Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Theme

Indigenous Peoples & Archaeology

The Occaneechi, Sissipahaw, and Eno peoples, the Great Trading Path, and what archaeology has recovered along the rivers.

In briefThe Occaneechi, Sissipahaw and Eno peoples lived along the rivers and the Great Trading Path; the Occaneechi town on the Eno was occupied around 1680, the Texas community formed in the 1780s, and the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation won state recognition in 2002. The records here include what archaeology has recovered.

175 works about Indigenous Peoples & Archaeology are indexed here. 10 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
John Collet’s map of North Carolina, 1770, the Orange County sheet.

Events and storylines

Storylines in this theme, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineOccaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path1680–2024 · 63 events · Occaneechi Town on the Eno, occupied from about 1680 to 1710, was where John Lawson stopped in 1701 on the trading path that ran from Virginia to the Catawba. Archaeologists located the village at the Fredricks site in 1983, and the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, recognized by the state in 2002, rebuilt a replica village there and dedicated a highway marker in 2024. StorylineThe Carolina Indian Circle and Native American students at UNC, 1974–19941974–1994 · 11 events · Native American students organized at UNC in 1974 and were recognized as the Carolina Indian Circle in 1975. The circle held Indian culture weeks in 1977 and 1989 and petitioned in 1985 for public purchase of the Hillsborough Archaeological District. In 1989 it asked Chancellor Hardin to recruit Native American students and faculty, and in 1990 it rallied for Native American faculty as UNC hired Adolph Dial and Randy Hill as visiting professors. Black Ink reported that UNC hired its first Native American administrator about 1994. StorylineThe Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation today1984–2024 · 28 events · The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association formed in 1984, took the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation name in 1994 and won state recognition in 2002 after a decade of petitions and a court ruling. The band bought land for its tribal grounds near Pleasant Grove in 2004, rebuilt the replica village at Hillsborough, and dedicated a state highway marker in 2024.

Indexed works

Works about Indigenous Peoples & Archaeology from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Histories 89Letters & correspondence 54Photographs & portraits 9Genealogy 7Periodicals 5other types 17

Period

Colonial era (to 1775) 317th century 418th century 19Revolution (1775–1783) 1119th century 1020th century 4

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 142Orange County 101Hillsborough 71Chapel Hill 47Durham County (neighboring) 7Chatham County (neighboring) 6

Widely held

Ribbons of Color Along the Eno River

2021

Collected first-hand and second-hand stories from the Eno River valley as told from the standpoint of African Americans and Native people who have lived along the river in Orange and Durham counties, from prehistory to the present day. Issued by the Eno River Association in Durham as volume 10, number 2 of the Eno Journal, 2021, 106 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: American Indians.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 RIBBONS NC Cardinal UNC Duke Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society

American Indians in North Carolina: Geographic Interpretations

Ross, Thomas E. · 1999 · Karo Hollow Press

Thomas E. Ross's geographic study of American Indians in North Carolina. It examines Native peoples' history, cultural assimilation, and social and economic conditions across the state, with statistics. Published by Karo Hollow Press in 1999, eleven preliminary pages and 242 pages with illustrations and maps.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC State record: Indians of North America -- North Carolina.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 970.004 ROS NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL UNC Library of Congress

Eno: Reflections on Eno River State Park

McIntyre, Michael · 1993

Michael McIntyre's 23-minute documentary video on the Eno River and Eno River State Park, produced in Durham in 1993 with support from the Duke University Institute of the Arts. It covers the river's past, its geology and the effort to preserve it, including the Indigenous peoples of the Eno River region. The container credits it with the 1993 Hal Kammerer Film and Video Award at Duke. VHS videocassette, color with sound.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: American Indians.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham

Beneath the ivory tower : the archaeology of academia

2010 · University Press of Florida

Collection of essays on campus archaeology in the United States, published by the University Press of Florida in 2010, xix and 341 pages with illustrations and maps. Chapters treat digs at Notre Dame, Harvard, South Carolina and other campuses. The Orange County connection is the chapter by R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. and colleagues on excavations at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Excavations (Archaeology).

UNC Library of Congress

Our People: Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation

Knick, Stanley G. · 2008 · Native American Resource Center, UNC Pembroke

A 28-minute documentary video from the Native American Resource Center at UNC Pembroke in which members of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation speak about their history, culture and identity. Speakers include Tony Hayes, Forest Hazel, Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Sharn Jeffries, John Jeffries, Wanda Whitmore-Penner and Tammy Hayes Hill, and their words are set against photographs of the community's past and present. Produced by Stanley G. Knick and issued on DVD in 2008. Their ancestors' town stood on the Eno at present-day Hillsborough.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Occaneechi Indians.

UNC NC State

Completing the circle : the Hathcock Indian blood

Voncannon, Brian Everett · 1999 · Evening Storm Enterprises Publication

Brian Everett Voncannon compiled this family history of Occaneechi and Saponi descent through the Hathcock line, reaching back to Benjamin Franklin Hathcock. The 75 leaves, with illustrations, carry genealogy of the Hathcock and Vuncannon families alongside Occaneechi and Saponi history. Published in 1999 by Evening Storm Enterprises.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Occaneechi Indians.

UNC Library of Congress
Show 2 more

Ghost Fields

Bradley, John · 2021

John Bradley's interview with John Blackfeather Jeffries, an elder of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, whose tribal grounds lie in northern Orange County near Hillsborough. Occaneechi history and Native history in North Carolina and Virginia, the tribe's older homeland, are its subjects. Published in 2021.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Occaneechi Indians -- History.

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO JEFFRIES BRA

The hidden campus : archaeological glimpses of UNC in the nineteenth century

Davis, R. P. Stephen, Jr., 1951- · 2015 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

R. P. Stephen Davis Jr. delivered this talk in Wilson Library on April 14, 2015 for the Gladys Hall Coates university history lecture series, and the university published it the same year. It reports on archaeology of the nineteenth century campus at Chapel Hill, including university buildings. Forty-six unnumbered pages with illustrations, maps, facsimiles and portraits, many in color.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Antiquities.

UNC

Recently indexed: Das Nichtwahr und das Nimmerwahr : Arbeiten über Kunst und Literatur, Sprachwissenschaft und Kulturkunde der Antike (1977) · Rutherford's expedition against the Cherokees (1888) · Sounds of globalism. [Pt. 3], North America (2010) · Voices : news from Carolina's first people (2010) · An archaeological analysis of smoking pipes from three Indian communities on the North Carolina Piedmont, AD 1400 to 1700 (1998) · An archaeological survey of the proposed expansion of the Finley Golf Course, University of North Carolina, Orange and Durham Counties, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1992)

Search all 175 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

  • Start here · NC 970.4 HAZEL Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: the Texas Community Hazel, Forest · 1991

    Forest Hazel's 1991 study of the Occaneechi-Saponi descendants living in the Texas community of Orange County, near Mebane, tracing the families of that settlement. It concerns Occaneechi genealogy and Indians of North America in North Carolina. A starting point for anyone researching the county's Indigenous families.

  • Foundational · BIO JEFFRIES BRA Ghost Fields: Interview With John Blackfeather Jeffries, Elder of the Occaneechi Tribe of the Saponi Nation Bradley, John · 2021

    John Bradley's interview with John Blackfeather Jeffries, an elder of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, whose tribal grounds lie in northern Orange County near Hillsborough. Occaneechi history and Native history in North Carolina and Virginia, the tribe's older homeland, are its subjects. Published in 2021.

