Among our Virginia ancestors is Nicketti, a member of the Powhatan Nation. Our Freyschlag cousin Joanne Ferguson uncovered this direct ancestor many years ago, and Grandma Ruth Wilson was already aware of Joanne’s find. She mentioned an Indian in the family tree from time to time.
Nicketti was born around 1638 in Virginia. Her father, Opechancanough, was a Powhatan Chief. Thus, Nicketti was known to our ancestors as an “Indian princess”. Her mother, Cleopatra, was a younger sister of Pocahontas, which makes Pocahontas a great-aunt. “Nicketti” means “she who sweeps the dew from the flowers.”
Nicketti’s Father
Opechancanough was quite elderly when Nicketti was born and died when she was a young girl. He ruled from 1622 until 1644, when white settlers killed him during the same conflict in which our ancestor, Dr. John Woodson of Jamestown, was killed..
Nicketti’s Marriage And Family
When Nicketti came of age, she married a Scottish trader, referred to in records as “Trapper Hughes” because his first name is lost. In the late 1600s, the couple built a trading post along the banks of the upper James River, deep in the Blue Ridge forest, in Amherst County, Virginia. Their post’s stone chimney was a well-known landmark that was cited in land surveys for many decades. A remnant of the chimney survives today at the site. Hughes was the first white settler in Amherst County and was accepted by the Powhatan tribe because of his wife’s heritage.
Hughes and Nicketti had at least one daughter, Mary Elizabeth Hughes, a “half-breed” who married Nathaniel Davis, an immigrant from Wales. Some of their children were quite dark-skinned and gave rise to the so-called “Black Davis” family of Kentucky. One member of this branch faced forfeiture of his land because Kentucky land laws excluded ownership by Blacks. However, he was able to prove his Indian heritage and kept his land.
Our cousins Sgts. Charles Floyd and Nathaniel Pryor, of the Lewis & Clark expedition, were fifth-generation descendants of Nicketti and were likely aware of their indigenous ancestor. “Nicketti” was a common girl’s name in the Floyd family, including the daughter of John Floyd, the Governor of Virginia from 1830-1834. Perhaps the Indian ancestry of Charles Floyd and Nathaniel Pryor made these two men more comfortable with the prospect of journeying across the country through Indian territory.
Powhatan lineage
Why isn’t there a “Nicketti Mullins Casino & Spa” in Virginia? The requirements to join a tribe vary widely, but generally, there’s a “Blood Quantum” requirement of at least 1/16 Native American blood, so Nicketti is too removed now.
Also, for an extremely complex, Kafka-esque set of political reasons, the Powhatan Nation has yet to obtain Federal recognition as of this writing. In part, this is because the tribe was relatively non-assertive after signing a treaty with England in 1677. In fact, there are no recognized Native American tribes in Virginia. A small group of Powhatans has united with members of 5 other Virginia tribes to pursue recognition in Congress, along with the support of Virginia’s 2 senators.
So, the 400 year old struggle between the indigenous Powhatan tribe and the more recently arrived European descendants continues.
© 2013 W. Mullins