Native American Tribe Series
Sappony
Also spelled Sapponi and later referred to as the Person County Indians, they are an eastern Siouan tribe, who have long lived in North Carolina and Virginia. Their language appears to have been the same as the Tutelo to the extent that the people of the two tribes could readily understand each other. They were engaged in war with the Virginia settlers as early as 1654-56, the time of the attack by the Cherokee, probably in alliance with them. They were first mentioned by explorer, John Lederer in 1670 who placed them on a tributary of the upper Roanoke River. At that time, they were living with the Tutelo, but later when they were harassed by the Iroquis Indians, they moved to the junction of Staunton and Dan Rivers, where they settled in what is now Mecklenburg County, Virginia. By 1740, most of the tribe they had traveled northward to Pennsylvania and in 1753, the Cayuga tribe formally adopted the Sapony and Tutelo. Having become a part of the Six Nations, they later resettled in New York. When the Tutelo fled to Canada around 1770, they parted with the Saponny and what became of them afterward is not known. It appears, however, from a treaty made with the Cayuga at Albany in 1780, that a remnant was still living with this tribe on Seneca River in New York. However, of those Sappony who did not travel with the rest when they went north, they continued live in the the central Piedmont area straddling the North Carolina-Virginia border.
Today, there are 850 members of the federally recognized Sappony tribe, with a reservation on the North Carolina-Virginia border in the area of Christie Store. They established an Indian church in the 1830s and an Indian school, High Plains School, that was in use from 1888 until 1962. They were also known for the unusual occurence of blue and grey eye color in many of their people. Local legend has it that they might be a mixed remnant of the Lost Colony; however, the Sappony themselves do not comment on this legend.
Mondo's NAT #492 - Sappony
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