Alert:
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November as a month to honor the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans. Similar proclamations have been issued each year since 1994 to recognize what is now called “American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.” However, the efforts to highlight the contributions of America’s first peoples date back since the turn of the century, according to the Native American Heritage Month website.
According to the latest census, 3.7 million people nationally identified as American Indian and Alaska Native only. There are 324 distinct, federally recognized American Indian reservations in 2022; and there are 574 federally recognized Indian tribes including seven in Virginia: the Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan, and Nansemond. The Commonwealth of Virginia further recognizes the Cheroenhaka Nottoway, the Nottoway and Patawomeck tribes.
Fairfax County has a rich Virginia Indian history, including archaeological sites dating from the Clovis period (12,000 years BCE) through the colonial period. Many of these sites are protected by FCPA parkland throughout the county and studied by archaeologists with the Archaeology and Collections Branch.
Riverbend Park situated on a bend of the Potomac River in northern Fairfax County, contains over one hundred archaeological sites. These resources speak to the county's rich history, especially histories connected to the region’s first people, who were here thousands of years before European contact. Fairfax County archaeologists have conducted numerous investigations at the park, from surveys to intensive excavations (Figure 1). Findings from their work attest to connections the first people had to this resource-rich region of Fairfax County.
Two projectile points recovered by Fairfax’s County Archaeological Research Team (CART) while surveying our parks. The first, a Palmer point made of Jasper, was crafted sometime between 10,000 and 9,000 years ago. The second, a Fox Creek/Selby Bay point made of grey Rhyolite, was created sometime between roughly 4,000 and 1,000 years ago.
Around the year 1360, a skilled Dogue Indian living near the Occoquan River carved this small soapstone effigy of what appears to be a beaver or an otter. At that time, beavers and otters were found in great numbers in North American waterways and coastal areas, and the detail and expression on the animal’s head reflect the artist’s familiarity with these playful creatures. The effigy may have been part of a smoking pipe or full animal figurine, and it is one of the most important artifacts recovered in Fairfax County because of where it was found.
Archaeology and Collection Branch archaeologists recently conducted excavations on the Mount Air property to better understand the site, recovering artifacts from the 1700s through modern times. In one location, the archaeologists identified deposits much older than those for which the property is best known. The archaeologists discovered Piscataway and Fishtail projectile points. These types of points are known to have been made by Native Americans in Virginia during the Early Woodland period, between 1200 and 500 BCE. Because of this discovery, we can begin to tell a more complete story about the park and the people who lived there throughout its history.