Saponi

The Saponi were a people of the Virginia and Carolina Piedmont, related to the Tutelo and other Indigenous communities of the inland rivers. In 1670 John Lederer visited a town called Sapon, and the following year another English expedition passed through Saponi villages. Warfare and colonial expansion led communities to move toward the Dan and Roanoke rivers, where they settled near the Occaneechi.

In 1714 Virginia's governor Alexander Spotswood established a reservation at Fort Christanna for the Saponi and allied peoples. They sought protection there from attacks by the Haudenosaunee. Though the fort was later abandoned by the colony, some people remained in the district before moving away in smaller groups. In 1753 the Cayuga adopted Saponi and Tutelo into their nation within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.