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http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/siouan/siouanfamilyhist.htm
The tribes of the Manahoac confederacy were encountered by Capt. John Smith in 1608, but after that time all of the eastern Siouans decreased rapidly in numbers through Iroquois attacks and European aggression. Finally the remnants of the northern tribes, consisting chiefly of Tutelo and Saponi, accompanied the Tuscarora northward to the Iroquois and were adopted by the Cayuga in 1753. On the destruction of their village by Sullivan in 1779 they separated, the Saponi remaining with the Cayuga in New York, while the Tutelo fled to Canada with other Cayuga. From the few survivors of the latter tribe, Hale and J. O. Dorsey obtained sufficient material to establish their Siouan connections, but they are now almost extinct. The fate of the Saponi is probably the same. The southern tribes of this eastern Siouan group consolidated with the Catawba, and continued to decrease steadily in numbers, so that at the present time there are only about 100 remaining of the whole confederated body. Some of the eastern Siouan tribes may have been reached by De Soto; they are mentioned by the Spanish captain Juan Pardo, who conducted an expedition into the interior of South Carolina in 1567.
The Tutelo, Biloxi, and probably the rest of the eastern Siouan tribes were organized internally into clans with maternal descent; the Dakota, Mandan, and Hidatsa consisted of many non-totemic bands or villages, the Crows of non-totemic gentes, and the rest of the tribes of totemic gentes.
The Siouan family is divided as follows:
Dakota-Assiniboin group:
Mdewakanton
Wahpekute (forming, with the Mdewakanton, the Santee)
Sisseton
Wahpeton
Yankton
Yanktonai
Teton
Sichangu or Brulé
Itazipcho or Sans Arcs
Sihasapa or Blackfeet
Miniconjou
Oohenonpa or Two Kettles
Oglala
Hunkpapa
Assiniboin
Dhegiha group
Omaha
Ponca
Quapaw
Osage
Pahatsi
Utsehta
Santsukhdhi
Kansa
Chiwere group
Iowa
Oto
Missouri
Winnebago
Mandan
Hidatsa group
Hidatsa
Crows
Biloxi group
Biloxi
Ofo
Eastern division
Monacan group, almost extinct
Monacan confederacy
Monacan
Meipontsky
Mohemencho
Tutelo confederacy
Tutelo
Saponi
Occaneechi
Manahoac confederacy
Manahoac
Stegaraki
Shackaconia
Tauxitania
Ontponea
Tegninateo
Whonkentia
Hassinunga
Catawba group
Catawba
Woecon
Sissipahaw
Cape Fear Indians (?)
Warrennuncock (?)
Adshusheer
Eno
Waxhaw
Sugeree
Santee
Vateree (?)
See (?)
Congaree (?), all extinct except the Catawba
E
Cheraw
Keyauwee, both extinct
F
Pedee (?)
Waccamaw (?)
Winyaw (?)
Hooks (?)
Backhooks (?), all extinct.
In the past few years, the Occaneechi have been visited by a number of Tutelo descendants from Six Nations, who are very aware of their Tutelo ancestry. Some of them are featured in “Totero-Search for the Last Tutelo”, a video that came out some years ago. (Or it may be Tutelo-Search for the Last Totero; I always get it backwards and don’t have a copy in front of me)
Hello Would it be possible for you to get more info on this , I would really like to see this, thank you for this post!
The video is no longer available. It was produced by the planetarium in Roanoke, VA. They still have the original on a dusty shelf somewhere. I contacted them several years ago and they said they’d sell it for $800 or something. I talked to some people at the OBSN about acquiring it and making sure it was preserved properly. I don’t know if anything was done. I still have the contact info in an old notebook.
Videotape only lasts about 20 years. If it could be digitized into a DVD, however, a master could be preserved indefinitely.
