Dead Run: Before the Settlers

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Dead Run Before the Settlers

• A Look into Native American Life
• By Abby Lauer

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Early Settlement

• The first period of human habitation in Fairfax
  County, called the Paleo-Indian period, is the
  earliest dated occupation in North America
• Major movement to the area took place from 9,500
  to 9,000 B.C. during the Late Glacial Climatic
  Episode
• Carbon 14 dating from this period is rare,
  however stone artifacts indicate early life

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A Different Climate

• The climate during this time period seems to have
  been cooler and wetter than Northern Virginia
  currently is, especially in the summer
• The precipitation during the growing seasons
  averaged 1.5 inches more than today
• The annual temperatures averaged 3.5 degrees
  lower than at present, the difference occurring
  usually in the more severe winters of the past

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Ancient Environments

• Trees that exist today also lived with the
  natives, for example spruce, pine, and deciduous
  forest
• Ancient animals available for hunting included
  moose, mastadon, bison, elk, deer, and bear
• Paleo-Indian sites in the East are often located
  near major waterways, suggesting several tribes
  may have lived along or relied upon Dead Run

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A mastadon, possibly hunted by the ancient tribes
of Northern Virginia
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An artists depiction of Native Americans
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The First Natives

• The first people in the region may have been
  migratory big game hunters, possibly pursuing
  herds of caribou, bison, and mammoth across vast
  areas
• The people may also have been general foragers,
  hunting, trapping, and gathering a wide range of
  plant and animal resources in a more restricted
  area

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Hafted spears created by ancient natives
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Types of corn that may have been harvested by
early Northern Virginia tribes
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Indians of McLean

• The first people in McLean arrived 5,000 years
  ago
• The Woodland Indians, part of the Powhatan tribe
  of the Tidewater, followed the buffalo to the
  Dead Run area
• Here, the natives hunted wild animals, gathered
  seeds, berries, and nuts, and grew crops

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Southeast Region tribes Dead Run general area
can be found at 26 and 27
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The Powhatan Way of Life

• Tools Before the introduction of iron hatchets
  to the natives in the early 1600s, tribes used
  stone tools, sharp animal teeth, or shells
• Transportation Indians made dugout canoes,
  possibly from cypress wood, created by gradually
  charring patches and scraping away the burnt wood
  to hollow out a log. The canoes were navigated
  with paddles or poles

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Early stone tools possibly used by the Dead Run
natives
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The Powhatan Way of Life

• Housing Natives residing along Dead Run may have
  lived in houses shaped like tunnels, built by
  connecting two rows of saplings and covering them
  with mats made from marsh reeds or bark
• Sex Roles The most important male jobs included
  hunting, fishing, and making war while women
  accomplished other tasks such as cooking,
  harvesting crops, creating tribal necessities,
  and raising children

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Typical layout of Powhatan tribal village