1771 the principal
section had their village in the territory of the Cayuga, about 2
miles south of Ithaca, N. Y. They are said to have separated from the
Tutelo in 1779 at Niagara, when the latter fled to Canada, and to have
become lost, but a portion, at least, were living with the Cayuga on
Seneca River in Seneca County, N. Y., in 1780. Besides the Person
County Indians, a band of Saponi Indians remained behind in North
Carolina which seems to have fused with the Tuscarora, Meherrin, and
Machapunga and gone north with them in 1802.
What this means in essence is that the Saponi Tribe does not existanymore. They were adopted into other tribes and were no longer a
distinct entity...