  • Foundational · NC 929.209 SCARLETT The Harris Family of Orange County, North Carolina: 318 Years of Black-American Indian Culture Scarlett, Beverly A. · 2019

    Beverly A. Scarlett traces the Harris family of Orange County across what her subtitle calls 318 years of Black-American Indian culture, a family history of mixed African American and Native descent in the county. Published through Lulu in Morrisville in 2019, 95 pages with illustrations, portraits and maps. It concerns both African American and Indigenous genealogy for Orange County.

Show 6 more
  • Foundational · NC 975.656 RIBBONS Ribbons of Color Along the Eno River: The History of African Americans and People of Color Living on the Eno 2021

    Collected first-hand and second-hand stories from the Eno River valley as told from the standpoint of African Americans and Native people who have lived along the river in Orange and Durham counties, from prehistory to the present day. Issued by the Eno River Association in Durham as volume 10, number 2 of the Eno Journal, 2021, 106 pages with illustrations.

  • Foundational · NC 970.004 ROS American Indians in North Carolina: Geographical Interpretations 1999

    Thomas E. Ross's geographic study of American Indians in North Carolina. It examines Native peoples' history, cultural assimilation, and social and economic conditions across the state, with statistics. Published by Karo Hollow Press in 1999, eleven preliminary pages and 242 pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Start here · NC 975.601 WAR Indian Communities on the North Carolina Piedmont, A.D. 1000 to 1700 Ward, H. Trawick · 1993

    H. Trawick Ward and R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. present the archaeology of Siouan-speaking communities on the North Carolina Piedmont from about A.D. 1000 to 1700, including sites along the Eno near Hillsborough, with attention to trade, social change and the spread of cultural practices. Published by the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina in 1993, 466 pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Foundational · NC PER HILLSBOR Hillsborough Historical Society Journal 1998

    Journal of the Hillsborough Historical Society, seven illustrated volumes dated 2004. Articles cover the history and antiquities of Hillsborough and Orange County, so the run is a standing source for county history. Volumes measure 23 centimeters.

  • Foundational · NC 917.56 ORANGE An Inventory Of Sites Of Cultural, Historic, Recreational, Biological, And Geological Significance In The Unincorporated Portions Of Orange County Orange County (N.C.) · 1986

    County planning department survey of significant sites in the unincorporated parts of Orange County, published in 1988, 95 pages with maps. The survey covers cemeteries, church buildings and archaeological sites on the cultural side, and plants, animals, endangered species, wildlife refuges, geology and recreation areas on the natural side. Useful for local historians, genealogists tracing burial grounds and land planners alike.

  • Wider context · NC 497.52 HARLEY Washakie: The Little Indian Boy Harley, Karen Lynch · 2024

    Karen Lynch Harley wrote and illustrated this picture book about a young Haliwa-Saponi boy who learns from his grandmother's stories while he plays on her front porch, with Tutelo-Saponi words woven into the telling. The Haliwa-Saponi, descended from Tuscarora, Nansemond, Tutelo and Saponi people, number some 4,060 citizens, most of them in Warren and Halifax counties of northeastern North Carolina. Published in Raleigh in 2024.