That is definately something that we need here, it could be sold on the Great Trading Path. many of us would really like to view it Iam sure.
in the future Linda you’ll recieve one of those fanner baskets that I had mentioned to you, the proceeds from it can go to purchasing the tape.
maybe we can do something where we all can join in to the purchase of it.
I’ll be in touch , Tom
I found this Tutelo Ceremony in The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, by Arlene Herschfelder and Paulette Molin.
“ADOPTION STRING. Tutelo, Six Nations Reserve, Canada. During the Tutelo Spirit Adoption Ceremony, the person adopted wears a long single loop or chain of white Tutelo wampum beneath the shirt. The wampum passes over the left shoulder and down the right side to the waist. The chain symbolizes the return to life of a deceased Tutelo person as revived in the personality of the adopted person who becomes the living representative of the deceased. At the end of the ceremony, the string of Tuelo wampum is removed from the adopted person and safeguarded until the next adoption rite.”
Lynella.
That’s a wonderful offer, Tom, and a very worthwhile project. I’m still worried about that tape.
Lynella, that’s a good find. From what they’re describing, the necklace sounds like a single strand of white Roanoke, or clamshell — not the beautifully coloful ribboned necklace we had pictured on here awhile ago. I was told by someone at Six Nations that the ribboned necklace was for social functions and could be worn by anyone. Then there’s an article from the Smithsonian identifying it as the Adoption ceremony necklace, so I haven’t known what to think.
Linda,
I couldn’t find the thread where you asked about someone posting something about the Sioux being matrilineal, but I found the thread mentioning them being matrilineal –
This one. Vance’s “Saponi in Canada” – 1st posting, this thread.
It’s better than an even bet that they were matrilineal.
Even tho’ you dis’d me 🙂 for equating E. Sioux to Eastern Woodland cultures generally, there would be as many similarities as differences between them. While there were a few exceptions, nearly all of the eastern seaboard & piedmont people we do know about, were matrilineal cultures. Good night, Lil’ Grandmother 🙂
Bill
Linda,
Yeah, I wish it specified more about the beads.
I still can’t find where I read about the matrilineal thing. I went back through my books & haven’t come across it. I might have read it on-line somewhere. But I’m 98.5 percent positive that I read it was matrilineal. Lynella.
Hello Everyone, well the eastern Sioux were more woodlands than Prairie or Plains, I often wonder about the movements and why they stayed so close to the trees, really what is woodland culture without the trees, I’d like to know more about the Adena / Hopewell folks and how they relate to the historic people of the Ohio valley!
Regarding the necklace, I’d wait until we can here from some of the Tutelo folks and what they’d say about it, on my way south this fall or winter I may pass through Six Nations and try and visit with some of them.
The offer on the tape is solid, I hope that we can get it and make it available.
Iam working on rebuilding Tutelo, Sixsapaha basket traditions and hope to have something to offer this site in the near future, for sure there will be 3 red lines passing through the center!
The rim is going to be a tough one though unless we can find some archaeological materials.
All for Now!
That would be huge if we could find a rim fragment from the VA/NC Souians!
There is a huge amount to rebuilding a basket tradition, it’s mostly based on archaeological materials since this is the best source,unlike many other southern tribes the Tutelo groups traditions were misplaced very early, I’d like to find a Tutelo basket in a museum some where.
There are catawba baskets out there but ….
Any way I know we can do it, Ive been doing this research since 1979 and I really have just started on the Va/ NC area, several years is just a start.
Thank you for doing that.
I’m living like a gypsy lately — half the time camping at the campgrounds near where my house is being built. I wonder if I’ll be able to sneak away to Richmond one of these crazy days and check out the Cultural Resources there my friend has been telling me about. I’ve been trying to do that for a couple of years now.
Can I relate to that, I have wanted to get into the university library and what a joke, soon class’s will be back in and so it’ll be hard to find anything.
I still want to find that map I had mentioned earlier, does anyone know of a map index or compilation of maps etc?
