Meherrin

The Meherrin were an Iroquoian-speaking people of the country between Virginia's Piedmont and the coastal plain. Their villages lay along routes used by traders, and their inhabitants farmed, hunted and gathered wild foods. Edward Bland recorded meeting them in 1650; by 1681 they had moved south to the banks of the river that bears their name.

A reservation established for the Meherrin in 1705 lay in territory claimed by both Virginia and Carolina. When Carolina ordered them to leave, they asked for time to harvest their crops and sought Virginia's help. In 1707 a Carolina force attacked their town, destroyed homes and crops and captured men of the community. Virginia officials protested. During the Tuscarora War, the Meherrin joined the Tuscarora against Carolina's colonists and their Indigenous allies.