SMITHSONIAN 1 N S T I V V T I O X BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY: J. W. POWELL, DIRECTOR THE SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST J^]V1ES ]VIOOMEY WArfHlNGTON GOVKRNMENT FlllNTlNG OFFICE 1894 1 CONTENTS Introduction 5 The soutliein Atlantic stocks 5 Siomiu migrations and Iroquois conciuests 9 The liiloxi 14 The Piiskagula, Moctobi, and Chozetta , . 17 The Manalioac conlcderacy 18 The JMonacaii conltHhjracy, including the Saponi and Tutelo 23 The IMonacan proper 25 Collateral tribes 35 The Mahoc 35 The Nuntaueuck or Nuntaly 36 The Mohetan 36 The Meipoutsky or Meipousky 37 The Sapoui and Tutelo 37 The Occaneechi 53 The Sara and Keyauwee 56 The Sara and their allies 56 The Keyauwee 61 The Eno, Shoccoree, and Adshusheer 62 The Woccon, Sissipahaw, Cajie Fear, and Warrennuucock Indians 6 The Catawba 67 The Waxluiw an<l Sugeree 74 The I'edec, Waccaniaw, and Winyaw; the Hooks and Backhooks 7() The Sevree, San tee. Wateree, and Congaree 78 Other South Carolina tribes 81 Cherokee 83 Shawano 83 Uchi 83 Saluda 83 Notchee 83 Eti waw 85 Westo and Stono 85 Edisto 85 Coosa 8t; Cusobo 86 Ivocal names iroiii Siouau 1 1 ihal names in \^irginia and Carolina 87 A uthoritirs : 89 Index 93 ILLUSTRATION Maj) showing the location of the Siouan tribes of Virginia and the Carolinas.. (3.^^ THE SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST liy James Mooney "'Tis good to iniise on luitioiia passed away." INTRODUCTION. THE SOUTHERN ATLANTIC STOCKS. Wheu tlie French and English established their first permanent settlement in America they found the whole country in possession of numerous aboriginal tribes, some large and powerful, others restricted to a single village and its environs. The variety of languages and dialects at first appeared to be well-nigh infinite; but on further acquaintance it was discovered that these were easily reducible to a few j)rimary stocks. Excluding the Eskimo along the northern coast, the first great group comprised the tribes of the Algonquian stock, whose territory on a linguistic map appears like a large triangle, extending on the north from the Atlantic to the Eocky mountains, but gradually narrowing southward until it dwindles to a mere coast strip in Virginia and North Carolina, and finally ends about the mouth of Neuse river. The territory of the next great group, comprising the tribes of the Iroquoian stock, either lay within or bordered on the Algonquian area. Around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and stretching to a considerable distance inland on either vSide, were the Iroquois proper, the Huron or Wyandot, and several other closely connected tribes ; on the lower Susquehanna were the Couestoga or Susquehanna and their allies; on Nottoway and Meherrin rivers, in Virginia, were tribes bearing the names of those streams, and on the lower Neuse, in North Carolina, were the Tuskarora; while on the southwest, in the fastnesses of the southern Alleghanies, were the Cherokee, whose territory extended far into the gulf states. Although the territories held by the several Iroquoian tribes were not all contiguous, the languages, with the excep- tion of that of the Cherokee, which presents marked differences, are so closely related as to indicate a comparatively recent separation. The country southwest of* the Savannah was held chiefly by tribes of the Muskhogean stock, occupying the greater portion of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, with parts of Tennessee and Florida. 5 BULLETIN V"22 PLI. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY US eiEN t CO LITH N •> r BUREAU OK SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST. Lethnology West of all these tribes was the territory of the great Sioiian or Dakotau stock, extending in a general way from the Mississippi to the Eocky mountains and from the Saskatchewan to the Arkansas. With the tribes farther westward and southward the present paper is not concerned. Most of these tribes had fixed locations in permanent villages, sur- rounded by extensive cornfields. They were primarily agriculturists or fishermen, to whom hunting was hardly more than a pastime, and who followed the chase as a serious business only in tlie interval be- tween the gathering of one crop and the planting of the next. The Siouan tribes, on the contrary, althougii generally cultivating the ground to a limited extent, were essentially a race of hunters, follow- ing the game—esj^ecially the buffalo—from one district to another, here today and away tomorrow. Their introduction to the horse on the prairies of the west probably served only to give wider opportunity for the indulgence of an inborn roving disposition. Nomads have short histories, and as they seldom stopped long enough in one place to become identified with it, little importance was attached to their wan- derings and as little was recorded concerning them. The position of the Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes, as the native proprietors of an immense territory claimed by two great rival Euro- l)ean nations, rendered their friendship a matter of prime concern throughout the colonial period; and each party put forth strenuous efibrts to secure their alliance against the other. As a principal means to this end, numerous missionaries were sent among them, especially by the French, to learn their languages, become familiar with their habits of living and modes of thought, and afterward to write down the facts thus gathered. There were besides among the early settlers of New England and the northern states generally a number of men of lit- erary bent who made the Indians a subject of study, and the result is a vast body of literature on the northern tribes, covering almost every important detail of their language, habits, and history. In the south the case was otherwise. The tribes between the mountains and the sea were of but small importance politically; no sustained mission work was ever attempted among them, and there were but few literary men to take an interest in tliem. War, pestilence, whisky and systematic slave hunts had nearly exterminated the aboriginal occupants of the Carolinas before anybody had thought them of sufficient importance to ask who they were, how they lived, or what were their beliefs and opinions. The region concerning which least has been known ethnologically is that extending from the Potomac to the Savannah and from the moun tains to the sea, comprising most of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Of some of the tribes formerly within this area the lin guistic connection has long been settled; of some others it is a matter of recent discovery; of others again it is still a matter of doubt; while — SIOUAN IROQUOIAN STOCKS. MOONEY] ALGONQUIAN AND some must forever remaiu unclassified, for the tribes have perished from the earth without leaving a word of their languages behind. The Indians occupying the coast of Virginia, and extending as far inland as the geologic structure line marked by the falls of the ])riuci- pal streams, formed the Powhatan confederacy, belonging to the Algon- quian stock. Adjoining them on the south were another Algonquian people, known to Raleigh's colonists of 1585 as the Weapemeoc, and Waqjeme-oc)^ Perquinian, Pasquotanlc, and at a later date as Yeopim ( Poteskeet, occupying tliat pcu'tion of North Carolina north of Albemarle sound and extending as far westward as Edenton ; between Albemarle sound and Pamlico river and on the outlying islands were the Secotan of Raleigh's time, known afterward as Mattamuskeet, Mach- apunga and Hatteras Indians; while the Pamlico country, between Pam- lico and the estuary of Neuse river, was held by the Pamlico or Pamti- cough, together with the Bear River Indians, the Pomouik or Pama- waioc of Raleigh's colonists; all these people being Algonquian. The tribes here classed as Algonquian are known to have been such from the vocabularies and isolated words of their languages given by Smith, Strachey, Lawson, and others, and from the numerous local names Avhich they have left behind in the territory they once occupied. The Neusiok, who in 1585 lived just south of the Neuse estuary, in the extreme eastern parts of Craven and Carteret counties, in ]S"orth Caro- lina, and who were in alliance with tlie Pamlico, may also have been Algonquian, this bringing the southern limit of that stock along the coast almost to Cape Lookout. The Chowanoc or Chowan, on Chowan river—chiefly on the eastern bank, contiguous to the Weapemeoc seem also to have belonged to the same stock, judging from the half dozen names preserved by Lane. Tlie Iroquoian stock was represented by at least four tribes, three of which are known from vocabularies and other linguistic material. First came the jSTottoway on Nottoway and Blackwater rivers in south- eastern Virginia, contiguous on the north and east to the Powhatan con- federacy and on the south to the Chowanoc. The name Nottoway, by which they were commonly known, signifies ''snakes" or "enemies," and was given by their neighbors, the Powhatan, being one of the generic names used by the Algonquian tribes to denote any of a dif- ferent stock. Mangoac, the name by which they were known to the tribes on the sound, is another generic term used by the Algonquian tribes to designate those of Iroquoian stock, and signifies '' stealthy ones." In the north it was commonly written Mingo or Mengwe. They called themselves Cbiroe"haka, a word of uncertain etymology. The fact that neither of tliese generic terms was ever applied to the Chowanoc is evidence that they belonged to the common Algo-nquian stock. Adjoining the Nottoway, and in close alliance with them, were the Meherrin, on the lower course of the river of the same name. They were a remnant of the Susquehanna or Conestoga, who had REAU OF 8 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST.