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Concept
Rappahannock people
Summary
The Rappahannock are a federally recognized tribe in Virginia and one of the eleven state-recognized tribes. They are made up of descendants of several small Algonquian-speaking tribes who merged in the late 17th century. In January 2018, they were one of six Virginia tribes to gain federal recognition by passage of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017.
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 among the Algonquian-speaking tribes of 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. For some time they referred to the Quiockohannock, who lived south of the James, as the Tappahannock.
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 neighbors, the Moraughticund.
The Rappahannock seldom appeared in English colonial records.
Official source
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