Племя Халива-Сапони: история и современность

State recognized tribe in North Carolina, United States
They are headquartered in Hollister, North Carolina. In 1979 the tribe added Saponi to their name to reflect their descent from the historical Saponi peoples, part of the large Siouan languages family, who were formerly located in the Piedmont of present day Virginia and the Carolinas.

The Haliwa Saponi comprise slightly more than 3,800 members. About 80 percent of tribal members reside within a 6 mile radius of the small unincorporated town of Hollister, in Halifax and Warren counties. Some tribal members are also located in Nash and Franklin counties.

The Haliwa Saponi Indian Tribe is governed by an 11 member council elected to three year staggered terms by the members of the tribe. These include an elected chief and vice chief.

The state of North Carolina recognized the Haliwa Saponi Tribe in 1965. They are not a federally recognized as a Native American tribe. In 2022, North Carolina representative G. K. Butterfield introduced House Resolution 9536, which voices support for federal recognition for the Haliwa Saponi Indian Tribe of North Carolina. He had introduced a similar bill in 2021 which died.

Members founded the Haliwa Saponi Tribal School in 1957, which was assisted by the state as a public school. All other public schools had long been segregated as white or black (all people of color) under state law, and the Haliwa Saponi claimed a separate identity. The school closed in the late 1960s following the court ordered integration of public schools on constitutional grounds. In 1999, with funds from the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the tribe established a charter school in the same building as the earlier tribal school. Focused on Haliwa Saponi culture, this new school has expanded in space and enrollment over time, and by 2007 served grades K 12. In 1977 the tribe established the Haliwa Saponi Day Care Center, to serve children aged two to five. The tribe manages a myriad of programs and services for its members, including, but not limited to, housing, substance abuse prevention programs, cultural programs and others.

The Haliwa Saponi claim descent from the Tuscarora, Nansemond, and Saponi a Siouan speaking Native American tribe of North America's Southeastern Piedmont.

By the beginning of the century, continuous warfare with the Haudenosaunee and, especially, repeated outbreaks of infectious diseases contracted from Europeans reduced the once populous Saponi. Joining with the Tottero, the Saponi migrated to northeastern North Carolina to be closer to the center of Virginia's colonial trade and gradually became allied with the colonists. In 1711, the Carolina colony went to war with the powerful Iroquoian speaking Tuscarora, in part because the latter resisted Indian slavery. With the defeat of the Tuscarora two years later, the colony and its allied Saponi met in Williamsburg with the Tuscarora and Nottoway to discuss the terms of peace. Most of the Tuscarora migrated from Carolina to present day New York, where by 1722 they were adopted as the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, to whom they were related by language and culture. The Saponi entered into a new treaty of trade with Virginia's governor, Alexander Spotswood. On February 27, 1714, the Virginia colony reached an agreement. The remnants of the Saponi, Tottero, Occaneechi, Keyauwee, Enoke (or Eno), and Shakori formally coalesced, becoming "The Saponi Nation." Another band, the Stuckanox, soon joined the Saponi Nation. Despite the success in treaty making and tribal coalitions, the years between 1709 and 1714 were extremely difficult. Disease caused continuing population decline. Travelers enumerated the Saponi Nation at a little more than 300 people. That same year, the Virginia Council asked the Nansemond tribe to merge with the Saponi to strengthen their settlements. They hoped these people could create a buffer between Virginia's plantation settlements, other Southeastern Siouan Piedmont Native Americans, and the Haudenosaunee from the North.

To strengthen Virginia's borders, Alexander Spotswood convinced the colonial Board of Trade to approve the establishment of Fort Christanna between the Roanoke and Meherrin rivers, about thirty two miles north of the present day Haliwa Saponi powwow grounds. Fort Christanna was built to protect the Virginia colony in two critical ways: as a bulwark intended to ward off the military assault, and as a center for the Christian conversion and education of the Saponi and other Southeastern groups. Fort Christanna also served as a major trading post for the corporate Virginia Indian Company.

