Monacan Town

[techteach]

This was emailed to me by Vance. Thought I would post it.


"http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=frengdict

There is a French to English (or vice versa) dictionary. Type in "mixed" for the English word. See the word "melange" as a translation. Go to the "root" and see "melanger" and click on it. See "mélangeons " -- that is a French word (if I read it right first person plural?). Didn't you say you knew French?
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http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/vaindiansmonacan.htm

We have little in the way of written records about the people of the Monacan Confederacy. Most of the Monacan people seem to have left Monacan Town. In 1657 a large group of Indians moved into this abandoned Monacan village above the James River rapids. The colonials sent a strong force including Pamunkey Indians to remove the Indians. Cherokee tradition says that the new Indians were Cherokees [note: not true -- Cherokee tradition says just the opposite]. Some historians think that these people were Siouan-speaking people, including members of the Manahoac Tribe. The colonials and their Indian allies suffered a great defeat there. By 1699 most of the Monacan people had left Monacan Town. In 1699 the Monacan village above the James River rapids was settled by a colony of French refugees, called the Huguenots. Still, some members of the tribe continued to camp in the area until 1702. They traded furs and other goods with the settlers.

end of quote from website.

This a direct link between Siouan Indians and the French in Virginia. Maybe some Frenchmen at Monacan Town called the Indians there "Melange" -- meaning "mixed" and the name stuck. Maybe this was a mixed blood village.

The above states that when the French first arrived, some Monacans, or perhaps other Siouan Indians, were still in the vicinity. How close was Monacan Town to where the Germanna Colony later was? It is not much of a stretch to think Indians near Monacan Town in 1702 might have been near the Germanna Colony in 1740, only 38 years later. vance. Those Saponi who scared a farmer and set the woods on fire, also stole a hog, these Saponi have been shown to be those who became the Melungeons at Stoney Creek and Greasy Rock."



Techteach

[Tom]

Well the theory could fit, it is a French word, and I do know some french, we have to take it as a manditory class as a part of grade school, it's also on the "backside" of a Canadian products sold here.
I wondered how a French word ended up in the south, but mixed could mean just an array of different types of native people or a mixed Euro white Indian town, whatever it is I think that it works as a theory and needs some more research.
Thanks go to vance for the addition Tech.

[Saponi 1]

http://manakin.addr.com/tingley.htm

More About Manakin Town
Kathryn La Rue Tingley
The Cross of Languedoc, March 1995
....The British Government saw the opportunity to acquire settlers for the largely vacant land of the colonies, with the consequent development, enrichment and strengthening of the colonies. Small wonder that men on both sides of the Atlantic favored the plan of William of Orange for Huguenot settlement. Two such men were Dr. Daniel Coxe of England and Col. William Byrd of the Virginia Colony. Coxe held land near the Gulf of Mexico and Byrd argued for lands on the frontier of Virginia. The Colonel eventually won out, but was not entirely altruistic in his efforts. The proposed settlement would serve as a buffer between his land and marauding Indians! This area proposed by Byrd was on the James River at a site formerly occupied by a village of Monocan Indians, a warlike tribe that the King Powhatan in vain had attempted to subdue. When the first shipload of refugees arrived at Hampton on the James River, they were told that they would proceed to the Monocan area where free land would be given them. Thus Monocan became Manakin.
http://www.saponitown.com/VirginiaNativeHistory.htm

http://www.hiddenhistory.com/PAGE3/swsts/virgnia1.HTM

Monacan. Possibly from an Algonquian word signifying "digging stick," or "spade," but more likely from their own language. Also called:
Rahowacah, by Archer, 1607, in Smith (1884).
Connections.—The Monacan belonged to the Siouan linguistic stock. Their nearest connections were the Manahoac, Tutelo, and Saponi.
Location.—On the upper waters of James River above the falls at Richmond.
Villages: (Locations as determined by D. I. Bushnell, Jr.)
Massinacack, on the right bank of James River about the mouth of Mohawk Creek, and a mile or more south of Goochland.
Mohemencho, later called Monacan Town, on the south bank of James River and probably covering some of "the level area bordering the stream in the extreme eastern part of the present Powhatan County, between Bernards Creek on the east and Jones Creek on the west."
Rassawek, at the confluence of the James and Rivanna Rivers and probably "on the right bank of the Rivanna, within the angle formed by the two streams."
Two other towns are sometimes added but and they afterward appeared as wholly independent tribes, the Saponi and the Tutelo, it is probable that their connection with the Monacan was never very intimate. They seem to have been classed as Monacan largely on the evidence furnished by Smith's map, in which they appear in the country of the "Monacans" but Smith's topography, as Bushnell has shown, was very much foreshortened toward the mountains and the Saponi and Tutelo towns were farther away than he supposed. Again, while Massinacack and Mohemencho are specifically referred to as Monacan towns and Smith calls Rassawek "the chief habitation" of the Monacan, there is no such characterization of either of the others.
History.—Capt. John Smith learned of the Monacan in the course of an exploratory trip which he made up James River in May 1607. The people themselves were visited by Captain Newport the year following, who discovered the two lower towns. The population gradually declined and in 1699 some Huguenots took possession of the land of Mowhemencho. The greater part of the Monacan had been driven away some years before this by Colonel Bornn (Byrd?). Those who escaped continued to camp in the region until after 1702, as we learn from a Swiss traveler named F. L. Michel (1916). It is probable that the remnant finally united with their relatives the Saponi and Tutelo when they were at Fort Christanna and followed their fortunes, but we have no further information as to their fate.
Population.—The number of the Monacan was estimated by Mooney (1928) at 1,200 in 1600 including part of the Saponi and Tutelo, but they can hardly have comprised over half as many. In 1669 there were still about 100 true Monacan as they were credited with 30 bowmen.
Connection in which they have become noted.—The name Monacan is perpetuated by a small place called Manakin on the north bank of James River, in Goochland County, Va.
http://www.hiddenhistory.com/PAGE3/swsts/virgnia1.HTM



Sorry this was so long--several posts about the French Huegnots and the Monacan be sure to see the Saponitown thread.

Saponi1

[Bill Childs]

Saponi1
Your posts are never too long.
Thank you,
Bill

[Saponi 1]

Bill, and Forum,

I hope you'll noticed that Byrd placed the French on 'the Fronteir" just as Spotswood later placed the Germans on "the Frontier" at Germanna. This was supposedly the policy at the time to place
foreigners on 'the Frontier" as buffers--just like the Saponi at Fort Christianna--some kind of 'Home Land Security." Gheez.

An excerpt from above:

"The Colonel (Byrd) eventually won out, but was not entirely altruistic in his efforts. The proposed settlement would serve as a buffer between his land and marauding Indians."

Saponi!