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this theme, in date order. See these 99 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Indigenous communities occupy the Eno River Valley Excavations at the Hogue and Wall sites on the Eno near Hillsborough show farming communities growing corn, beans and squash, first in small scattered settlements (Haw River phase, about 1000–1400) and then in compact palisaded villages (Hillsboro phase, about 1400–1600). The Wall site village held perhaps 100 to 150 people in the mid-1400s. Place: Eno River valleySearch the index · UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, Ancient North Carolinians: Central Piedmont
  2. John Lederer visits the Eno people near present Hillsborough The German physician described an Eno town on the Eno River laid out around a playing field, with large grain harvests and a government guided by its elders. About fourteen miles away he also met the Shakori, placed by the book on the Haw River near the Haw Fields. Place: Eno River, near Hillsborough · Also named: John LedererSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 10
  3. Gabriel Arthur leaves his trade goods at the Eno town Returning to Virginia from the Tomahitan country, Abraham Wood's young trader Gabriel Arthur hired four Sara men to carry his packs to the Eno. They would go no farther than the Eno town, so Arthur left the goods with the Eno and went on with a single Tomahitan, reaching Fort Henry on June 18. The year before, his companion James Needham had set out from the Eno town on the journey on which he was killed. Place: Eno town, on the Eno River · Also named: Gabriel Arthur, James Needham, Abraham WoodSearch the index · Internet Archive: Douglas L. Rights, "The Trading Path to the Indians", North Carolina Historical Review 8 (1931), p. 420
  4. The Occaneechi settle on the Eno near Hillsborough After leaving the Roanoke River valley in 1676, the Occaneechi built a town on the Eno River near present-day Hillsborough and lived there from about 1680 to 1710. It was a small stockaded village of ten or twelve houses and probably fewer than 75 people, and it was the town John Lawson visited in 1701. Archaeologists dug the whole village between 1983 and 1986 at a place they named the Fredricks site, and they call this period of Occaneechi life on the Eno the Fredricks phase. People: John Lawson Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Eno RiverAncient North Carolinians — Historic period
  5. Enoe Will agrees at Occaneechi Town to guide John Lawson to the English settlements Within two hours of John Lawson's arrival at Occaneechi Town on the Eno, Enoe Will came into the king's cabin and agreed to guide Lawson's party to the English, leaving his pay to their discretion. The next morning they set out for Adshusheer, his town about 14 miles east, which Lawson described as Shoccories mixed with Eno and Adshusheer people with Will as their chief man. People: Eno Will, John Lawson Place: Occaneechi Town, on the Eno near Hillsborough · Also named: Enoe WillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina (1709), pp. 55-57
  6. John Lawson reached Occaneechi Town on the Eno and wrote about its people and the trading path John Lawson visited Occaneechi Town on the Eno. People: John Lawson Place: Eno RiverAncient North Carolinians — Historic period
  7. John Lawson's party fords the Haw and meets a Virginia pack train in the Haw Fields On the last stages before Occaneechi Town, Lawson's party stripped in cold weather to ford the Haw River, which he described as running among boulders the size of houses. The next day, crossing the rich land known as the Haw Fields, they met a pack train of thirty loaded horses and four or five men led by Massey, an Englishman from Leeds trading out of Virginia, and reached the Occaneechi town about three that afternoon. People: John Lawson Place: Haw River ford and the Haw Fields (now Alamance County)Internet Archive: Douglas L. Rights, "The Trading Path to the Indians", North Carolina Historical Review 8 (1931), p. 417
  8. Occaneechi Town on the Eno is largely abandoned By 1713, when the Occaneechi signed a peace treaty with Virginia at Williamsburg, their town on the Eno near present-day Hillsborough was almost empty. They moved north to Fort Christanna in Virginia, and some Saponi families later resettled in North Carolina. Place: Hillsborough and the Eno RiverExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press web edition): Pre-Revolutionary War
  9. Virginia pays an interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi Indians Charles Kimball petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses for his allowance as interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi Indians. The petition shows the Occaneechi still named separately seventeen years after they left the Eno, and enough people speaking only their own language for an interpreter to be worth paying. Place: Williamsburg, Virginia · Also named: Charles KimballExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Pre-Revolutionary War
  10. The Saponi scatter between Virginia and the Catawba and a group settles in Granville County After living briefly with the Catawba the Saponi returned to Virginia in 1733 and had to petition Lieutenant Governor Gooch for leave to resettle. Over the next twenty years they broke into small groups and moved south to the Catawba and back again, and by 1754 about twelve or fourteen Sapona men with as many women and children were living on Colonel William Eaton's land in Granville County, North Carolina. Place: Granville County, North Carolina · Also named: William Gooch, William EatonDocumenting the American South: Report concerning the militia in each county of North Carolina, 1754
  11. Orange County tax lists record Bunch, Gibson and Collins families as mulatto Several Orange County tax lists of the 1750s class families named Bunch, Gibson and Collins as mulatto, and Jeremiah and Henry Bunch took land grants near the Eno. The term then covered many people of mixed descent, and Hazel argues some of these families may have been Indian people who never left the region. Place: Eno River · Also named: Jeremiah Bunch, Henry BunchNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 11
  12. The Assembly redraws Orange County's line with Granville A year after creating Orange, the Assembly replaced the eastern line the 1752 act had set, which ran from the Virginia line near Hico Creek to the bend of the Eno below the Occaneechi town and then down the Eno and the Neuse. Finding a new line more convenient for the county's inhabitants, it ordered one run from the Virginia line twenty miles west of Granville Court House due south to the Neuse River, then down the Neuse to the mouth of Horse Creek. Place: CountywideInternet Archive: David Leroy Corbitt, The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943 (1950; 1975 printing), p. 28, quoting the act (State Records of North Carolina, vol. 23, p. 390)
Show all 99 dated events
  1. Moravians record a visit from Indians living at a fort near the Haw River The Moravian settlers near present Winston-Salem recorded a visit in 1756 from Indians described as Cherokees from the fort near Haw River. The Haw was then in Orange County and a long way from any known Cherokee town, and the entry places an Indian settlement in the county decades after the Piedmont was supposed to be empty of them. Place: Orange CountyExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Pre-Revolutionary War
  2. William Chavis of Granville County sells 320 acres on the Haw River William Chavis of Granville County, who held land beside the Saponi settlement on William Eaton's land and appears to have been of part Indian descent, sold Joseph Pritchit 320 acres on both sides of the Haw River from a 1751 grant. Hazel notes the tract lay near where Saponi families would settle about twenty years later. Place: Haw River · Also named: William Chavis, Joseph Pritchit, William EatonNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 10
  3. The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough votes 1,000 pounds for presents to the Indians The congress sitting at Hillsborough directed everyone with information on Indian affairs to lay it before Willie Jones, one of the Continental Congress's agents for the Southern Department. Thomas Wade, Thomas Polk and John Walker reported on what they called the hostile intentions of Governor Martin and the Indians, the matter went to the congress, and it appropriated 1,000 pounds for Jones to buy presents for the Indians. People: Willie Jones Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Thomas Wade, Thomas Polk, John WalkerInternet Archive: R. D. W. Connor, William K. Boyd and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, History of North Carolina (1919), vol. 1, p. 381
  4. Indian families from Virginia settle the Texas community in northern Orange County Charles Whitmore, Jesse Whitmore and Jacob Jeffries appear on the Orange County return used for the 1790 federal census, which was compiled from a tax list of 1787. Families of the same names had moved southwest from Greensville County in Virginia, and by 1820 the settlement later called Texas, or Pleasant Grove, was intact, with the Corn and Jeffries families holding tracts of several hundred acres. Place: Orange County · Also named: Charles Whitmore, Jesse Whitmore, Jacob Jeffries · Also mentions: Pleasant GroveExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Post-Revolutionary War
  5. Jacob Jeffries of the Texas community makes his will The will of Jacob Jeffries, one of the first heads of household on the 1787 tax list, was witnessed by David Haitcock, and one of his daughters married into the Guy family. Hazel reads such ties among the Jeffries, Haitcock, Guy and Whitmore families as the marks of a single community that married within itself. Place: Texas community (northern Orange County) · Also named: Jacob Jeffries, David HaitcockNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 14
  6. Jeffries and other Texas community families move to Ohio and Indiana From the 1820s to the 1840s a number of families left the Texas community for Greene County, Ohio, and some went on to Rush and Whitley counties in Indiana. There members of the Jeffries family won three court cases between 1842 and 1869 over whether, as people of Indian descent, they could vote. Place: Texas community (northern Orange County) · Also named: Parker Jeffries, Mortimer Jeffries, William M. JeffriesNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 18
  7. Texas community families leave Orange for Sugar Fork in Macon County In the 1820s, after the Cherokee cession opened the land, a group of Guy, Whitmore, Jeffries and Gibson families from the Texas community moved to the mountains and formed the Sugar Fork settlement in Macon County. It stayed distinct for many years; letters of 1869 and 1872 to the Indian Office described its people as Catawba who had come from Orange County. Place: Texas community (northern Orange County) · Also named: Buckner Guy, Sylvia Jeffries Guy, John Guy, Aggy Whitmore Guy, Richard Guy, Patsy Whitmore Guy, Walton Jeffries, Hugh GibsonNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 16
