Tutelo
Encyclopedia
The Tutelo were Native people living above the Fall Line
in present-day Virginia
and West Virginia
, speaking a Siouan dialect of the Tutelo language
thought to be similar to that of their neighbors, the Monacan and Manahoac
nations. Under pressure from English settlers and Seneca Iroquois
, they joined with other Virginia Siouan tribes in the late 17th century and became collectively known as the Tutelo-Saponi
. By 1740, they had largely left Virginia and migrated north to seek protection from their former Iroquois opponents. They were adopted by the Cayuga tribe of New York
in 1753.
on the West Virginia
-Kentucky
border, which they called the "Totteroy River." The Iroquois drove them from this region during the later Beaver Wars
(c. 1670), after which the Iroquois established the Ohio Valley as their hunting ground by right of conquest.
The Tutelo first appeared in European records in 1671, when the Batts and Fallam expedition noted their visit to "Totero Town" near what is now Salem, Virginia
. A few years later, the Tutelo / Nahyssan joined the Saponi to live on islands located where the Dan
and Staunton rivers join to become the Roanoke River
. It was just above the territory of the Occaneechi
.
In 1701, they were noted as living at the headwaters of the Yadkin River
in North Carolina
. After 1714, collectively known as the Saponi-Tutelo, they resided at Junkatapurse around Fort Christanna
in Brunswick County, Virginia
, near the border with North Carolina.
Over the 1730s, remnants of the Saponi, Tutelo, and Occaneechi Indians moved north to Shamokin
, Pennsylvania
and sought the protection of the Oneida
viceroy, Shickellamy. They moved further north into present-day western New York, where they settled.
These Siouan remnants were formally adopted by the Cayuga nation
of New York in 1753. Their village of "Coreorgonel" was located near present-day Ithaca, New York
and Buttermilk Falls State Park
. There they lived under the protection of the Cayuga until Coreorgonel, along with many other Iroquois towns, was destroyed during the American Revolutionary War
by the Sullivan Expedition
of 1779. It was retaliating for British-Iroquois raids against the American rebels.
The Tutelo went with the Iroquois to Canada
, where the British offered land for resettlement at what became known as the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation. They continued to live among the Cayuga and were eventually absorbed by them through intermarriage. The last known full-blooded Tutelo speaker, Nikonha
or Waskiteng ("Old Mosquito") died in 1870 at the age of 105. He had given extensive linguistic material to the scholar Horatio Hale
, who confirmed the Tutelo language
as Siouan.
Fall line
A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...
in present-day Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, speaking a Siouan dialect of the Tutelo language
Tutelo language
The Tutelo language is a member of the Virginian branch of Siouan languages that was originally spoken in what is now Virginia and West Virginia, as well as in the later travels of the speakers through North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and finally, Ontario...
thought to be similar to that of their neighbors, the Monacan and Manahoac
Manahoac
The Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan-language American Indians in northern Virginia at the time of European contact. They numbered approximately 1,000 and lived primarily along the Rappahannock River west of modern Fredericksburg and the fall line, and east of the...
nations. Under pressure from English settlers and Seneca Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, they joined with other Virginia Siouan tribes in the late 17th century and became collectively known as the Tutelo-Saponi
Saponi
Saponi is one of the eastern Siouan-language tribes, related to the Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan, Manahoac and other eastern Siouan peoples. Its ancestral homeland was in North Carolina and Virginia. The tribe was long believed extinct, as its members migrated north to merge with other tribes...
. By 1740, they had largely left Virginia and migrated north to seek protection from their former Iroquois opponents. They were adopted by the Cayuga tribe of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1753.
Name
The English name Tutelo comes from the Algonquian variant of the name that the Iroquois used for all the Virginia Siouan tribes: Toderochrone (many variant spellings). The Tutelo autonym (name for themselves) was Yesan, Yesah or Yesang. This is also connected with the name Nahyssan, as well as earlier colonial era spellings, such as Monahassanough (John Smith) and Oniasont (the tribe was shown by this name on early maps in what is now West Virginia).History
The Tutelo historic homeland was said to include the area of the Big Sandy RiverBig Sandy River (Ohio River)
The Big Sandy River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in western West Virginia and northeastern Kentucky in the United States. The river forms part of the boundary between the two states along its entire course...
on the West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
-Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
border, which they called the "Totteroy River." The Iroquois drove them from this region during the later Beaver Wars
Beaver Wars
The Beaver Wars, also sometimes called the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars, commonly refers to a series of conflicts fought in the mid-17th century in eastern North America...
