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Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path

The village on the Eno that John Lawson visited in 1701, and the trading path that ran through it.

In briefOccaneechi 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.

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43 works about Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path are indexed here. 3 held at OCPL →

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The Occaneechi village reconstruction at Hillsborough
The Occaneechi village reconstruction at Hillsborough

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Episodes in this history, in date order. Each has its own page.

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.

Other events in this storyline, in date order. See these 63 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 Great Trading Path across the Eno becomes the settlers' wagon road The Indian route that Virginia traders had used since the 1670s crossed the Flat and Little rivers, forded the Eno at the place where the county town was laid out, and crossed the Haw near Swepsonville. After colonists reached the Piedmont in the mid eighteenth century the path was widened into a wagon road, and it is drawn on the colonial maps of Moseley, Collet and Mouzon. Place: Orange CountySearch the index · NCpedia: Great Trading Path
Show all 63 dated events
  1. Bishop Spangenberg's party travels the Trading Path across the new Orange County Seeking land for the Moravians, Bishop Spangenberg set out from Edenton with the surveyor William Churton and followed the Trading Path from near present Warrenton to the Yadkin. His travel schedule names stages at Sennett's, eight miles beyond Patrick Bogin's, and Maprin's, eighteen miles on, then the Haw River eight miles farther and a Dutchman's fifteen miles past it. Rights identified these as Sinnott's mill east of Hillsborough, the Mebane place on the Haw Fields road, and the ford near present Swepsonville. People: William Churton Place: Trading Path through Orange County, Sinnott's mill to the Haw River ford · Also named: Bishop SpangenbergSearch the index · Internet Archive: Douglas L. Rights, "The Trading Path to the Indians", North Carolina Historical Review 8 (1931), p. 407
  2. 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
  3. 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
  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. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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)
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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)
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. 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
  28. 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)
  29. 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
  30. 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
  31. 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
  32. 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)
  33. 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
  34. 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
  35. 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)
  36. 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
  37. 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
  38. 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)
  39. 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)
  40. A county survey proposes a St. Mary's Road rural historic district With a state Certified Local Government grant won in late 1998, Orange County hired GAI Consultants to survey six miles of St. Mary's Road from US 70 to the Durham line. Its August 1999 report recorded 20 historic places and recommended a rural historic district along the old Trading Path route. Place: St. Mary's Road (SR 1002), east of HillsboroughSearch the index · NC Historic Preservation Office: Geoffrey B. Henry (GAI Consultants), Architectural Survey and National Register Evaluation of St. Mary's Road (S.R. 1002), Orange County (1999)
  41. 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)
  42. 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)
  43. 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
  44. 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)
  45. 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
  46. 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
  47. 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)
  48. 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
  49. 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)
  50. 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
  51. 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

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

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 →

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

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 13Genealogy 6Photographs & portraits 6Periodicals 3Indexes 2other types 4

Period

19th century 120th century 2

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 23Hillsborough 18Orange County 17Durham County (neighboring) 5Alamance County (neighboring) 3Carrboro 2

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

Hillsborough's Representation of History and the Incorporation of the Occaneechi Story

Smith, Lisa A. · 1994 · University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lisa A. Smith's 1994 paper on how Hillsborough presents its past and how the story of the Occaneechi, the Native people whose town stood on the Eno near Hillsborough around 1700, has been brought into that public history. 47 leaves, filmed by the University of North Carolina Library on a microfilm reel with two other items.

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

UNC

The Historic Occaneechi: an archaeological investigation of culture change : final report of 1986 investigations

1987

Microfilm copy of one of the Research Laboratories of Anthropology reports on the mid-1980s excavations at the Occaneechi Town site near Hillsborough, dated 15 May 1986 and later numbered research report 4. The work was funded by a National Geographic Society grant, and the reel, filmed by the University of North Carolina Library, reproduces 171 leaves including a bibliography.

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

UNC NC State

The Historic Occaneechi: An Archaeological Investigation of Culture Change (Final Report)

Dickens, Roy S. · 1986

Roy S. Dickens's final report on the 1986 excavations at the Occaneechi Town site on the Eno River near Hillsborough, prepared by the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina and dated May 1987. Funded by a National Geographic Society grant and later numbered as the laboratories' research report 8, it covers the archaeology of the Occaneechi and culture change at the site. 171 leaves with illustrations, maps and a bibliography.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Occaneechi Indians.