  8. The census lists the Texas community families as free Negro heads of household The 1830 federal census for the North District of Orange County listed the Whitmores, Jeffrieses, Corns, Burnettes, Haithcocks and Joneses among free Negro heads of household. Through the nineteenth century county and federal records almost always classed these families as free colored or mulatto, and almost never as Indian. Place: Orange CountyExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Post-Revolutionary War
  9. Abner Burnette is twice prosecuted for carrying a gun and once recorded as Indian Abner Burnette of the Texas community was indicted in Alamance County in 1855 for carrying a gun, which was unlawful for free persons of color. He pled guilty and was fined thirty one dollars. Indicted again in 1860 he pled not guilty, was convicted and was fined five cents. The 1860 census for Orange County recorded him as Indian, and the 1870 Alamance County census as mulatto. Place: Orange County · Also named: Abner Burnette · Also mentions: Texas communityExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Post-Revolutionary War
  10. Black and Native American worshippers in Chapel Hill gather under a grape arbor and form the congregation that became St. Paul AME A group that included William Thompson, Charles Craig, Jerry Hargraves, Kenny Brooks, Green Merritt and Green Cordal began meeting under a grape vine arbor, with Rev. Green Cordal preaching the first service. The congregation was received into the African Methodist Episcopal connection in 1870. People: Green Cordal Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Jerry Hargraves, William Thompson, Charles CraigFrom the Rock Wall: St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church
  11. Cyrus Guy is lynched by a masked mob in western Orange County A masked mob seized Cyrus Guy, a 24-year-old Afro-Indigenous farmer from a free family of color, and hanged him from a tree on the High Rock Road near the Alamance County line, above the county poorhouse. The Hillsborough Recorder reported that an inquest held under Sheriff Turner found out nothing, and Ben Johnson recalled in 1937 that the body was left hanging for four days. People: Cyrus Guy Place: High Rock Road, near the Alamance County line, Orange County · Also named: Ben JohnsonOrange County Community Remembrance Coalition: Those We Honor
  12. The name Texas appears on William Spoon's map of Alamance County William Spoon's 1893 map of Alamance County labels a road in northern Pleasant Grove Township the Texas Road and the section below it Texas, the earliest dated use of the community's name that Hazel found. The 1928 county map uses the name as well; its origin is unknown. Place: Pleasant Grove Township · Also named: William SpoonNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 4
  13. The Texas community builds Jeffries Cross Church and Martin's Chapel Baptist Church Around the turn of the twentieth century the community built two churches on land given by Joe and Levi Jeffries and by Sam Martin, in place of the circuit riding preachers who had served the settlement before. Social life in the community turned on its churches and its school. Place: Pleasant Grove Township · Also named: Joe Jeffries, Levi Jeffries, Sam MartinExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Twentieth Century
  14. Hopi dancers perform in Memorial Hall and adopt Frederick H. Koch into their tribe A troupe of Hopi dancers from Arizona gave their ceremonial dances, including the snake dance, in Memorial Hall under the Playmakers' auspices, and afterward adopted Playmakers director Frederick H. Koch on the Playmakers Theatre stage, naming him Magnificent Fox. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Memorial Hall and Playmakers Theatre, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Memorial HallThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 20, 1928, p. 1
  15. The Martin School is consolidated into Pleasant Grove Union School The Martin School, attended almost entirely by Indian children, was merged in 1930 with several other small schools to form Pleasant Grove Union School. The change was unpopular in the community because the school would no longer be exclusively Indian, though it brought better facilities and was in time accepted. Place: Pleasant Grove TownshipExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Twentieth Century
  16. The Texas community asks the Bureau of Indian Affairs for an Indian school Clayton Jeffries, Charles Will Jeffries and others retained a lawyer, drew up a list of Indian families, made contact with the Indian community in Person County that already had a state sponsored school, and wrote to Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier seeking a federal school for their children. A bureau agent visited and reported the families to be Indian, and the bureau's letters called the settlement an Indian community, but no assistance was ever given. Place: Pleasant Grove Township · Also named: Clayton Jeffries, Charles Will Jeffries, John CollierExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Twentieth Century
  17. Archaeologists excavate the wall site believing it to be Occaneechi Town Joffre Coe began digging a village site on a bend of the Eno at Hillsborough in 1938 in the belief that it was the town John Lawson visited in 1701, and Robert Wauchope carried the work on in 1940 and 1941 with federal funding. A state highway marker for the Occaneechi village was erected at Hillsborough in 1941. The village Coe had found was in fact an earlier settlement of about 1400 to 1600. People: John Lawson Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Joffre Coe, Robert WauchopeAncient North Carolinians: Wall (Orange County)
  18. University archaeologists excavate burials at the Indian village site near Hillsborough Chapel Hill Brownie Scouts touring Hillsborough watched University archaeologists remove a skeleton from a grave at the recently excavated Indian village near the town that the Weekly called Occoneechee, with each bone cleaned and bagged for the laboratory in Chapel Hill. In May Robert Wauchope, director of the University's anthropology laboratory, told the Rotary Club about mounds being excavated on the Eno River near Hillsboro. Place: Indian village site on the Eno River near Hillsborough · Also named: Robert Wauchope · Also mentions: Eno RiverThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 4, 1941, p. 1
  19. Joffre Coe publishes an archaeological survey of the Occoneechee Hills area Coe's study The Cultural Sequence of the Carolina Piedmont, in a volume edited by James B. Griffin, reported a survey and excavation near the Occoneechee Hills outside Hillsborough carried out under the Archaeological Society of North Carolina. Place: Occoneechee Hills, near Hillsborough · Also named: Joffre L. Coe, James B. GriffinLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 12
  20. Lumbee Indians rally in the Pit to save Old Main at Pembroke A group of Lumbee Indians and supporters visited UNC to draw attention to their drive to save Old Main, the original building of Pembroke State University, performing in the Pit as part of the Carolina Symposium. Two weeks earlier the N.C. Legal Defense Fund had held a Student Union meeting on the fight, with two UNC law professors giving the Lumbees legal help. Place: the Pit, University, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Student UnionSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 25, 1972, p. 1
  21. Native American students organize what becomes the Carolina Indian Circle Native American students at UNC organized in the fall of 1974, first as the Native American Student Movement on the BSM's model, and were recognized in spring 1975 as the Carolina Indian Circle. By fall 1976 it had about 65 members, an office at the YMCA and a working tie with the Black Student Movement. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: YMCASearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 9, 1976, p. 4 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 20, 1977, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, March 16, 1978, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, September 16, 1985, p. 4
  22. Carolina Indian Circle holds American Indian Cultural Week at UNC The Carolina Indian Circle held a week of speeches, films, panels, dancing and an exhibit of Indian artifacts from archaeologist Joffre L. Coe's collection. Sioux author Vine Deloria Jr. spoke in Memorial Hall, Haliwa dancers performed in the Pit, and Adolph L. Dial of Pembroke State and A. Bruce Jones of the state Commission on Indian Affairs spoke; circle leaders Kevin Maynor and Forest Hazel said the aim was to make white students aware of Indian people in the state. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Kevin Maynor, Forest Hazel, Vine Deloria Jr., Adolph L. Dial, A. Bruce Jones, Joffre L. Coe · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 25, 1977, p. 1
  23. State archaeologists find prehistoric and colonial sites along the I-40 route A shovel-test survey by the N.C. Division of Archives along the proposed Interstate 40 corridor in Orange and Durham counties found several prehistoric sites used for temporary camps and special tasks, with stone knives or scrapers and a few pieces of pottery, and the remains of a house the team dated to about 1776 and a farm building of the middle to late 1800s. Survey supervisor Mark Mathis said most of the sites lay beside the road's path rather than in it, and the team recommended deeper testing of several to the Board of Transportation. Place: Proposed I-40 corridor, Orange and Durham counties · Also named: Mark Mathis · Also mentions: Orange and Durham countiesSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 1, 1978, p. 1
  24. The state puts the Occoneechi village site in Orange County on the Study List At its July 12, 1979 meeting the State Professional Review Committee looked at slides of four archaeological sites, one of them the Occoneechi Village Site in Orange County. It deferred a Mecklenburg cabin site for lack of documentation and placed the other three, the Orange County site among them, on the Study List. Place: Orange County (site the committee called the Occoneechi Village Site)NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register Advisory Committee agendas, minutes and approved lists, p. 128
  25. Ronald Oxendine is named the school's director of American Indian Recruitment Services Because its efforts to recruit Native American students had done even less well than its recruitment of Black students, the School of Public Health hired Oxendine, a Lumbee from Maxton, to lead American Indian recruitment. Place: School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ronald OxendineSearch the index · Robert Rodgers Korstad, Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989 (1990), scan p. 178
  26. The Carolina Indian Circle holds its fifth American Indian Cultural Week The Carolina Indian Circle's fifth annual American Indian Cultural Week, on the theme In Search of an Identity, brought the Coharie Dance Team from Clinton and cast members of the Pembroke drama Strike at the Wind to the Pit, a keynote by Dr. Bobby Brayboy, a Lumbee official of the U.S. Public Health Service, and talks by Adolph Dial of Pembroke State and Bruce Barton of the Carolina Indian Voice. It closed with the second annual American Indian Health Conference. Place: The Pit and Carolina Union, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Bobby Brayboy, Adolph Dial, Bruce BartonSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 2, 1980, p. 3
