Orange County NC Website
RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT <br />FOR <br />STATE RECOGNITION <br />4 <br />WHEREAS, the ancestors of the Occaneechi-Saponi. were an ancient people-who <br />collectively called themselves Yesah or the people who originally came from <br />lands to the west, over the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains in an area <br />known today as the Ohio River Valley, and <br />WHEREAS, nearly one thousand years ago, the Yesah came under attack from a <br />powerful enemy and were forced to migrate over the mountains to their-east <br />and settle in what is now. the piedmont of Virginia and North Carolina, and <br />WHEREAS, as a result of their power, the influence of the Occaneechi and <br />of the Yesah peoples were spread far and wide and both the general language <br />of trade and the rituals of the Indigenous religion of the region were <br />spoken in the Occaneechi dialect, and- <br />WHEREAS, in May of the year 1676, the independence of the Occaneechi and of <br />the Yesah peoples came to an abrupt end, when Nathaniel Bacon led his <br />militia into the land of the Occaneechi in the spring of the year and <br />forced a fight which ultimately broke the power of the tribe and scattered <br />the Yesah people, and <br />WHEREAS,, after being attacked by Bacon's militia, the Occaneechi were <br />forced south and settled along the Eno River near present day Hillsborough, <br />North Carolina, and <br />WHEREAS, in 1713, the colony of Virginia and Great Britain signed a treaty <br />of peace with the Yesah and the Occaneechi returned to Virginia where. they <br />were joined by their cousins the Saponi, Tutelo, Stuckanocks, and <br />Meiponsky, and. <br />WHEREAS, all the tribes joined together and adopted the name of the Saponi <br />and were thereafter-known as the Saponi Nation, and <br />WHEREAS, by the mid 1700's the tribe had resettled in what is now <br />Greensville, Brunswick, Mecklenburg and Northampton counties on the <br />Virginia/North Caroilna border, and <br />WHEREAS, they stayed there until the 1780's when in response to increasing <br />pressure. from neighboring whites, the community began moving back to the <br />area near the Eno River where they had once lived, settling in the <br />northeast section of Alamance County and adjoining Orange County and <br />WHEREAS, since that time, some of the people moved to Ohio and Indiana but <br />the bulk of the Saponi people remained in "Little Texas" forming an <br />independent Indian community which-was based on small scale farming, and <br />WHEREAS, the Saponi people formally reorganized in 1984 as the Eno- <br />Occaneechi Indian Association, Inc., with a Tribal Board of Directors which <br />represents the tribe at the Local, State and National level and which deals <br />with problems facing the community, and . <br />WHEREAS, in February of 1995, the Tribal Board of Directors voted to amend <br />the name of the tribe to the OCCANEECHI BAND OF THE SAPONI NATION <br />to more accurately reflect the ancestry of the tribe. <br />NOW, THEREFORE, THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS does hereby <br />recognize the OCCANEECHI BAND OF THE SAPONI NATION as a Native American <br />tribe indigenous to Orange County and <br />FURTHERMORE, THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS does hereby support <br />the OCCANEECHI SAND OF THE SAPONI NATION in their request for recognition <br />from the State of North Carolina. <br />This the 4th day of December, 1995. <br />