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/saponihist.htm
it says —
Saponi. One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in North Carolina and Virginia, but now extinct. The tribal name was occasionally applied to the whole group of Ft Christanna tribes, also occasionally included under Tutelo. That this tribe belonged to the Siouan stock has been placed beyond doubt by the investigations of Hale and Mooney. Their language appears to have been the same as the Tutelo to the extent that the people of the two tribes could readily understand each other. Mooney has shown that the few Saponi words recorded are Siouan.
Lederer mentions a war in which the Saponi seem to have been engaged with the Virginia settlers as early as 1654-56, the time of the attack by the Cherokee, probably in alliance with them. The first positive notice is by Lederer (1670), who informs us that he stopped a few days at Sapon, a town of the Tutelo confederacy, situated on a tributary of the upper Roanoke. This village was apparently on Otter river, southwest of Lynchburg, Va. Pintahae is mentioned also as another of their villages near by. It is evident that the Saponi and Tutelo were living at that time in close and apparently confederated relation. In 1671 they were visited by Thomas Batts and others accompanied by two Indian guides. After traveling nearly due west from the mouth of the Appomattox about 140 miles, they came to Sapong, or Saponys, town. Having been harassed by the Iroquois in this locality, the Saponi and Tutelo at a later date removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they settled near the Occaneechi, each tribe occupying an island in the Roanoke in what is now Mecklenburg county, Va. Lawson, who visited these Indians in 1701, found them dwelling on Yadkin river, N. C., near the present site of Salisbury, having removed to the south to escape the attacks of their enemies. Byrd (1729) remarks: “They dwelt formerly not far below the mountains, upon Yadkin river, about 200 miles west and by south from the falls of Roanoak. But about 25 years ago they took refuge in Virginia, being no longer in condition to make head not only against the northern Indians, who are their implacable enemies, but also against most of those to the south. All the nations round about, bearing in mind the havock these Indians used formerly to make among their ancestors in the insolence of their power, did at length avenge it home upon them, and made them glad to apply to this Government for protection.”
Soon after Lawson’s visit in 1701 the Saponi and Tutelo left their villages on the Yadkin and moved in toward the settlements, being joined on the way by the Occaneechi and their allied tribes. Together they crossed the Roanoke, evidently before the Tuscarora war of 1711, and made a new settlement, called Sapona Town, a short distance east of that river and 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie county, N. C. Soon after this they and other allied tribes were located by Gov. Spotswood near Ft Christanna, 10 miles north of Roanoke river, about the present Gholsonville, Brunswick county, Va. The name of Sappony creek, in Dinwiddie county, dating hack at least to 1733, indicates that they sometimes extended their excursions north of Nottoway river. Their abode here was not one of quiet, as they were at war with neighboring tribes or their old enemies, the Iroquois. By the treaty at Albany (1722) peace was declared between the northern Indians and the Virginia and Carolina tribes, the Blue Ridge and the Potomac being the boundary line.
Probably about 1740 the Saponi and Tutelo went north, stopping for a time at Shamokin, in Pennsylvania, about the site of Sunbury, where they and other Indians were visited by the missionary David Brainard in 1745. In 1753 the Cayuga formally adopted the Saponi and Tutelo, who thus became a part of the Six Nations, though all had not then removed to New York. In 1765 the Saponi are mentioned as having 30 warriors living at Tioga, about Sayre, Pa., and other villages on the northern branches of the Susquehanna. A part remained here until 1778, but in 1771 the principal portion had their village in the territory of the Cayuga, about 2 miles south of what is now Ithaca, N. Y. When the Tutelo fled to Canada, soon after 1770, they parted with the Saponi (Hale was informed by the last of the Tutelo) at Niagara, but what became of them afterward is not known. It appears, however, from a treaty made with the Cayuga at Albany in 1780 that a remnant was still living with this tribe on Seneca river in Seneca county, N. Y., after which they disappear from history.
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