  27. The Fredricks site is found and excavated and Occaneechi Town is located UNC archaeologists trying to relocate the Wall site in the spring of 1983 found European trade goods among Indian pottery in a garden about a hundred yards away, and dug there for four seasons. They uncovered a palisaded village of about a quarter of an acre with ten to twelve houses set around a plaza, a sweat lodge and a cemetery outside the stockade, and identified it as the Occaneechi town Lawson visited in 1701. People: Roy S. Dickens Place: HillsboroughExcavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Fredricks Site Excavation · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, October 11, 1983, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, November 15, 1985, p. 3; The Daily Tar Heel, May 29, 1986, p. 1
  28. Ron Andrade gives the keynote of American Indian Cultural Week at UNC On March 24, 1983, Ron Andrade, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, gave the keynote address of American Indian Cultural Week to a mostly Indian audience at UNC, urging American Indians to help Indians in Guatemala and El Salvador and urging students to finish their schooling. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ron AndradeSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 28, 1983, p. 4
  29. The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association forms Descendants of the Occaneechi, Saponi and related Siouan peoples living around the Little Texas settlement reorganized in 1984 as the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association, with the aim of winning state recognition. The group has since been governed by an elected nine-member tribal council headed by a chair. Place: Orange and Alamance countiesUNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology: Graybeal, "Too Light to Be Black, Too Dark to Be White" (Native South 5, 2012)
  30. State reviewers approve adding the Frederick archaeological site to the Hillsborough Historic District The Office of State Archaeology brought site 31Or231, listed on the agenda as the Frederick Site, to the State Professional Review Committee as an amendment to the Hillsborough Historic District. On April 12, 1984 the committee approved it with the day's other National Register nominations, without separate discussion. Place: Site 31Or231, Hillsborough · Also mentions: Hillsborough Historic DistrictNC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register Advisory Committee agendas, minutes and approved lists, p. 249
  31. Houses begin going up on Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive south of the Eno After Poplar Hill is moved off its old site south of the Eno in 1981, the land is divided into lots along two new streets, Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive, and houses are built there from 1985. Place: Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive, south of the Eno River, Hillsborough · Also mentions: Poplar HillSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive
  32. The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association holds its first annual August powwow A year after it formed, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association held its first annual powwow in August 1985, bringing Indian people from many tribes to visit the community. The fifth, at Mebane on August 11 and 12, 1989, had a printed program. Place: MebaneUNC Libraries catalog: Welcome to the 5th annual Eno-Occaneechi powwow, August 11-12, 1989, Mebane, N.C. (program, Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association) · Also: North Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Sout
  33. The Carolina Indian Circle petitions for public purchase of the Hillsborough Archaeological District Members of the Carolina Indian Circle spent three hours outside the UNC Student Union gathering signatures on a petition urging UNC or the state to buy the 25-acre Hillsborough Archaeological District, where UNC archaeologists had worked since 1983. James Rae Freeland, a Hillsborough builder and real estate broker who owned 20 acres holding six ancient Indian sites, had put off developing them and given the Hillsborough Preservation Fund an option on the land until February 28, 1986; $120,000 was needed to buy it. Place: Hillsborough · Also named: James Rae FreelandThe Daily Tar Heel, November 15, 1985, p. 3
  34. Hillsborough Preservation Fund holds an option on the Hillsborough Archaeological District land James Rae Freeland, who owned 20 acres with six Indian sites, put off building and gave the fund a six-month option, expiring Feb. 28, to raise the $120,000 price; the Eno River Association led the search for a buyer. People: Margaret Nygard, Roy S. Dickens Place: Hillsborough Archaeological District, Hillsborough · Also named: James Rae FreelandThe Daily Tar Heel, November 15, 1985, p. 3
  35. Trustee Richard Jenrette buys the 20-acre Indian site on the Eno at Hillsborough for UNC's study Richard H. Jenrette, a UNC trustee and New York investment banker, bought for $120,000 the 20-acre Indian site on the Eno River at Hillsborough, taking over a six-month option held by two Hillsborough preservation groups that was to expire February 28, and was to lease it to the University for continued excavation. The sale ended fears that the land would become a private residence and polo ground; UNC archaeologists believed the site might be a pre-colonial Occaneechi town. People: Richard H. Jenrette Place: Eno River site, Hillsborough · Also mentions: Eno River at HillsboroughThe Daily Tar Heel, March 3, 1986, p. 4
  36. Archaeologist Roy S. Dickens Jr., leader of the Occaneechi village dig at Hillsborough, dies Roy S. Dickens, professor of anthropology and director of UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology, died at home at 48. He led the excavation of the Occaneechi village found in 1983 beside the Eno River at Hillsborough, which had just received a National Geographic Society grant and was to be finished that summer. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Roy S. Dickens Jr., Roy S. Dickens · Also mentions: Eno River at HillsboroughThe Daily Tar Heel, May 29, 1986, p. 1
  37. UNC's field school finishes excavating the Occaneechi village at Hillsborough A UNC field excavation class of 14 students and nine graduate students finished the dig begun in 1983 at the Occaneechi village a mile from downtown Hillsborough, uncovering the stockade with three entrances, foundations of 14 or 15 houses, storage pits, three burials and brass and iron tools and ornaments. The researchers dated the village to about 1690-1710 and put its population at 75 to 100. Place: Occaneechi village site, HillsboroughThe Daily Tar Heel, September 2, 1986, p. 3
  38. Student groups hold a forum on racial injustice in Robeson County in Hamilton Hall The Student Action Union and the Native American Solidarity Group held the forum 'Struggling for Freedom in Robeson County' on the charges of corruption and racial oppression raised by the two Indian men accused in the February hostage-taking at The Robesonian; Alan Gregory of the Christic Institute South, part of their defense team, spoke. Place: Hamilton Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Alan GregorySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 7, 1988, p. 1
  39. UNC publishes a recruiting brochure for Native American high school seniors UNC published a brochure designed by the Carolina Indian Circle and aimed at Native American high school seniors, to be distributed at North Carolina high schools with mostly Native American students. Native American enrollment at UNC had been 137 the previous semester, and Circle president Cedric Woods pressed the University to hire Native American faculty and start a Native American studies program. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Cedric WoodsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 19, 1989, p. 1
  40. Carolina Indian Circle asks Chancellor Hardin to recruit Native American students and faculty In a letter to Chancellor Paul Hardin, the Carolina Indian Circle said UNC did not reflect North Carolina's Native American population, the largest east of the Mississippi, and asked for recruiting of Native American students, faculty and staff, a scholarship fund for Indian undergraduates and a meeting with the chancellor. The group counted about 61 graduate and 67 undergraduate Native American students, a fall from 24 Native freshmen in 1987-88 to 14 in 1988-89, one Native staff member and no Native faculty. Place: South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Paul HardinSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 7, 1989, p. 1
  41. Carolina Indian Circle holds Native American Culture Week During the Carolina Indian Circle's Native American Culture Week, Meherrin chief Pat Riddick spoke in Gardner Hall about his tribe's state recognition in July 1986 and its efforts to keep its young people and culture, a fashion parade was held in Great Hall, and a panel including Lumbee executive director James Hardin discussed the barriers American Indian students face in higher education. Place: Gardner Hall and Carolina Union, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Pat Riddick, James Hardin · Also mentions: Gardner HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 29, 1989, p. 1
  42. UNC archaeologists find what they believe is the Shakori village near Hillsborough Digging just north of the Occaneechi village they had excavated since 1983, the team from UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology found an earlier palisaded village from about 1670, which they believed was the lost Shakori town, perhaps twice the size of the Occaneechi village with 150 to 200 people. The dig, on land owned by trustee Richard Jenrette and a local attorney, was to run until July 22 and resume the next summer, with an open house on July 3. Place: Eno River, Hillsborough · Also named: Richard JenretteThe Daily Tar Heel, June 29, 1989, p. 11
  43. Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association petitions the NC Commission of Indian Affairs for state recognition After years of genealogical and historical research, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association filed a petition for state recognition with the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. Place: Alamance and Orange countiesFindLaw: Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (N.C. Ct. App. 2001)
  44. A petition for Native American faculty is signed with mocking Indian names, and the Carolina Indian Circle objects A student government petition asking UNC to hire permanent Native American faculty and staff by 1992, passed around a political science class in Hamilton Hall, came back with signatures in invented, mocking Indian names. Carolina Indian Circle president Cedric Woods called it a sign of racism on campus, and the minority affairs office planned to report it to the Affirmative Action Office, the Daily Tar Heel reported. Place: Hamilton Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Cedric WoodsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 19, 1990, p. 1
  45. UNC hires Lumbee historian Adolph Dial as a visiting history professor UNC hired Adolph Dial, retired chairman of American Indian studies at Pembroke State University, to teach two of its first courses in Native American history as a visiting professor in 1990-91. The Daily Tar Heel called him the University's first Native American faculty member; Dial said UNC's graduate school had turned him away in the late 1940s because he was an Indian from Robeson County. Place: Department of History, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Adolph DialSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 15, 1990, p. 1
