[5][6] They claim descent from the historic Occaneechi, Saponi, and other Eastern Siouan language-speaking Indians who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia.

[5] In August 1999, the Occaneechi Band petitioned the Orange County Superior Court, which ruled in favor of the NCCIA.

[5] In August 2001, Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs ruled in Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation v. North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs that the commission had not rendered its Final Agency Decision within the allotted time frame, so the administrative law judge's recommendation held, and the Occaneechi Band was state recognized.

[5][6] The Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation, represented by Lawrence Dunmore III, sent a letter of intent to petition for U.S. federal recognition as a Native American tribe in 1995, and the Eno-Occaneechi Tribe of Indians sent a letter in 1997;[14] however, neither submitted complete petitions to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

[7] There they host their annual powwow on the second weekend in June on Dailey Store Road, ten miles (16 km) north of Mebane.