The Nottoway are a group of Iroquoian-speaking American Indians that traditionally lived on lands near the Nottoway River in southern Virginia near the present-day border with North Carolina. In 1705 the Virginia colonial government grated two tracts or reservations to the Nottoway in present-day Sussex and Southampton counties. When the Tuscarora War broke out in 1711, Vorginian colonial officials coerced several Nottoway leaders into helping defend the colonists against the Tuscarora and other tribal warriors who had allied with them. Over the remainder of the 18th century, the Virginia government continued their plan of forcefully getting the Nottoway people to assimilate into Anglo-European culture. By the turn of the 19th century, many Nottoway had opted to move north with the Tuscarora north into New York, where they joined the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. Although the American government slowly chipped away at the Nottoway people's land holdings, Nottoway families continued to reside in Tidewater Virginia through to the present day.

Today, there are two separate groups of Nottoway people recognized by the State of Virginia: the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe, and the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia.

For more information and links to resources, please see our editorial statement on American Indian terminology.