For thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans and the founding of Alexandria in 1749, Indians seasonally lived in and traveled through the lands that would become the City of Alexandria. Just upriver from Alexandria, the river tumbles over a series of cataracts known as Great Falls, its last obstacle to the Chesapeake Bay. These falls form a barrier to fish traveling upstream to spawn each year, which in turn makes the area just downstream a good fishing and camping ground and one used by indigenous people for millennia.

The Potomac River borders and connects the lands and people of Alexandria and Virginia to Maryland and Washington, D. C. and today encompasses over a dozen federal and state recognized tribes and nations. Federally recognized tribes and nations in Virginia include the Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Chickahominy Eastern Division, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan, and Nansemond. Virginia’s state recognized tribes and nations are the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway), Chickahominy, Chickahominy Eastern Division, Mattaponi, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottoway, Pamunkey, Patawomeck, Rappahannock, Upper Mattaponi. The Piscataway Indian Nation, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, and the Accohannock Indian Tribe have state recognition in Maryland. 

Archaeological Record

Despite the past 250 years of construction and development, remnants of the Native American past still remain buried within the city. To date, archaeologists have identified more than 30 sites containing Indian artifacts and features and have registered them with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The types of artifacts discovered in Alexandria indicate that Indians visited the area beginning about 13,000 years ago.

Traditionally, archaeologists in the region have divided the Native American past into three major periods: Paleo-Indian (ca. 15,000 BCE - 8,00 BCE), Archaic (ca. 8,00 BCE - 1,000 BCE) and Woodland (ca. 1,000 BCE - 1,600 CE). The arrival of Europeans in large numbers during the 17th century marks the beginning of what archaeologists define as the Contact Period.

• Learn more about Archaeology and Alexandria’s First People and see a list of site reports for sites with Indian artifacts and features. 

European Contact

In the summer of 1608, John Smith embarked on two voyages around the Chesapeake Bay and up many of its tributaries in order to survey the area, determine the extent of the bay, make contact with the people already living there, and identify any resources the English might exploit. On June 16, Smith and fourteen others from the Jamestown settlement entered the Potomac River in a small barge. Over the course of a few weeks, they made their way as far up the river as Great Falls, where the river becomes unnavigable, before returning back to Jamestown. Learn more about John Smith’s expedition. 

Federally & State recognized Tribes

• Maryland at a Glance: Native Americans
• Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs
• Virginia: State Recognized Tribes
• Native Peoples of Washington, DC (National Park Service)

Potomac [puh-TOH-muhk]
Potomac was one of two Algonquian words for the river forming the northern boundary of Virginia, and may have meant "great trading place," "place where people trade," or “something brought.”  The Potomac's common spelling through the 18th century was “Patowmack,” but has taken other forms over the years (“Patawomeke," "Patawomeck"). The river derives its name from an Indian village on its southern bank, the home of the Patawomeke people.  Following the founding of Jamestown, the Patawomeke began a friendly relationship with the English. However, soon after, white settlers forced the tribe from their land and resources. Today, their descendants, the Patawomeck, still live close to the original village in Stafford County and are one of Virginia’s state recognized tribes.

Occoquan [AA-kuh-kwaan]
The Occoquan River is a tributary of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, where today it serves as part of the boundary between Fairfax and Prince William counties, and also the location of the town of Occoquan.  The Occoquan River Valley region was settled by the Dogue Indians who named the area “Occoquan” meaning “at the head of the water” or "at the end of the water."

Dogue [Dohg] & Tauxenant [TUX–eh–nint]
The name “Dogue” may have been derived from the Powhatan word “taux,” which was subject to numerous alternative spellings in early colonial records, including Doeg, Doag, Dogney, Toag, Taux. John Smith mapped a village Tauxenent at the mouth of the Occoquan when he visited the upper Potomac River in 1608.  He noted that the Taux lived there above Aquia Creek, with their capital Tauxenent located on “Doggs Island” (now Mason Neck – “Island” meant “Neck” in those day) where they gathered fish and also grew corn. According to archaeologists, the word “Tauxenent” does not appear again in the records of the English after Smith, but the Dogue are chronicled for another 75 years.  Throughout the middle part of the 17th century, the Dogue lived on Mason Neck and on the Maryland shore of the Potomac, as neighbors of the Piscataway.  Some of the Dogue later moved to King George County, Virginia.

Chinquapin [CHING-kuh-pin]
The word Chinquapin in Alexandria and vicinity most likely referred to a species of tree that grew in the area, the Allegheny chinkapin or chinquapin (Castanea pumila). This tree produces fruit with many sharp spines which contains one shiny dark brown nut that is edible. Captain John Smith recorded this tree in 1612, observing its use by the Indians who made an infusion of chinquapin leaves to relieve headaches and fevers. 

• We are all Americans -- Native Americans in the Civil War. Courtesy Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site
• Virginia’s First Highways. Trail Sign at Potomac Yards
• Life of a Creek. Trail Sign at Chinquapin
• The Story of Chinquapin. Trail Sign at Chinquapin
• There are additional places throughout Alexandria to learn about the history of Virginia Indians, including interpretive signs at Jones Point Park.

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From the News Release

Alexandria City Council Recognizes Second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day

­­For Immediate Release: September 10, 2019

At its regular meeting on September 10, the Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the second Monday in October of each year as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 

Alexandria joins more than 130 cities across the country that have recognized this day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day since 1994. This designation will not affect the existing federal or state holidays on the same day, which will still be known as Columbus Day.

The resolution also affirms the City’s participation in annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrations; encourages the Alexandria City Public Schools to include the teaching of Indigenous Peoples’ history with contemporary context and celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day; encourages other businesses, organizations, and public institutions to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a meaningful way and in partnership with local Native Nations; calls on all sports organizations operating in Virginia to cease the use of Indigenous Peoples’ likenesses as mascots; and commits to continue its efforts to promote the well-being and growth of Alexandria’s Indigenous Community and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Indigenous Peoples have been and continue to be the victims of prejudice and systematic discrimination, which perpetuates high rates of income inequality and exacerbates disproportionate health, education, and social standing. The City is committed to opposing such discrimination, promoting opportunity for persons of Indigenous descent, and fostering a welcoming, inclusive, equitable, and just community for all.

The lands that would later become known as the Americas have always been home to Indigenous Peoples, with 50,000 Indigenous Peoples in Virginia comprising at least 15 separate nations prior to the arrival of English settlers. The Commonwealth currently recognizes 11 Indigenous tribes.

The tribes that inhabited Northern Virginia and the area that is now the City of Alexandria were parts of or allies with the powerful Powhatan Confederacy. Many Indigenous People were displaced from their homelands and driven onto reservations as the English, and later American colonial settlers, pushed to occupy more land in the region. Many of the Indigenous Peoples in Virginia had been subjugated, killed, or removed by the turn of the 18th century.

• National Museum of the American Indian - We Have a Story to Tell: Native Peoples of the Chesapeake Region
• The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail
• Virginia Department of Education - Virginia’s First People Past & Present