Monacan Indian Nation
Contact Information
P.O. Box 1136
Madison Heights, VA 24572
TEL: 434.946.0389
FAX: 434.946.0390
WEB: http://www.monacannation.com/
Chief: Kenneth Branham
History & Information
The Monacan Indian Nation is composed of about 1,700 tribal members, located in Amherst County and recognized as a tribe by the Commonwealth of Virginia on February 14, 1989. Native habitation in this region dates back more than 10,000 years, and the original territory of the tribe comprised more than half of the state of Virginia, including almost all of the piedmont region and parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Monacan Nation is one of the oldest groups of indigenous peoples still existing in their ancestral homeland, and the only group of Eastern Siouan people in the state.
Scientists believe that the Siouan-speaking people were unified at one time, thousands of years ago, in the Ohio River Valley, and that the tribes moved both east and west, separating into the Eastern and Western Siouan speakers. Monacan Indians spoke a language related to other Eastern Siouan tribes, such as the Tutelo. The Monacan are related to the Occaneechi and Saponi peoples now located in North Carolina, and they were affiliated with the Mannahoac, who occupied the northern piedmont in Virginia.
Traditionally, Monacan people buried the remains of their dead in sacred earthen mounds constructed over time. Thirteen such mounds have been found throughout the Blue Ridge and piedmont regions, similarly constructed, some more than a thousand years old. Thomas Jefferson observed several Indians visiting one of the mounds on his property in the 1700s. He later excavated the mound and became known as the father of American archaeology because he documented the findings.
St. Paul's Episcopal Mission at Bear Mountain is the site of the tribe's ancestral museum and cultural center. The Episcopal Diocese returned the land on which the tribal center sits to the Monacan Nation in 1995, ending nearly a century of church control over this small tract held sacred by Monacan people. Since that time, the tribe has purchased more than 100 acres on Bear Mountain and has obtained two other parcels of land in the same area. Tribal members have begun a cultural education program, an elders' program, and a tribal scholarship fund. They have obtained numerous grants to fund their projects and have restored their log cabin schoolhouse, circa 1870, which is now a registered National Historic Landmark.
The tribe holds its Annual Powwow in May of each year and its Homecoming Festival on the first Saturday in October. Both events are open to the public.