Machapunga

'The Machapunga, as a group, petitioned for more fair treatment where they had been hauled to from their NC home up to the Hog Island area across the James River. In the petition is Nicholas Daw signing as one of the group. They were Algonquian and most went to the Tuscorora who in 1703 had need for a translator, about the same time as the very well written Machapunga petition; so, the solution was to send the Machapunga over to the Tuscorora and that is how the Smithsonial List of Gilbert in 1945 gives the names of Daniels, Pugh, and Berry as the family names of said group. The Berry went to the Lumbar River group of former Croatans with their famous Henry Berry Lowrey. The Berry that went to Hollywood are Halle Berry and Tom Hanks who are kin to President Lincolm's Berry as his maternal line was of this ilk, making him the first US President with native blood, from Machapunga.

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John Squires was the Chief of the Tribe. His mother was Ethelia, married to an Englishman named Jonathan Squires. Ethelia's father was the Chief of the Nanticoke in Dorchester County Maryland, but her mother was Machapunga, thus having made John the Chief of the Machapunga. John owned and operated a Trading Post, with another Indian named Long Tom off of the Old Indian Trail on the Chesapeake Bay. They were summoned many times by the English Colonists to interpret for them, and helped settle many indifferences between the Colonists and the Indians. John's parents, Jonathan and Ethelia continued to reside on the Nanticoke Nation Land in Dorchester County Maryland. John Squires was one of the most well documented Indians of the Machapunga Tribe. He has many Squire descendants of both Nanticoke, and Machapunga blood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machapunga

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The Machapunga Indians
The name, Machapunga, is said to mean "bad dust," or "much dirt," in the native Algonquian language.

The Machapunga belonged to the Algonquian linguistic stock.

The Machapunga group primarily lived in what are present-day Hyde, Washington, Tyrrell, Dare, and part of Beaufort Counties, North Carolina.

The only village named is Mattamuskeet (probably on Mattamuskeet Lake in Hyde County). However, we should probably add Secotan on the north bank of Pamlico River in Beaufort County, and perhaps the town of the Bear River Indians.

The Machapunga seem to have embraced the larger part of the descendants of the Secotan, who lived between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds when the Raleigh colony was established on Roanoke Island (1585-86), though the Pamlico may also have been included under the same head.

They were reduced to a single village by 1701, took part with other Indian tribes of the region in the Tuscarora War, and at its close were settled on Mattamuskeet Lake with the Coree.

In 1761, a small number were still living in North Carolina, evidently at the same place, and the Rev. Alexander Stewart reported that he had baptized seven Indian and mixed-blood children belonging to the "Attamuskeet, Hatteras, and Roanoke." On a second visit two years later he baptized twenty-one more.

The Machapunga are estimated by Mooney (1928) to have numbered 1,200, including some smaller tribes, in 1600.

In 1701, Lawson gives 30 warriors, probably less than 100 souls.

In 1775, there were said to be eight to ten on the mainland and as many more on the offshore banks.

In 1761, the number of warriors was only seven or eight. The Bear River Indians may have combined with these.

In the form Machipongo, the name is applied to a post village in Northampton County, VA.

https://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Native_Americans/native_americans...

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