Nottaway

Categories: Native American tribes

The Nottatway were an Iroquoian tribe formerly residing on the river of the same name in south east Virginia. They call themselves Cheroenkhaka and were known to the neighboring Algonquian tribes as Mangoac (Mengwe) and Nottoway or Nadowa ('adders') which is a common Algonquian name for the tribes of alien stock. Although never prominent in history they kept up their organization long after the other tribes of the region were practically extinct. As late as 1825 they still numbered 47, with a "queen" on a reservation in Southampton County. Linguistically they were closely related to Tuscarora, however, the language, has been almost entirely lost-known only from a few scanty wordlists jotted down 200 years ago. Descendents of the Nottoway still live today, not only in Virginia but also in Wisconsin and Canada where some of their ancestors fled in the 18th century.