Roughly 70 Saponi children were educated and converted to Christianity at Fort Christanna by the missionary teacher Charles Griffin of North Carolina. By 1717, under charges of monopoly, the Colonial Board of Trade lost interest in the Fort and ordered the Virginia Indian Company to disband and dissolve. The Saponi Nation continued to maintain peaceful trade relations with the colony. A portion of the Saponi Nation continued living in the Fort Christanna area from 1717 to 1729. Another group of Saponi migrated into northern Virginia, near Fredericksburg on the Rapahannock River. Historians Marvin Richardson and C. S. Everett note historical documentation for the modern Haliwa Saponi tribe as descending from a group that arose during the 1730s, a tumultuous time of decline of the Indian trade. The divisive Tuscarora and Yamasee wars affected colonists, Native Americans and Indian trade in Virginia and the Carolinas. The families are known to be descendants of and closely associated into the core Richardson, Silver, Mills, Evans, Hedgepeth and Lynch families. Most Haliwa Saponi Indians trace direct lineage to Benjamin Richardson ( the core Richardson family consisting of Emily Richardson & Frank Richardson, Mason Richardson, Rhease Richardson, Eliza Silver, Alfred & Hardie Richardson), Martha Silver, Patsy Lynch ( Mother of Charles Lynch), James Evans, Stephen Hedgepeth, Nathan Mills & others. From the 1730s to the 1770s, Haliwa Saponi ancestors settled in and near the modern Haliwa Saponi area in North Carolina. The Haliwa Saponi community began coalescing in "The Meadows" of southwestern Halifax County, North Carolina immediately after the American Revolution. They changed their name in 1979 to include a reference to the historic Saponi. They are headquartered in Hollister, North Carolina. In 1956, the Haliwa Saponi joined the National Congress of American Indians.

In 1953, the tribe re organized its government into the current structure, through the leadership of Hedgepeth, Lonnie Richardson, B. B. Richardson, Chief Jerry Richardson (First Chief under the new governance structure), Percy Richardson (Second Chief under the new governance structure, who also served as the first Vice Chief after the reorganization), with W. R. Richardson the Third Chief of the tribe, James Mills, Theadore Lynch, and others. After the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. The Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, the state undertook resistance by what was called the Pearsall Plan, which allowed municipalities to make funds available to create private neighborhood schools. In 1967 the Haliwa opened their tenth annual Haliwa Pow wow to the public, inviting state and local officials and Indians from other states. They added Saponi to the tribal name in 1979 to reflect their Siouan ancestry. In 1974, the Haliwa Saponi formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its mission statement is "The mission of the Haliwa Saponi indian Tribe is to protect the interests, identity, and rights of the Haliwa Saponi indian people and to promote the cultural and traditional heritage of the Haliwa Saponi people of Halifax, Warren, and surrounding counities." because HUD does not allow Indian Housing Block Grant funds for projects rejected by tribes. Testing irregularities in the 2010 11 academic year at Haliwa Saponi Tribal School resulted in 9 student's biology test scores being invalidated and Haliwa Saponi Tribal School Principal Chenoa Davis resigning. Community members expressed concerns related to the investigation during a meeting of the school board. Ronald Richardson, tribal chief of the Haliwa Saponi, said that the tribe should work out its own problems without newspaper publicity. School board Chairman Gideon Lee declined to identify the teacher in question who downloaded state biology test information, but said that action has been taken against those determined to be involved. When Professor Robert K. Thomas visited with the Haliwa in the Summer of 1978, the founders and members never mentioned the word "Saponi", instead calling their ancestry "Cherokee". In Cherokee Communities of the South, the only family of Saponi found among North Carolina was the Collins family (unrelated to the Haliwa).

The Haliwa Saponi hosts an annual powwow on the third weekend in April on the dance grounds at the Haliwa Saponi Tribal School. They launched it in 1965 to celebrate their state recognition. Originating on the Great Plains, the powwow "also builds on local and regional values, and ideas about tribe, community and race." Held the third weekend of April, the pow wow is funded in part by ad sales, donations, corporate funding and gate receipts, in addition to grants from the North Carolina Arts Council. The tribe operates a cultural retention program for tribal citizens of all ages, held at the tribe's multi purpose building. The program includes instruction in pottery, beadwork/regalia design and construction, dance/drum classes, and Haliwa Saponi history, as well as day trips to culturally relevant locations.