Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation
State-recognized tribe in North Carolina, United States
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The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina.[3]
Official seal of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation | |
| Named after | Occaneechi and Saponi people, Eno River[1] |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1984,[1] 1996 (nonprofit)[2] |
| Type | state-recognized tribe,[3] nonprofit organization[2] |
| Tax ID no. | EIN 56-1906889[2] |
| Legal status | Arts, culture, and humanities nonprofit, charity[2] |
| Purpose | A23: Cultural, Ethnic Awareness[2] |
| Location | |
| Members | 2,000+[4] (2018) |
Official language | English |
President | Vickie Jeffries[4] |
| Website | obsn |
They first formed as the Eno Occaneechi Indian Association in 1984[1] but changed their name in 1994.[5][6] They claim descent from the historic Occaneechi, Saponi, and other eastern Siouan language-speaking Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia.
The tribe maintains an office in Mebane,[2] where it carries out programs to benefit more than 2,000 members.[4] John "Blackfeather" Jeffries (d. 2023) of Hillsborough, North Carolina, served as chairperson for many years.[7]
History
Historical tribes
Limited documentation exists linking members of the tribe to the historical Occaneechi and Saponi tribes. After warfare in the Southeast in the 18th century, most of the remaining Saponi tribe members went north. In 1740, Saponi migrated to Shamokin in Pennsylvania to join the Haudenosaunee Confederacy where they would have protection from the other League members.[8][9] In 1711, the majority of Saponi migrated with their Cayuga guardians to near Ithaca, New York, while some remained in Pennsylvania until 1778.[10] After the American Revolution, they fled with the rest of the Haudenosaunee to Canada, as they were allies of the British.[citation needed]
Modern history
Families ancestral to the Occaneechi Band were previously referred to as Portuguese and Croatan. They descend from the "Texas Settlement" of 1820, a triracial settlement in North Carolina.[11] Academic J. Lorand Matory states the predecessors of the Occaneechi Band are the result of internal splits within triracial isolate families.[12] Some families ancestral to the Band are the Jeffries, Bunch, Haitcock, Whitmore, Steward, and Watkin families.[13] Members of the "Texas Community" petitioned for a separate school from the local Black school in 1930s, but were rejected by Alamance County.[14][a] Noting their dress and dance forms were borrowed from Plains Indians, Matory proposes they utilized powwows as a method to perform their worthiness to be recognized as Native American.[15]
Nonprofit organization
In 1996, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization,[2] and Vickie Jeffries serves as the organization's principal officer.[16] Its mission is "to bring awareness and recognition of the Occaneechi Indians."[16]
State-recognition
The state of North Carolina formalized its recognition process for Native American tribes and created the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs (NCCIA) in 1971.[17] In January 1990, as the Eno Occaneechi Indian Association, the Occaneechi Band petitioned the NCCIA for state recognition but in 1995, the NCCIA's recognition committee denied recognition to the organization on lack of evidence of its connection to the historical tribes it claimed.[18][5] The committee's denial was based on the "petitioner's failure to meet the required five of eight criteria necessary for such recognition and their failure to establish heritage to an Indian tribe indigenous to North Carolina for at least the last 200 years."[5]
In 1996, Occaneechi Band "filed a petition for contested case hearing with the Office of Administrative Hearings" which precipitated a year and a half of mediation.[5] An administrative law judge recommended the NCCIA committee grant recognition to the Occaneechi Band.[5] The NCCIA recognition committee made its Final Agency Decision against state recognition in June 1999.[5] In August 1999, the Occaneechi Band petitioned the Orange County Superior Court, which ruled in favor of the NCCIA.[5]
In August 2001, Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs ruled in Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs that the commission had not rendered its Final Agency Decision within the allotted time frame, so the administrative law judge's recommendation held, and the Occaneechi Band was state recognized.[5][6]
Federal recognition
The Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation, represented by Lawrence Dunmore III, sent a letter of intent to petition for U.S. federal recognition as a Native American tribe in 1995, and the Eno-Occaneechi Tribe of Indians sent a letter in 1997;[19] however, neither submitted complete petitions to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[20]
Activities
The band purchased 24-acres of farmland, where its Homeland Preservation Project constructed a replica of Occaneechi Town, an 1880s-style farm, a 1930-style farm, a dance ground, and pavilion.[21] They rededicated the land in April 2022.[7] There they host their annual powwow on Dailey Store Road, ten miles (16 km) north of Mebane.[citation needed]