Description
British colonist Edward Bland encountered the Meherrin in 1650 and first wrote about them. Their village Cowinchahawkon was on an early British trade route. A 1669 Virginia Indian census said they had two villages and 50 fighting men, for an estimated total of 180 Meherrin. By 1675, they had absorbed Susquehanna refugees fleeing Pennsylvania. In 1681 they moved south to the banks of the Meherrin River. The Meherrin call themselves “People of the Water”. The Meherrin received formal recognition from the North Carolina government in 1986. On the first week of October, an annual powwow is held on the tribal grounds between Ahoskie and Murfreesboro on Highway 11 North.
Language
The Meherrin spoke the Meherrin language, which is most likely an Iroquian language.
Culture
Groups of men built houses and palisades, fished, hunted, and engaged in military activities. Groups of women produced crops of corn (maize), beans, and squash, gathered wild foods, and prepared all clothing and most other residential goods. After the autumn harvest, family deer-hunting parties ranged far into the forests, returning to their villages at midwinter. Spring runs of fish drew families to nearby streams and lake inlets. They lived in large longhouses made of saplings and sheathed with elm bark, each housing many families.