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I’m going to try and input the Horatio Hale book on Tutelo. The reprint (it’s a little book) is available. It’s a handy size for a pocket reference, it’s on acid free paper, and much easier to deal with than a reprint off a website. It really is worth it to get the book http://www.evolpub.com/ALR/ALRbooks.html, look for Vol. 23, Tutelo.
I’m going to start with the recent Preface, which is still under copyright, but since I’m plugging the sale of the book, I don’t think the publisher or author will mind.
The Tutelo Language
by Horatio Hale
Horatio Hale, 1883. “The Tutelo Tribe and Language.”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 21 (14): 1-47.
Preface to the 2001 Edition
by Claudio R. Salvucci, series ed.
In the year 1753 the Five Nations of the Iroquois admitted into their famed confederacy the remnants of a people they called the Tedarighroones.” These had originally lived in the foothills of the virginia mountains, where they suffered attacks at the Iroquois’ hands during the Beaver Wars of the late 1600’s. Around 1712 the various survivors regrouped and sought protection from Governor Spotswood of Virginia, who settled them near Fort Christanna, where, however, the attacks continued until a peace treaty was finally signed in 1722. But within a very short time the “Tedarighroones”, or the Tutelo as they were later known, were experiencing mistreatments anew, this time from the English colonists in Virginia. Around 1740 they left Fort Christanna and, in an ironic reversal of fortune, settled in Pennsylvania under the protection of their former enemies the Iroquois, with whom they have resided ever since.
For over a hundred years the scholarly world knew nothing of the cultural affiliations of the Tutelo tribe save that they were under the protection of the Five Nations. Then in 1870 a scholar named Horatio Hale visited the last remaining full blooded member of the tribe and recorded from him a vocabulary which proved beyond doubt the Sioan affiliation of their language. This came as a surprise to Hale and others as well, for the Siouans had always been known exclusively as a tribe of the Plains, and no one had any inkling that their family could have extended this far to the east. But as Hale’s discovery was made known (e.g. Anderson 1871), the Siouan presence in the Atlantic states could no longer be doubted, and the prehistory of Siouan-speaking nations was now cast in a whole new light.
It is generally accepted today that the Virginia Siouans were descended mainly from the Monacan and Manhoac confederacies described by John Smith in the early 1600’s. These groups encompassed a number of individual towns, one of which was that of the Tutelo, although there is some disagreement where the town was originally located, whether along the Big Sandy River in West Virginia (Swanton 1936, 1943) or somewhat further east along the Dan River, where the explorers Batts and Fallam found a “Totera” town in 1671.
In any case, by the time the Virginia Siouan remnants had gathered at Fort Christanna, they had become a melting pot of five tribes: Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, Stenkenock, and Meipontsky, the first three of which seem to have been the most important. The early sources often referred to them all as “Saponis” until the Iroquois-derived “Tutelo” became more prominent; at times they were also simply called Christanna Indians. the Occaneechi must also have had some degree of prominence, since Robert Beverley in his History and present State of Virginia (1705) recounts that despite their being a small nation, their language was understood by the chief Men of many Nations.
The explorer John Lederer specifically attested to the presence of various dialects among the Virginia Siouan tribes (Mooney 1894, p. 29(, but linguistics has not yet confirmed what dialect differences originally existed, if any, among the groups at Christanna. Scholars have generally circumvented the question by simply referring to the language as “Tutelo-Saponi”, or simply “Tutelo” with Saponi and Occaneechi understood (Goddard 1996, p8).
Tutelo-Saponi’s position with the wider Siouan family is quite clear; it belongs to the Ohio Valley or Southeastern subgroup of Siouan. Its two closest linguistic relatives, Ofo and Biloxi, were both first recorded — incongrously — in Louisiana. However, these tribes seem to have originally resided in the Ohio Valley until being driven down the Ohio and Mississippi by the Iroquois sometime in the mid-1600’s. (Swanton 1943: for a more skeptical view see Griffin 1943, Hunter 1978) Some scholars (Swanton 1936, Voegelin 1941) have even made the case that the Ohio Valley was the original homeland of all the Siouan-speaking peoples, but this view has not been universally accepted (e.g. Griffin 1942). It is not an easy issue to settle since we know very little about the original inhabitants of the Ohio Valley, but “chances are good that one or more of these groups spoke a Siouan language” (Goddard 1978b).
Linda I got the book the other day and I have started reading it alittle. I am ready when you are, let’s get started!
I am planning to get the book as well, so I can keep up with the conversation.
Pila huc!
Todd (‘Tokhai’)
Hey All, on the Occaneechi home page is links to actually hear how some of the language sounds, there’s several gutteral sounds that I have heard up here.
I really think that we should try and get a linguist involved, if there has been some progress made in this area I think that we should see what has already been done!
Any suggestions?
Yeah, a linguist would be good. But as for how to get one…..We could post messages on other boards????? Actually, I was hoping Linda would know this. She’s so good! Did you check out the recipe’s Tom? Lynella.
Awsome! I was looking at it last night on the internet. I’m gonna’ get it, but I have to wait for my credit card bill so I can see how much it is!! Then, I’ll get it.
Tom,
Do you have the book? How are you anyway? Love & light, Lynella.
Hello All, iam fine I just cannot always get to the Library for the postings so if I miss something please bear with me, I have been looking around and have found several interesting articles on the language, in time some of it will be posted in the immersion thread, anyway gotta go; Tom
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