  46. The Faculty Council asks for a new Black Cultural Center building and a minority faculty task force At its monthly meeting the Faculty Council passed resolutions asking the University to set goals for recruiting and keeping African-American and Native American faculty, administrators and students and to commit funds to build a new facility for the Black Cultural Center. Chancellor Paul Hardin said he would form a task force on minority faculty hiring; the committee report counted 54 Black faculty members, 2.5 percent of the faculty, and no Native Americans in permanent posts. Place: Faculty Council, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Paul Hardin · Also mentions: Black Cultural CenterThe Daily Tar Heel, March 26, 1990, p. 1
  47. Carolina Indian Circle leads a rally for Native American faculty at South Building About 50 students gathered in the Pit and marched to the steps of South Building to press UNC to hire its first Native American faculty member. Carolina Indian Circle president Cedric Woods gave Chancellor Paul Hardin a packet listing 315 Native Americans with doctorates, with about 2,500 student signatures. Place: The Pit and South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Cedric Woods, Paul HardinSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 12, 1990, p. 1
  48. UNC's archaeology field school finishes excavating the Shakori village site on the Eno Students and staff of UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology finished the summer's dig at a late-1600s village near Hillsborough that they identified as Shakori, part of a 20-acre stretch of the Eno River holding four villages from about A.D. 1000 to the early 1700s. They uncovered the remains of a wooden house, glass trade beads, corn cobs, arrowheads and bone tools; the laboratory had announced a public open house at the site that day, with Eno-Occaneechi people on hand to talk with visitors. Place: Eno River site off Burnside Drive, Hillsborough · Also mentions: Eno RiverThe Daily Tar Heel, July 12, 1990, p. 3
  49. UNC hires two Native American visiting professors as students press for permanent appointments The University hired Randy Hill in speech communication and Adolph Dial in history, both as visiting professors, after students had protested the lack of Native American faculty the year before. Carolina Indian Circle members said visiting status was not enough and called for active recruiting of permanent Native American faculty. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Randy Hill, Adolph DialSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 19, 1990, p. 1
  50. UNC honors 210 Black and Native American students with B averages At a Saturday ceremony, the Office of Student Counseling gave certificates to 210 African-American and Native American students who had earned better than a 3.0 grade point average the semester before. Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 12, 1990, p. 1
  51. Students march to South Building with a proposal for a multicultural course requirement Twenty to thirty students marched from the Pit to South Building during King birthday week and gave Provost Dennis O'Connor the Network for Minority Issues' proposal that every undergraduate take at least one course in Asian, Native American, Latin American or African American studies. O'Connor accepted it for Chancellor Paul Hardin, and the marchers, from the Cultural Awareness Project and minority student groups, asked for action within a year. Place: South Building, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Dennis O'Connor, Paul HardinThe Daily Tar Heel, January 28, 1991, p. 1
  52. Caroline Mayo becomes director of the North Carolina Health Careers Access Program Dr. Caroline Mayo was the new director of the North Carolina Health Careers Access Program, a UNC-system program with its central office at UNC-Chapel Hill and centers at Pembroke State, N.C. Central and Elizabeth City State universities, which works to bring Black, Native American and disadvantaged students into the health professions. Place: 720 Airport Road, Chapel Hill · Also named: Caroline MayoSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 11, 1991, p. 3 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, January 31, 1991, p. 5
  53. Dean Cell and Chancellor Hardin accept a student proposal for a multicultural course requirement The Campus Y's Network for Minority Issues, working with the Black Student Movement, the Asian Students Association and the Carolina Indian Circle, proposed that every undergraduate take at least three hours of courses taught from African, African-American, Asian, Asian-American, Hispanic, Latin American or Native American perspectives. Dean Gillian Cell and Chancellor Paul Hardin accepted the proposal for study, and Cell named a three-person interim committee, including associate dean Darryl Gless, expected to report by fall 1991. Place: University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Gillian Cell, Paul Hardin, Darryl GlessBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 18, 1991, p. 7
  54. Forest Hazel publishes his study of the Occaneechi-Saponi Texas community Southern Indian Studies printed Forest Hazel's account of the Occaneechi from Occaneechi Town on the Eno in 1701 to the Texas community of his own day, tying the excavated village near Hillsborough to living Indian families. Hazel had begun the research in 1984 from land, court, marriage, census and military records and from family oral histories. Place: Orange County · Also named: Forest Hazel · Also mentions: Texas communityNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 3
  55. The Chancellor's Committee on Community and Diversity reports a 'chilly' climate at UNC The 22-member committee released its 45-page report after an 11-month study, finding the University's climate chilly toward women, minorities, homosexuals and disabled people and making 24 recommendations, among them networks to recruit Black and Native American students and faculty, more financial aid, training for faculty and teaching assistants, a multicultural course requirement and changes in freshman room assignments to address segregation in residence halls. Chancellor Paul Hardin said the University would pick out the most promising ideas and go to work on them. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Paul HardinSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 6, 1991, p. 3
  56. Black enrollment at UNC falls slightly as freshman SAT averages lead the system A Board of Governors report showed UNC-Chapel Hill freshmen with the highest average SAT score in the system, 1,120, while the number of Black students enrolled fell from 2,045 in 1990 to 2,010 and Native American enrollment held at 142, a drop system president C. D. Spangler called a concern. People: C. D. Spangler Jr. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 11, 1991, p. 1
  57. Goetha C. Whitmore, one of the oldest Occaneechi elders, dies at 97 Goetha C. Whitmore of Alamance County died at 97. He remembered his grandfather Andrew Whitmore speaking a language other than English, which his father translated for him, and his memory underlay much of Forest Hazel's history of the Texas community, which Hazel dedicated to him. Place: Alamance County · Also named: Goetha C. Whitmore, Andrew Whitmore, Forest Hazel · Also mentions: Texas communityNorth Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 26
  58. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul play Memorial Hall The hip-hop groups De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest performed in Memorial Hall on November 3, 1993, and Black Ink's reviewer recalled the standing ovation Tribe received. Place: Memorial Hall, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: A Tribe Called Quest, De La SoulSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 22, 1993, p. 10
  59. Anthony Locklear becomes UNC's first Native American administrator Anthony Locklear joined the Office for Student Counseling as assistant dean, the first Native American hired to an administrative post at UNC. Two years later he was still the only one, working with the university's 130 Native American students and the Carolina Indian Circle. Place: Office for Student Counseling, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Anthony LocklearSearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), April 15, 1996, p. 16
  60. The organization adopts the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation name While its recognition petition was under review, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association changed its name to the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. Place: Orange and Alamance countiesFindLaw: Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (N.C. Ct. App. 2001)
  61. Sibby Anderson-Thompkins becomes assistant dean of UNC's Office of Student Counseling Anderson-Thompkins left her posts as assistant dean of students and harassment and assault coordinator, a position created in 1992 on her proposal, to head programs in the office that gives academic, personal and career counseling chiefly to Black and Native American students. She succeeded Darryl Lester and took over its Superlative Strategy for Sophomore Success program while continuing to lead the UNC Relationship Violence Task Force. Place: Office of Student Counseling, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, Darryl LesterSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 12, 1994, p. 1
  62. La Fiesta del Pueblo gathers Latin American residents in the county's first Hispanic festival La Fiesta del Pueblo, organized by Chapel Hill resident John Herrera to bring together the Hispanic community, was held on September 18 with a soccer tournament, 51 craft and information booths, dance troupes and musicians; the Daily Tar Heel called it the first Latin American festival in Orange County. Planned as a picnic and soccer game for about 300 migrant workers, it drew workers, doctors, students and town council members, and Chief John Blackfeather of the Occaneechi blessed the festival grounds. Place: Orange County (festival site not named in these pages) · Also named: John Herrera, John BlackfeatherThe Daily Tar Heel, September 23, 1994, p. 1
  63. Archaeological survey completes the third phase of Orange County's historic preservation inventory UNC's Research Laboratories of Anthropology finished a surface survey of about 400 acres, mostly in northern Orange County near the Little River and in Duke Forest, recording 151 archaeological sites, 116 of them prehistoric, and almost 3,000 artifacts from stone spear and arrow points to colonial and later pottery. The $20,000 survey, paid half by a state Department of Cultural Resources grant and half by the county, completed the third phase of the county's historic preservation program after two phases inventorying historic buildings, and its sites were to be used in county planning review. Place: Northern Orange County and Duke ForestSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 2, 1994, p. 2
