Portobacco Indians

Along the Rappahannock River near here lived the Portobacco Indians, who may have been part of the Portobaccos of Maryland. After moving to Virginia in the 1650s, they lived here in peace with their Indian neighbors, who spoke a similar dialect and who also were farmers, fishermen, and hunters. In 1683-1684 they were joined by the Rappahannocks, creating an Indian "refuge area" on a frontier that was being attacked by the Senecas. The Portobaccos and the Rappahannocks occupied the reservation on the Portobacco Bay until about 1704, when English colonists claiming the land by patent drove them off.