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- Fred Terrence Moody, 81, a Monacan Indian, dropped his body on July 3, 2006, in Jonesborough.
He was a First Class Seaman in the United States Navy. He served during World War II.
He was a lifelong resident of Washington County. He attended Dry Creek Church.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Mary Ellen Tolley Moody; four children, Vicky Lee, Gary Allen, Andrew Carson and Darrell Fred; two brothers and one sister, Andrew, Bradford and Francis; seventeen grandchildren; twenty three great grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
Graveside services will be conducted at 10:00 AM Friday at the Mountain Home National Cemetery. Rev. Bob Miller and Rev. Allen E. Byrd will officiate. Graveside Military Honors will be given by V.F.W. Post #3382 of Kingsport. Family members will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 9:15 AM Friday and proceed to the cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 6:00 until 8:00 PM Thursday. Online condolences may be sent to the family via www.morrisbaker.com.
Monacan Indian true to roots throughout life, then takes walk
The obituary stopped more than one reader: "Fred Terrence Moody, 81, a Monacan Indian, dropped his body on July 3, 2006, in Jonesborough."
"It's a Sioux term," daughter Vicky Moody said. "They say 'he dropped his body' or 'he takes a walk', just like others say 'he passed away' or 'he went to be with the Lord.'"
The Monacan Indian nation consists of about 1,400 people centered in Amherst County near Lynchburg. They are also known as the Eastern band of the Sioux, which at one time inhabited the Ohio River Valley and split into eastern and western bands thousands of years ago.
At that time a people who depended on the buffalo could go in any direction, as the buffalo also inhabited the eastern mountains. Ancient prairie grasses such as little and big bluestem still grow in the Ohio River in the shallows of the Falls of the Ohio River at Louisville, their seeds spread by ancient buffalo droppings.
Buffalo Mountain outside of Johnson City is named for its resemblance to a humped buffalo, but the original hunters who named it were used to seeing buffalo in this region.
The Monacan culture is believed to be at least 10,000 years old and once comprised about half of Virginia. They buried their dead in layers separated by earth, forming mounds. Scientists in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont region have documented some 13 mounds.
Thomas Jefferson had such a mound at Monticello and observed Indians visiting it in an obvious state of sadness and mourning. He later excavated it and found bodies and other artifacts which he documented, making him the father of American archaeology.
At the time the Jamestown settlers arrived in 1607 they were in Monacan territory, and it is said that the decision by the Powhatans to allow the Jamestown Colony to survive was influenced by the Monacans. They were the Powhatans chief suppliers of copper, a valuable commodity.
It is believed there were 8,000 to 10,000 Monacans at that time, but their numbers were quickly reduced by European diseases like flu and smallpox, for which they had no immunity, and by intermarriage with whites. Between 1607 and 1720 the Monacans gradually moved west, away from the white settlers, eventually concentrating in Amherst County along with the adopted remnants of other tribes.
In 1831, William Johns purchased 52 acres on Bear Mountain, and later bought another 400 acres, which became a settlement for the Indian families related to him. In 1868 a parcel was donated as a meeting place for the Indians, and a log church was built which is now a registered national historic landmark.
Virginia passed a "racial integrity" law in 1924 prohibiting intermarriage between whites and anyone of 1/16 colored blood, black or Indian. County officials without knowledge of the Indians changed many records. A series of legal challenges by the Indians resolved their incorrect legal classification for the World War II draft.
Fred Moody served as a First Class Seaman in the Navy during the war.
"He got to attend a powwow at Lynchburg before he died," Vicky Moody said. "He said a fog passed before his eyes and he saw all the people dancing. We told him nobody was dancing and he said, 'I am in trouble.' We think he knew then that he would not survive the cancer."
She said he called for the book written by a Monacan and he died at home in the Indian manner.
The Monacans have worshipped as Christians for a long time. Their log church soon became a missionary school. Dropping the body is a fusion of Christian and Indian belief, demonstrating that the spirit has left the body and no longer has use for it.
Fred Moody's body was buried Friday at Mountain Home National Cemetery. His spirit took a walk.
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1925 - 2006 (81 years)
