Location: Occaneechi-Saponi Tribal Center, NC 119 in Alamance County, at the intersection with Dailey Store Rd.
County: Alamance
Original Date Cast: 2023
When John Lawson traveled through what is now Alamance and Orange Counties in 1701, he visited the village of the Occaneechi Indians on the banks of the Eno River in what is now the town of Hillsborough. The tribe had recently moved to the area from southeastern Virginia, where they had dominated the trade in deerskins from their strategic location on an island at the ford of the Roanoke River, just north of Clarksville, Virginia. After Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, the Occaneechi left the area and drifted down into the land that is present-day North Carolina, settling in a bend of the Eno River that had served for hundreds of years on and off as a site for Native villages. After a short stay on the Eno, the tribe returned to Virginia and settled at Ft. Christanna, along with several other tribes from the North Carolina / Virginia border area. Here they were educated and taught about the Christian religion, while serving as rangers alongside the White soldiers at the fort to guard against less friendly tribes further west. The Research Laboratories of Archaeology at UNC-Chapel Hill have done fieldwork at several sites on the Eno as part of their Siouan Project, which spans several decades, reconstruction the life of the Occaneechi people before and at the time of Lawson’s visit.
By 1720 the fort had been abandoned, and most of the Occaneechi had left the immediate vicinity and settled in what is now the area along Fountain’s Creek in modern Greensville County, Virginia. Families including the Jeffries, Whitmores, Jones, Haithcocks, Watkins, Stewarts, and their relatives formed a loose community here, slowly adopting the customs of their non-Indian neighbors, and even serving in the Revolutionary War. Shortly after the war, they began drifting southwest, settling in the area of what is now northeast Alamance County and adjacent sections of Orange and Caswell Counties. This area became known as “Texas” or “Little Texas”, both because of the local reputation it gained as a rough and tumble community, as well as the Indian appearance of many of its citizens. Schools for the Indian people there were built shortly after the Civil War, and the first churches were built around the same time. Prior to that, many of the Indian people attended local “Primitive Baptist” churches such as Wheeler’s Chapel and Harmony church. Schools included the Durham School (on the site of what is now Martin’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church), Martin’s School, Crawford, and Patillo. In the 1930s an effort was made to have the Federal Government create an Indian school in the Texas community, but while the Office of Indian Affairs verified the community’s Indian background, they refused to assist with educational matters.
In the early 1980s members of the community formally organized with the goal in mind of obtaining official recognition by the State of North Carolina as an Indian Tribe, along with the other seven previously recognized by the state. After almost a decade of research, a petition was submitted to the State Commission of Indian Affairs in 1990. Historical research continued, and in 2002, after a long and difficult process, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation became the eighth officially recognized tribe in the state of North Carolina. The tribe is governed by a Tribal Chair and council. The tribe currently owns 25 acres of land in the Texas community which contains its ceremonial grounds, office, and the beginnings of a reconstructed Occaneechi Village and Depression era farm. The tribe holds an annual Fall Festival which emphasizes the traditional life and history of the Indian people of the area, passing these traditions along to the younger generations and helping educate their non-Native neighbors.
References:
1897 Spoon Map of Alamance County showing Pleasant Grove Township inc. “Texas” & some Indian landowners
1927 Martin’s School class photo
1959 County map showing the Texas community and Indian homeowners/Churches
1934-35 Correspondence regarding the effort in the Texas community to obtain a Federal Indian school (5 pages)
1938 Burlington Time-News clipping regarding the history and nature of the Texas community and Indian ancestry
1991 “Southern Indian Studies” Vol. 40 regarding the Occaneechi-Saponi people of the Texas Community
1994 Chapel Hill Herald clipping May 29, 1994 regarding the Occaneechi struggle for official State recognition (2 pages)
2002 Chapel Hill Herald clipping February 13, 2002 announcing official tribal recognition for the Occaneechi (2 pages)
2002 Chapel Hill News clipping June 12, 2002 “A Circle Completed” about Recognition, the Annual Powwow, & history (1 page)
2002 Chapel Hill Herald clipping September 21, 2002 “Occaneechi to get seat on commission” (2 pages)
2005 excerpt from “Keeping the Circle” by Christopher Oakley with map of Occaneechi area (2 pages)
2007 Durham Herald-Sun clipping February 2, 2007 regarding the reconstructed Occaneechi village in Hillsborough
2021 Raleigh News & Observer clipping “Beyond the Cherokee and Lumbee” with small mention of Occaneechi.