The Siouan tribes of the East / by James Mooney.

  • James Mooney
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Siouan tribes of the East / by James Mooney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    |_ ETHNOLOGY with their village at the junction of a stream coming in from the north which he judged to be about 100 miles above the Monacan town. This estimate is too great, but it is probable that they were located about the foothills east of the Blue ridge. The name suggests the Manalioae, but, as he mentions both Malioc and Managog in a list of tribes, they may have been distinct. From his reference it seems that they were hostile to the English, and he states that Totopotomoi, the Pamunki chief, had been killed while fighting for the whites against the Malioc and Nahyssan. As this chief was killed while fighting at the head of his men, side by side with the English, to drive back the Rickohockan invasion in 1656, it would seem that the Rickochokan (Cherokee) were joined by Siouan tribes in their descent upon the lowlands. The Mahock are mentioned as speaking the same language, with dialectic difference, common to the Monacan, Nahyssan, Saponi, and other tribes of that section. Lederer passed through their territory on his way to the Saponi, but apparently did not meet any of them. The name is intended to be pronounced with the Latin vowel sounds (Malioc, Lederer, p. 2• Mahock, ibid., pp. 7, 9, 11). The Nuntaneuck or Xuntaly.—This tribe is mentioned as speaking the common language of the Monacan, Nahyssan, Saponi, and others, and as having occupied the piedmont country jointly with those tribes after the extinction of the Tacci. Their name also is to be pronounced as in Latin (Lederer, p. 2). The Mohetan.—These Indians are mentioned in the narrative of Batts’ exploring expedition into western Virginia in September, 1671. After crossing the Blue ridge to the headwaters of New river the party came upon recently cleared cornfields along the stream, from which it appeared the Mohetan had but lately removed. On their return to the Tutelo village on a head stream of Roanoke or Dan river, they found a Mohetan Indian who had been sent by his people to learn if the English had come with hostile purpose. Being assured to the contrary, and gratified with a small present of powder, he told the explorers that when they had reached their farthest point on New river, apparently a few miles east of the present West Virginia line, they had been very near the Mohetan settlement, and that the next people beyond lived in a plain country from which came abundance of salt. This was probably about the present Mercer Salt Works on New river, in Summers county, West Virginia, or Salt pond, in the adjacent Giles county, Virginia, so that the Mohetan must have lived within the mountains at the head of New river on the western border of Virginia. They knew nothing of what was beyond the salt plains. From the narrative it is evident that they were an agricultural tribe, probably using salt—which was not commonly used by the eastern tribes,—were already acquainted with firearms, and were at this time on good terms with the Tutelo. Although this is the first recorded expedition so fgr into the mountains, the party found traces of prevu i
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