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Biographical Description

The Weyanoke were an American Indian tribe that traditionally resided along the present-day North Carolina-Virginia border near the confluence of the Nottoway and Blackwater Rivers. In fact, the Nottoway River was once called the Weyanoke in observance of the tribe's historical presence near that body of water. The tribe had contact with Virginia colonists in the early 17th century and may have been a tributary tribe of the Tscenacomoco, or Powhatan paramount chiefdom. The Weyanoke nation's power declined as the Virginias continued to move westward after the successive Anglo-Powhatan Wars throughout the first half of the 17th century and in 1677 the Weyanokes were one of the tribes that signed the Treaty of Middle Plnation in 1677, promising their tribe's loyalty to the English crown. The Weyanokes gradually disappears from written records, either dying from war and disease or from assimilation with the Nottoway, a nation that later took over the Weyanoke's traditional territory.

As of 2024, no federally or state recognized tribe claims direct lineage from the Weyanoke people.

For more information and links to resources, please see our editorial statement on American Indian terminology.

As Sender

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As Recipient

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