Orange County Courthouse Mural

Indigenous History

The history of Indigenous people who have inhabited the land we now call the North Carolina Piedmont – including present-day Orange County and Hillsborough – is deep. It is a story – many stories – that cannot be done full justice in this space. This brief essay intends to provide a short introductory look at Indigenous history in the Piedmont region by means of the three representations of Indigenous history – a Clovis point spearhead, Eno-Shakori chief Eno Will, and an Occaneechi village scene – that are included in the courthouse mural. These three representations have been grouped together under this theme of “Indigenous History” because they each provide a glimpse into aspects of Indigenous culture and history in this geographic space. Please visit the sources and further reading included below, as well as those included on the pages of the three individual item descriptions, to learn more.

Archaeologists estimate that people have been living on the land we now know as the North Carolina Piedmont for thousands of years. Through archaeological dating techniques used with found artifacts such as Clovis points and Hardaway points, archaeologists believe that these early people groups, known as Paleo-Americans, were living in the Piedmont area by 9500 BCE. These Paleo-Americans were likely hunters and gatherers who lived in family groups and bands and traveled from place to place, moving their possessions with them, with the changing of the seasons. Over time, the climate and environment of the Piedmont experienced changes; so too did the cultures and lifeways of these early Indigenous peoples evolve.

Around 1000 CE, Indigenous peoples living in the Piedmont began farming – particularly crops such as corn, beans, and squash – and developing agricultural lifeways. This led to the establishment of larger and more semi-permanent settlements. Many of the Indigenous peoples in the Piedmont were Souian, including tribes such as the Tutelo, the Eno, the Saponi, the Occaneechi, the Shakori, and the Keyauwee. The Tuscarora, an Iroquoian tribe, also lived in the Piedmont area. Several Souian villages, dating from about 1000 to about 1700, were located on the Eno River near present-day Hillsborough. Although established in locations near each other along the Eno, these villages were not occupied at the same time, nor continuously occupied, during this time period of approximately 700 years. These villages included homes, central squares, defensive fortifications, cemeteries and burial sites, and Indigenous and European objects and tools such as pottery, knives, pipes, and glass and brass ornaments. The latest of these villages, called Occaneechi Town, was visited by Eno-Shakori chief Eno Will and English explorer and surveyor John Lawson in 1701. Continued conflict with European colonists, including warfare and disease, pushed the Occaneechi from this land near the Eno in the 18th century. They joined a confederation of Indigenous nations, known as the Saponi confederation, that included the Saponi, the Eno, the Tutelo, and others.

From the mid-1700s onwards, members of the Saponi confederation migrated to what are now parts of Virginia and the Midwest, as well as to other parts of the South. Today, members of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN), descendants of the Saponi, continue to live in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, residing in Alamance County as well as in Orange County. OBSN is “continuously committed to the preservation, protection and promotion of” their “history, culture and traditions … providing social, economic and educational resources, opportunities and services that will contribute to the well being of the tribal community” (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, n.d.). The Occaneechi Tribe Land Acknowledgement, created by the OBSN Tribal Council, is “used to recognize the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories” (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, n.d.):

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the land of the Eno, Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, and Shakori Native people.

We are gathered today on land that was traditionally part of the territory of the Saponi people, in the Piedmont of what is now the state of North Carolina. This area is not far from the “Great Trading Path”, used by both the native people of this area and non-native peoples during the early years of contact. The Saponi people, whose descendants include the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation Indian Tribe still thrive and live in this region, officially recognized by the state government of North Carolina.

We pay respect to their elders past and present. The Occaneechi People (The Ye’sah), ask that you will keep these thoughts in mind, while here on their ancestral lands and treat it with the respect, love, and care that their Ancestors did, and as the Occaneechi Saponi people do so today (OBSN Tribal Council).