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The Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan-language American Indians in northern Virginia at the time of European contact. They numbered approximately 1,000 and lived primarily along the Rappahannock River west of modern Fredericksburg and the fall line, and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They united with the Monacan, the Occaneechi, the Saponi and the Tutelo. They disappeared from the historical record after 1728. According to William W. Tooker, the name Manahoac is Algonquian for "they are very merry", but anthropologist John R. Swanton considers this dubious.〔 ==History== After thousands of years of different indigenous cultures in present-day Virginia, the Manahoac and other Piedmont tribes developed from the prehistoric Woodland cultures. Historically the Siouan tribes occupied more of the Piedmont area, and the Algonquian-speaking tribes inhabited the lowlands and Tidewater. In 1608 the English explorer John Smith met with a sizable group of Manahoac above the falls of the Rappahannock River. He recorded that they were living in at least seven villages to the west of where he had met them. He also noted that they were allied with the Monacan, but opposed to the Powhatan. (The historic Manahoac and Monacan tribes were both Siouan-speaking, which gave them some shared culture and was part of the reason they competed with the Algonquian-speaking tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy.) As the Beaver Wars upset the balance of power, some Manahoac settled in Virginia near the Powhatans. In 1656, these Manahoac fended off an attack by English and Pamunkey, resulting in the 1656 Battle of Bloody Run. By the 1669 census, because of raids by enemy Iroquois tribes from the north (during the Beaver Wars) and probably infectious disease from European contact, the Manahoac were reduced to only fifty bowmen in their former area. Their surviving people apparently joined their Monacan allies to the south immediately afterward. John Lederer recorded the "Mahock" along the James River in 1670. In 1671 Lederer passed directly through their former territory and made no mention of any inhabitants. Around the same time, the Seneca nation of the Iroquois began to claim the land as their hunting grounds by right of conquest, though they did not occupy it. 〔〔Fairfax Harrison, 1924, ''Landmarks of Old Prince William'', p. 25, 33.〕 In 1714, Lt. Governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood recorded that the Stegaraki subtribe of the Manahoac was present at Fort Christanna in Brunswick County. The fort was created by Spotswood and sponsored by the College of William and Mary to convert natives to Christianity and teach them the English language. The other known Siouan tribes of Virginia were all represented by members at Fort Christanna. The anthropologist John Swanton believed that a group at Fort Christanna, called the Mepontsky, were perhaps the ''Ontponea'' subtribe of the Manahoac. The last mention of the Ontponea in historic records was in 1723. Scholars believe they joined with the Tutelo and Saponi and became absorbed into their tribes. In 1753, these two tribes were formally adopted in New York by their former enemies, the Iroquois, specifically the Cayuga nation. In 1870, there was a report of a "merry old man named Mosquito" living in Canada, who claimed to be "the last of the Manahoac" and the legal owner of much of Northern Virginia. He still remembered how to speak the Siouan language.〔Harrison, p. 34.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Manahoac」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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