Virginia Indians Today
Monacan Indian Nation
The Monacan Indian Nation of Virginia is composed of about 1,400 people, located in the
Amherst County area near Lynchburg and
recognized as a tribe by the Commonwealth of
Virginia. 
Their culture in this region dates back
10,000 years, and the original territory of the tribe comprised roughly half of the state of Virginia, including most of the Piedmont region. The Monacan Nation is one of the oldest groups of indigenous people still existing in their ancestral homeland and the only group of Eastern Siouans in the state.
Scientists believe that the Siouan people were unified at one time, thousands of years ago, in the Ohio River Valley, and that the tribes moved both east and west, separating into the Eastern and Western Sioux. Monacan Indians spoke a language related to other Eastern Siouan tribes, such as the Catawba and the Waccamaw. They are closely related to the Occaneechi and Saponi tribes, now located in North Carolina.
For thousands of years, the Monacan people buried the remains of their dead in sacred mounds constructed for this purpose. Scientists have documented thirteen mounds ranging through the Blue Ridge and Piedmont regions of Virginia, similarly constructed and dating back more than a thousand years.
St. Paul's Episcopal Mission at Bear Mountain is the site of their ancestral museum and cultural center. The Episcopal Diocese returned the land on which the tribal center sits to the Monacan Nation in 1995, ending nearly a century of church-control over a small tract held sacred by the Monacans. Since that time, the tribe has purchased more than 100 acres on Bear Mountain and has obtained two other parcels of land in the area. Tribal members have begun a cultural education program, an Elders program, and a tribal scholarship fund. They have obtained numerous grants to fund their projects, and they have established a unique partnership with Natural Bridge to build an interpretive village representing Monacan culture in the 1700s.
The tribe holds an annual Pow Wow in May of each year, and a Homecoming event on the first Saturday of October.
State recognized: February 14, 1989
Contact Information:
Chief Kenneth Branham
Monacan Tribal Office
P.O. Box 1136
Madison Heights, VA 24572
Visit their Web site at http://www.monacannation.com.