  64. First annual Occaneechi powwow on the Eno planned for downtown Hillsborough John Jeffries planned the first annual powwow on the Eno River in downtown Hillsborough. The band now holds its annual powwow and fall festival on its tribal land in Alamance County. People: John Blackfeather Jeffries Place: Hillsborough, Eno RiverUNC Libraries: John Hayles Blackfeather Jeffries Collection on Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, 1950-2017
  65. John Blackfeather Jeffries serves as chairman of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation Jeffries chaired the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation from 1995 to 2000 and remained on its tribal council through 2020. People: John Blackfeather Jeffries Place: Orange CountySearch the index · NC Department of Administration: NC Flags to Half-Staff in Honor of Former Chairman of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, John "Blackfeather" Jeffries
  66. Commission of Indian Affairs recognition committee votes to deny the Occaneechi petition The Recognition Committee of the NC Commission of Indian Affairs voted to deny state recognition, finding the petitioners had not met five of the eight required criteria. The band then sought a contested case hearing, filed January 3, 1996. Place: Alamance and Orange countiesFindLaw: Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (N.C. Ct. App. 2001)
  67. The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation becomes a tax-exempt nonprofit IRS records list the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, based in Mebane, as a tax-exempt nonprofit since August 1996. The group had taken that name in 1994 and in January 1996 filed to contest the state Commission of Indian Affairs' denial of its petition for recognition. Place: Orange and Alamance countiesProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (IRS data): Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, EIN 56-1906889
  68. Occaneechi Band members build a replica village on the Eno in Hillsborough Tribal members led by John "Blackfeather" Jeffries built a replica of the palisaded Occaneechi village beside the Eno River in Hillsborough, modelled on the site excavated by UNC archaeologists. The village fell into disrepair and was dismantled in 2003. People: John Blackfeather Jeffries Place: Hillsborough, Eno RiverNews of Orange County: Occaneechi Village brought back to life by volunteers
  69. Occoneechee Mountain becomes a State Natural Area At the urging of the Eno River Association and The Nature Conservancy, the state began buying land on Occoneechee Mountain just south of Hillsborough, with the Conservancy purchasing 96 acres for the state. The 124-acre Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area was dedicated on July 20, 1999, with a blessing from an Occaneechi tribal member. Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Occoneechee Mountain State Natural AreaSearch the index · Eno River Association: Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area
  70. Administrative law judge recommends state recognition of the Occaneechi Band After a contested case hearing that ran from February 1997 to July 1998, an administrative law judge recommended that the Commission of Indian Affairs grant the Occaneechi Band tribal recognition. Place: Alamance and Orange countiesFindLaw: Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (N.C. Ct. App. 2001)
  71. Commission of Indian Affairs rejects the judge's recommendation and denies Occaneechi recognition At a June 11, 1999 hearing the Commission of Indian Affairs voted against the administrative law judge's recommendation, and on July 11 it issued a Final Agency Decision denying the petition. The band appealed to Orange County Superior Court on August 16, 1999, which affirmed the denial. Place: Orange CountyFindLaw: Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (N.C. Ct. App. 2001)
  72. NC Court of Appeals rules the Occaneechi recognition recommendation stands The Court of Appeals reversed the Orange County Superior Court and held that because the Commission of Indian Affairs missed its statutory deadline, the administrative law judge's recommendation for recognition became the final agency decision by operation of law. It remanded the case for an order consistent with that holding. Place: Orange CountyFindLaw: Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (N.C. Ct. App. 2001)
  73. North Carolina recognizes the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation Following the 2001 appeals ruling, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation became the eighth tribe officially recognized by the State of North Carolina through the Commission of Indian Affairs. Place: Orange and Alamance countiesNC DNCR: Occaneechi Indian Tribe (G-142)
  74. Occaneechi Homeland Preservation Project begins In 2002, the year North Carolina recognized the tribe, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation began buying back ancestral land through the Occaneechi Homeland Preservation Project. Its first purchase, a 25-acre parcel in Alamance County, followed in 2004, and a later phase funded by the NC Tobacco Trust Fund planned heritage farms linked to the tribe's reconstructed 1680 village. Place: Orange and Alamance countiesUNC Libraries: John Hayles Blackfeather Jeffries Collection on Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, 1950-2017
  75. General Assembly writes Occaneechi recognition into state law Session Law 2003-54 (House Bill 746), ratified May 19 and signed May 20, 2003, added G.S. 71A-7.2 designating the Indians of the Little Texas settlement in Pleasant Grove Township as the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation of North Carolina. The same act recognized the Meherrin Tribe and updated the Lumbee statute. Place: Little Texas community, Alamance CountyNC General Assembly: Session Law 2003-54 (House Bill 746)
  76. Occaneechi Band buys 25 acres for its tribal grounds The band bought a 25-acre tract of former tobacco farmland near Dailey Store Road in northeastern Alamance County, the first land it had held as a tribe in over two centuries. The site became its ceremonial ground, open-air museum and tribal center. Place: Little Texas community, Alamance CountyUNC Libraries: John Hayles Blackfeather Jeffries Collection on Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, 1950-2017
  77. Occaneechi Band establishes a permanent ceremonial ground on its new land The band established a permanent ceremonial ground on the Alamance County tract, which later hosted its powwow and its annual School Days for area students. Place: Little Texas community, Alamance CountyUNC Libraries: John Hayles Blackfeather Jeffries Collection on Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, 1950-2017
  78. Occaneechi Band pays off its land and moves the tribal office to the homeland site The band paid its land mortgage in full and relocated its tribal office to the Homeland Preservation Project site in Alamance County. Place: Little Texas community, Alamance CountyUNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology: Graybeal, "Too Light to Be Black, Too Dark to Be White" (Native South 5, 2012)
  79. Rebuilding of the Occaneechi replica village in Hillsborough begins Tribal members, community volunteers, Orange County and the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough began rebuilding a smaller replica village in River Park, funded by a $20,000 budget set aside in 2015. The new village has a palisade and four huts. Place: River Park, HillsboroughNews of Orange County: Occaneechi Village brought back to life by volunteers
  80. John Blackfeather Jeffries gives his Occaneechi collection to UNC's Southern Historical Collection Jeffries gave the Wilson Library about 5,000 items, including photographs of Occaneechi powwows and of the replica village's construction in Hillsborough, recordings of Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo songs, and the band's petition for state acknowledgment of tribal status. People: John Blackfeather Jeffries Place: Wilson Library, UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: John Hayles Blackfeather Jeffries Collection on Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, 1950-2017 (#05761), finding aid
  81. House bill to clarify Occaneechi recognition filed but not enacted House Bill 600 proposed amending G.S. 71A-7.2 to clarify the Occaneechi Band's recognition and its eligibility for federal Indian programs. Its last recorded action was referral to the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations on May 13, 2021. Place: Alamance and Orange countiesUNC School of Government Legislative Reporting Service: Clarify Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation (H 600)
  82. Reconstructed Occaneechi Village is rededicated The Occaneechi replica village in River Park was rededicated after about five years of work by tribal members, volunteers, town and county staff and the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. It includes a palisade, four huts, a work arbor, fire pit, lean-to and cooking table. Place: HillsboroughTriangle on the Cheap: Rededication of Occaneechi Replica Village in Hillsborough April 23
  83. John Blackfeather Jeffries dies, and state flags are lowered in his honor Jeffries, a Hillsborough resident and Occaneechi tribal elder, died on January 24, 2023. Governor Roy Cooper ordered state flags lowered to half-staff on February 1, 2023 in his honor. People: John Blackfeather Jeffries Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Roy CooperSearch the index · NC Department of Administration: NC Flags to Half-Staff in Honor of Former Chairman of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, John "Blackfeather" Jeffries
  84. Hillsborough tribute remembers John Blackfeather Jeffries The Occaneechi Band, the arts group Spirit Freedom and the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau held a tribute to Jeffries at the Passmore Center in Hillsborough. Speakers included former mayor Tom Stevens and tribal chair Tony Hayes. People: John Blackfeather Jeffries, Tom Stevens Place: Passmore Center, Hillsborough · Also named: Tony HayesSearch the index · Chapelboro: Orange County Community Holds Tribute to Remember John "Blackfeather" Jeffries
  85. State highway marker for the Occaneechi Indian Tribe dedicated at the tribal center North Carolina dedicated highway historical marker G-142, which notes the band's 2002 state recognition, at the Occaneechi Tribal Center on Dailey Store Road, and the tribe opened a new community center the same day. Place: Occaneechi Tribal Center, Dailey Store Road, Alamance CountyNC DNCR: Occaneechi Indian Tribe to be Featured on N.C. Highway Historical Marker
  86. Kathleen DuVal wins the Bancroft Prize UNC historian Kathleen DuVal won the Bancroft Prize for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America. She was the Carl W. Ernst Distinguished Professor in UNC's history department. People: Kathleen DuVal Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC College of Arts and Sciences: Kathleen DuVal wins Bancroft and Cundill prizes for her book Native Nations
  87. Kathleen DuVal wins the Pulitzer Prize for History UNC historian Kathleen DuVal won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, a history of Native American nations over a thousand years. She taught early American and American Indian history at UNC-Chapel Hill. People: Kathleen DuVal Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Pulitzer Prizes: Kathleen DuVal