(c. 1670), after which the Iroquois established the Ohio Valley as their hunting ground by right of conquest.
The Tutelo first appeared in European records in 1671, when the Batts and Fallam expedition noted their visit to "Totero Town" near what is now Salem, Virginia
Salem, Virginia
Salem is an independent city in Virginia, USA, bordered by the city of Roanoke to the east but otherwise adjacent to Roanoke County. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 24,802 according to 2010 U.S. Census...
. A few years later, the Tutelo / Nahyssan joined the Saponi to live on islands located where the Dan
Dan River
The Dan River flows in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Virginia. It originates in Patrick County, Virginia, and crosses the state border into Stokes County, North Carolina. It then flows into Rockingham County. From there it goes back into Virginia. It reenters North Carolina near the...
and Staunton rivers join to become the Roanoke River
Roanoke River
The Roanoke River is a river in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States, 410 mi long. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains southeast across the Piedmont...
. It was just above the territory of the Occaneechi
Occaneechi
The Occaneechi are Native Americans who lived primarily on a large, long Occoneechee Island and east of the confluence of the Dan and Roanoke Rivers, near current day Clarksville, Virginia in the 17th century...
.
In 1701, they were noted as living at the headwaters of the Yadkin River
Yadkin River
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in North Carolina, flowing . It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control. The river becomes the Pee Dee...
in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. After 1714, collectively known as the Saponi-Tutelo, they resided at Junkatapurse around Fort Christanna
Fort Christanna
Fort Christanna was one of the projects of Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood, who was governor of the Virginia Colony 1710-1722. The fort was designed to offer protection and schooling to the tributary Siouan and Iroquoian tribes, living to the southwest of the colonized area of Virginia...
in Brunswick County, Virginia
Brunswick County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 18,419 people, 6,277 households, and 4,312 families residing in the county. The population density was 32 people per square mile . There were 7,541 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
, near the border with North Carolina.
Over the 1730s, remnants of the Saponi, Tutelo, and Occaneechi Indians moved north to Shamokin
Shamokin
Shamokin may refer to:* Shamokin, a city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania* Shamokin Dam a borough in Snyder County, Pennsylvania* Shamokin Township, a township in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and sought the protection of the Oneida
Oneida tribe
The Oneida are a Native American/First Nations people and are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the area of upstate New York...
viceroy, Shickellamy. They moved further north into present-day western New York, where they settled.
These Siouan remnants were formally adopted by the Cayuga nation
Cayuga nation
The Cayuga people was one of the five original constituents of the Haudenosaunee , a confederacy of American Indians in New York. The Cayuga homeland lay in the Finger Lakes region along Cayuga Lake, between their league neighbors, the Onondaga to the east and the Seneca to the west...
of New York in 1753. Their village of "Coreorgonel" was located near present-day Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
and Buttermilk Falls State Park
Buttermilk Falls State Park
Buttermilk Falls State Park is located southwest of Ithaca, New York, USA. Like Robert H. Treman State Park, the initial grant of land for the park came from Robert and Laura Treman, in 1924....
. There they lived under the protection of the Cayuga until Coreorgonel, along with many other Iroquois towns, was destroyed during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
by the Sullivan Expedition
Sullivan Expedition
The Sullivan Expedition, also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, was an American campaign led by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton against Loyalists and the four nations of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War.The...
of 1779. It was retaliating for British-Iroquois raids against the American rebels.
The Tutelo went with the Iroquois to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where the British offered land for resettlement at what became known as the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation. They continued to live among the Cayuga and were eventually absorbed by them through intermarriage. The last known full-blooded Tutelo speaker, Nikonha
Nikonha
Nikonha, also known as Waskiteng and Mosquito, was the last full-blooded speaker of Tutelo, a Virginia Siouan language. He is reported to have been around 106 when he died at Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, Ontario in 1871; this would give him a birth date of ca...
or Waskiteng ("Old Mosquito") died in 1870 at the age of 105. He had given extensive linguistic material to the scholar Horatio Hale
Horatio Hale
Horatio Emmons Hale was an American-Canadian ethnologist, philologist and businessman who studied language as a key for classifying ancient peoples and being able to trace their migrations...
, who confirmed the Tutelo language
Tutelo language
The Tutelo language is a member of the Virginian branch of Siouan languages that was originally spoken in what is now Virginia and West Virginia, as well as in the later travels of the speakers through North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and finally, Ontario...
as Siouan.