Centuries-old documents told of #NativeAmerican settlements in the Fones Cliffs area of the #Rappahannock River in #Virginia’s Northern Neck.
In the 1600s, English explorer #JohnSmith wrote of how he & his men were attacked by #NativeAmericans along the river. A document from the 1660s detailed how the Rappahannock Tribe was promised 30 blankets in exchange for more than 25,000 acres of their land.
#archeology #genocide #NationalDayOfMourning
https://wapo.st/48Dnft9
But the exact location of these towns had never been pinpointed until now.
Archaeologists cross-referenced historic maps, documents & deeds with oral histories from #Rappahannock tribal members. Then last fall, in the woods of #Richmond County on areas near the bluffs, they started digging.
For months, the crew from St. Mary’s College of Maryland surveyed the land to try to find the early settlements but found nothing that could be linked to #JohnSmith’s foray.