Monacan Indian Village comes to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley

Monacan Indian Village comes to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley

Monacans return to their sacred site, the Natural Bridge, to reclaim their cultural heritage and share the recovered pieces with the world.

At their Living History Center - a Monacan Indian Village, visitors can journey back 300 years. This fun and inspiring family-oriented living history center lets visitors meet and talk with Monacan Indians in period appropriate dress, and see first-hand how Woodland Indians lived.

Modern-day Monacans began constructing the village beyond the Natural Bridge in 1999. The interpretive program began this spring. Also on-site are caverns, a wax museum, hotel and conference center, and restaurants.

"The entire village is a demonstration," says the program director. Visitors are encouraged to assist with tool-making, gardening and meal preparation, rope-making, weaving, canoe building, hide tanning, shelter construction, and more.

"The village is a work in progress," says the Interpretive History Director, Dean Ferguson. "Daily activities will change with the seasons. Coming during different seasons means seeing different activities and an expanding village," he says. The present-day Tribe views their village as a monument to the Monacan Indian Nation, communicating yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Legend of the Natural Bridge

According to legend, the Monacan Indians discovered the Bridge while under attack by Algonquin tribes. When the Monacans reached the chasm of Cedar Creek without a visible way to cross over, they knelt down and prayed for the Great Spirit to protect them. When they arose from praying, the Bridge had appeared. Women and children crossed to safety. With renewed strength and courage, the men followed but not until after they met and defeated the Algonquins. Today, the span of the massive 215-foot tall Natural Bridge, once owned by Thomas Jefferson, carries Route 11 across a mountain gap.

Before colonists arrived, the Monacans roamed the areas of Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas. Their original territory comprised almost half of Virginia. One of Virginia’s oldest groups of indigenous people, Monacans were agricultural people who were proficient at farming, hunting, fishing, mining and trading copper, basket- and pottery making. According to Ferguson, no one else is interpreting the history of the Southwestern Piedmont Indians, yet Monacan history, dating back 10,000 years, is an important part of Virginia’s history,.

The Monocans first encountered Europeans in 1608 in the form of Captain John Smith who, in his notes, identified 5 Monacan villages on the James River and others on the Rappahannock River. Thomas Jefferson excavated a burial mound near his land in Charlottesville, now identified as Monacan. Archaeology identifies a continuous line of Late Woodland (1600s) Monacan sites on the James and Rappahannock rivers and near the town of Columbia in Amherst County.

Peter Houck and Mintcy Maxham in their recent book, Indian Island in Amherst County, say that white settlement plus a series of events combined with English and Virginia laws to write the Monacans off the books and onto a "hit list." To survive, many fled north and westward. Those remaining purchased land on Bear Mountain and formed a small community. By the 20th century the families lost their land and claim to both their white and Indian heritage. Not permitted to exist as "Indians" under the Virginia Racial Integrity Law of 1924, the Monacans became Virginia’s forgotten people.

In 1989, Virginia finally acknowledged the Monacans as the State’s eighth officially Recognized Tribe. The Monacans raised funds to re-purchase land on ancestral Bear Mountain. The Monacan Ancestral Museum Heritage Foundation continues fundraising to grow the museum. The 1870s log cabin that operated as a church and school for the Indians is now a National Historic Landmark. Through their pow wows, museum, and now a village, Monacans strive to bridge their lost past with the future.

Natural Bridge is located on Route 11, 2 miles off 1-81 exit 175 or 180; follow signs to Natural Bridge.

Information: Natural Bridge of Virginia, (800)533-1410; e-mail: Natbrg@aol.com; www.naturalbridgeva.com