Us History I Book

[Felicia]

I have a good question, in my history book it states that in 1644 Sir William Berkeley, the royal governor of Virginia helped open up the interior of Virginia by sending explorers across the Blue Ridge Mtns and crushing an Indian uprising. The defeated Indians agreed to a treaty ceding to England most of the territory east of the mountains and establishing a boundary west of which white settlement would be prohibited.
Were these Indians blackfoot, if not then who, anyone out there with any clues?

Thanks, Felicia

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

Fecilia,

I hate to shoot down your reading but I have learned in over 30 years of research to believe very little about what the school's are saying happened in history.

Jamestown was settled in 1607, supposely the first settlement in America. Yet with a year or so a party of men were sent to explore the land to the south of Jamestown. These men found a group of copper skinned people living among the Indians in cabins and speaking a broken english. The journal with this record lies in the archives in NC . This was the first settlement but it doesn't say that in the history books.

In 1644 Virginia boundries covered territory that went almost to what is today's Canadian border on the north all the way to Alantic Ocean on the east and to the Ohio River on the west. Of course most of the general population was housed along the eastern coast. In that area were numerous tribes.

Looking toward the southwest Virginia my Collins ancesters were recorded as "living on Indian land" as late as 1767.

[Most of the children of Thomas Collins, for example, migrated to the New River area of Virginia and North Carolina (Botetourte, Fincastle, Grayson, and Montgomery in Virginia, and Ashe Co. NC). The Collins and Gibsons began selling their land on the Flat River in 1767-70 and moved to the back woods sections of the New River where some were listed on tax records in Fincastle County, VA, as "living on Indian Lands."] Of course I feel that they probably felt they had the right to be there because they were mixed blood Indians but that is just my opinion......

[Bill Childs]

Felicia,
Just my opinion, but I think they have compressed two different events into one.
In 1644, Oppachanaqua (sic? anyway, Powhattan's kin) attacked the Jamestown extended-settlements and killed hundreds of English colonists purportedly (yuh think?) due to his concerns about the heavy increase in English encroachment on Powhattan lands.
Walter Chiles (and two partners) held the first Crown Patent (1648, off the top of my head) to explore the interior beyond the English settlements and trade with any Indian Nations they found there. The wording infers that their idea of the near-boundary was at the Fall-Line of the James River. This would have been in an area one could identify as the inferred (by Powhatan) Monakan (Monican) Confederacy villages, of which the Saponi have been assumed to have been a part. I doubt that documents exist to pin this down more closely today but I also don't know if anyone has adequately investigated it.

[Felicia]

I was curious, so u really don't think there's connection of any measure?

[Bill Childs]

I wouldn't think so. In 1644, English influence would not have extended very far from the coast and certainly not beyond the Blue Ridge so there wouldn't have been anyone over the Blue Ridge to rise-up against the English.
Bill

[lynellarainhawk]

Hey! I think Brenda is right in that, a lot (I'd say 85 %) of any historical stuff I've read I can't rely on because a lot of it was not just written based on hearsay, but hearsay from one white guy to the next. Most of it is so slanted and biased that it makes me sick. I just get all puffed up and want to go kick butt! I was reading somewhere the other day about the Monacan/Saponi connection, Bill, but I can't recall exactly what I was reading. I'm sure it's in my notes here. When I read it, I was thinking well right there could be a piece of the puzzle if it's actually factual. But then I'm back to the hearsay thing that ends up getting me ticked off!:D My heart is acting up tonight, and NO I won't take the meds for it because last summer it nearly made me cattatonic and almost put me in the hospital. So, I opt to go lie down a while and try to think about anything but the present. So, I'm taking my notes to bed to read. I have several bits of history I'm dying to delve into so I can post this stuff. I will study this and get back to ya'. Felicia, It's been really good having you around again. Been thinkin' about you a lot and hope you're taking time in your life for yourself and the chance to absorb some nature and solitude. :) Love & Light, Lynella.