Native Nations At Woodlawn

Primary sources like John Smith’s 1612 map of the Chesapeake Bay show just how densely populated the region was when Europeans arrived in Virginia. On Smith’s map, there is a town called Tauxenent (“Taw-sheh-nont”) located near the Occoquan River. Described as a “King’s House,” Tauxenent is thought to have been the center of the Doeg nation. Doeg territory shifted over time, following the Potomac River from modern-day Washington, D.C. to Stafford County, Virginia.

As Europeans encroached on the their land, tensions between the Doeg and English settlers boiled over. In 1675, a Doeg group led a raid on a plantation in Virginia’s Northern Neck. A militia led by George Mason I chased the raiding party into Maryland, and mistakenly attacked a Susquehannock cabin. This attack prompted a war with the Susquehannock and led to what historians today refer to as Bacon’s Rebellion, which was in part an attempt by colonists to displace or enslave Native people and open their land for settlement. During this war, many Doeg people found refuge with other Native nations such as the nearby Piscataway or even as far north as the Great Lakes region with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). After the Doeg were displaced, colonists – including George Washington’s grandfather, John Washington – were granted parcels of Doeg land by the English crown.