“The Men had something great and Venerable in their countenances...and indeed they ever had the Reputation of being the Honestest, as well as the bravest Indians we have ever been acquainted with.”
— 1728, Explorer William Byrd’s statement about the Sappony while drawing the Dividing Line between Virginia and North Carolina
The Sappony are one of North Carolina's eight state-recognized American Indian tribes. Our traditional homelands are in the High Plains Settlement along the North Carolina - Virginia boundary line and we have inhabited the rolling hills of Person County, NC and Halifax County, VA since the early 1700's. We settled this area before state lines were drawn, and in fact, helped draw the boundary line in 1728 when Sappony Ned Bearskin led William Byrd’s surveying party through the region.
The Sappony descend from seven main families, or clans - Coleman, Epps, Johnson, Martin, Shepherd, Stewart/Stuart and Talley. Historically, the town of Christie was the center of High Plains, with its name derived from the period when our people occupied the area of Fort Christanna. We were state-recognized in North Carolina in 1911 and in Virginia in 1913. In 1997, we were seated in North Carolina Commission on Indian Affairs and in 2003, our name officially changed from the state-designated label of “Indians of Person County” to the current “Sappony” to more accurately reflect our heritage.
Sappony history is one of family bonds, hard work, moral values and loyalty. It is the history of a people whose lives changed with the changing of times – from hunters and farmers of pre-contact days to trading partners with the English during colonial times, from tenant and landed farmers throughout the 1800s and 1900s to a contemporary Indian people in a diversified world.
