Description
The Nottoway are an Iroquoian Native American tribe in Virginia. The Nottoway spoke a Nottoway language in the Iroquoian language family. The term Nottoway may derive from Nadawa or Nadowessioux (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an Algonquian-language term. Frank Siebert suggested that the term natowewa stems from to the Massasauga, a pit viper of the Great Lakes region. The Nottoway, like their close, fellow Iroquoian neighbors, the Meherrin and Tuscarora, lived just west of the Fall Line in the Piedmont region. English explorer Edward Bland is believed to have been the first European to encounter them when he made an expedition from Fort Henry.
Language
Nottoway, also called Cheroenhaka, was a language spoken by the Nottoway people.
Culture
The Nansemond were the only Powhatan tribe that regularly traded with the Nottoway and spoke the Nottoway language. Although never numerous, the Nottoway were able to maintain cultural continuity. They did not disappear from records identified as Indian, merge into other tribes, or get pushed too far from their original homeland. Scholars believe the early Nottoway were similar in culture to the Tuscarora and Meherrin. The Nottoway, much like the Tuscarora, consisted of 7 clans: Wolf, Deer, Eel, Beaver, Bear, Snipe, and Turtle. The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the three sisters, varieties of maize, squash, and beans.