NC Cardinal UNC NC State

Bean Woman

Wynters, Criss · 2024

Criss Wynters's children's book retelling an Occaneechi folk story, published in 2024. Its Orange County connection is the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, based in the northern part of the county.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Occaneechi Indians -- Folklore -- Juvenile Literature.

✓ Held at OCPL · J 398.208 WYNTERS

Siempre aqu̕i

Rojas-Patino, Alegr̕a · 2024

Alegría Rojas-Patino's bilingual Spanish and English graphic novel for young adults, published in 2024. This science fiction story of time travel is set in Durham, North Carolina, with Occaneechi people, cicadas and extraterrestrial beings among its elements. The Occaneechi town site lies on the Eno near Hillsborough in Orange County.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Occaneechi Indians -- Fiction.

Durham Chapel Hill PL
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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 NC State record: Occaneechi Indians.

UNC NC State

In the Heart of Tradition: The Eight State-Recognized Tribes of North Carolina

Knick, Stanley G. · 2005 · Native American Resource Center, UNC Pembroke

A 29-minute documentary video on the eight state-recognized Indian tribes of North Carolina and the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, produced in 2005 by the Native American Resource Center at UNC Pembroke with Stanley G. Knick. Among the tribes covered are the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, whose home ground includes northern Orange County, along with the Lumbee, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Meherrin, Waccamaw and Eastern Band of Cherokee. One DVD, sound and color.

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

UNC

Red, White and Black: Race Formation and the Politics of American Indian Recognition in North Carolina

Nowell, Jeremiah James, Jr. · 2000

Jeremiah James Nowell Jr.'s 2000 study of race formation and the politics of American Indian recognition in North Carolina, with the Occaneechi people, whose present-day band is based in Orange and Alamance counties, among its subjects. Topics include the political, economic and social conditions of Native peoples in the state. xvii and 313 leaves with illustrations and maps.

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

UNC

Political Legitimization of Native American Identity Among the Occaneechi People

Morrow, Christina D. · 1999

Christina D. Morrow's 1999 study of how the Occaneechi people of North Carolina have sought political recognition of their Native American identity, 81 leaves. Subjects include the Occaneechi Indians of North Carolina, with the many variant spellings of the tribe's name from Acconeechy to Okenechee. The Occaneechi community today is centered near Hillsborough and Mebane, which gives the study its Orange County connection.

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

UNC

Excavating Occaneechi Town: Archaeology of an Eighteenth-Century Indian Village in North Carolina

Davis, R. P. Stephen, Jr.; Livingood, Patrick C.; Ward, H. Trawick; Steponaitis, Vincas P. · 1998 · University of North Carolina Press

A CD-ROM publication from UNC Press (1998) presenting the archaeology of Occaneechi Town, the eighteenth-century Occaneechi village on the Eno River at Hillsborough known to archaeologists as the Fredericks site, excavated by UNC archaeologists. Text, images and data describe and interpret what was found, and an 'Electronic Dig' module lets students plan their own research strategy and work through the site themselves. Comes with an eight-page guide; requires a PC.

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

UNC Duke Durham

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.

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

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 970.4 HAZEL

Search all 43 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this storyline. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this storyline 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 497.52 SAPIR Minor Vocabularies of Tutelo and Saponi Sapir, Edward · 2022

    Tutelo, a Siouan language once spoken in Virginia and North Carolina, is recorded here in two vocabularies of about fifty words each, printed in 1913 and both gathered in Ontario: Leo Frachtenberg's from Lucy Buck, an elderly Tutelo woman, in 1907, and Edward Sapir's from Andrew Sprague, a Cayuga who had heard Tutelo as a child, in 1911. Seven Saponi place-names noted by William Byrd in 1728 are added. First issued in 2002; reprinted 2022.

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  • 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.

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this storyline. Research guide: Follow an event across several accounts.

Background 10

Show all 10

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time 5

Collections and databases

Local help

Related themes

Families, Land & Genealogy →UNC & Campus Life →Buildings & Preservation →From West End to Carrboro: railroad, mills, and a new town, 1882–1913 →

Picture: The Occaneechi village reconstruction at Hillsborough. CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph by Gaurav; via Wikimedia Commons

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