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 6 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this subject. Research guide: How to research with Orange County Indexed.

Background 15

Show all 15

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time

Collections and databases 7

Show all 7

Local help

Background reading at OCPL

Books from OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection that provide broader context. They may not discuss Indigenous Peoples & Archaeology directly.

  • Background reading · Rebecca Wall Collection Archaeology and the Enigma of Fort Raleigh Harrington, J. C. · 1984

    J. C. Harrington (1901 to 1998), the archaeologist best known for his work at Jamestown and often called the father of American historical archaeology, writes on the excavations at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island, which preserves the site of the English colonies of the 1580s, and on the restoration of the fort. Published in 1984 by the state's America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee; 36 illustrated pages with a bibliography.

    Subjects in the Library of Congress catalog record: Fort Raleigh (N.C.); Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (N.C.); Roanoke Colony OCPL call number: NC 975.617 HAR
  • Background reading · Rebecca Wall Collection The Role of Native Americans in Military Engagements: From the 17th Century to the 19th Century 2018

    Seven essays, edited by Karen L. T. Ackermann, on Native peoples at war from the 1600s to the 1800s: the Lenape against Dutch and Swedish colonists, Mohawk fighting with New France, Governor Willem Kieft's war on the Wiechquaeskeck, the 1694 destruction of Oyster River plantation, the battle at Captina Creek, Andrew Jackson's campaigns and removal, and the St. Albert Mounted Rifles. First published in 2003; reprinted in 2018, 240 pages with maps.

    Subjects in the Library of Congress catalog record: Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1600-1750; Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1815-1875 OCPL call number: NC 970.004 ROLE
  • Background reading · Rebecca Wall Collection Index to the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory United States · 2003

    The name index to the Dawes Commission's final rolls of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole nations, approved in March 1907. Roll by roll, beginning with the Choctaws by blood, names run alphabetically with the roll number and page that lead to each entry, and lists of errata and corrections come first. First printed in 1907; reprinted in 2003, 634 pages.

    Subjects in the OCPL catalog record: Indians of North America -- Indian Territory -- Indexes; Five Civilized Tribes -- Indexes; Cherokee Indians OCPL call number: NC 970.004 UNITED

Search the Wall Collection for related books →

Related themes

Black Life & Civil Rights →Work, Labor & Industry →Women's Lives & History →Health, Medicine & Care →

Picture: Public domain. Image credits →

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026