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Early History of Wyoming Co. WV. This has some history on the MINGO Tribe. It says they originated along the Alantic Coast. Same territory we are searching for our Saponi roots.
http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Wyoming/wyohistory.html
During the early 1700s, southern West Virginia, including present-day Wyoming County, was used as a hunting ground by the Mingo, who lived in both the Tygart Valley and along the Ohio River in West Virginia=s northern panhandle region, the Delaware, who lived in present-day eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, but had several autonomous settlements as far south as present-day Braxton County, the Shawnee, and by other members of the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Seneca, one of the largest and most powerful members of the Iroquois Confederacy.
The Mingo were not actually an Indian tribe, but a multi-cultural group of Indians that established several communities within present-day West Virginia. They lacked a central government and, like all other Indians within the region at that time, were subject to the control of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mingo originally lived closer to the Atlantic Coast, but European settlement pushed them into western Virginia and eastern Ohio.
My friend Thomas McElwain, who was the language informant on Mingo-EGADs, believes the initial group of the Mingo were Erie survivors who were “absorbed” into the Seneca, and later split with them to live in autonomy in the mountains. Although there were many additions from the southeast. The “Blackfoot” Id very common there. There was a roadside marker in Elkins, WV noting the presence of the “Blackfoot of the Seneca.”
Hi Linda,
I emailed you a few days ago with my name lists. Thomas McElwain is a relative of mine on my mothers side. Do you know if he is back in the states again? I have lost touch with him…and wonder if you would send me his email address or contact him for me?? I haven’t spoken to him since I first began my search & found him….
Lynne Littlewolf Stafford
Selma Oregon
His email came crashing through within the half hour. Not sure where he is, but he’s plugged in and ready. I’ve sent you his email address.
Hi Linda,
Thanks….I still am looking for the address you said you sent me for Tom!
When you say plugged in and ready are you referring to the egads sight?
Sorry, I didn’t get the note until today.
Lynne Littlewolf
OK, this Mingo tribe was a tribe BUT, is there still a Mingo tribe today? Are they recognized as a people in todays world?
Bob
Hi Bob, I was schrolling thru some older posts and came across this and saw your ? Found some info on Mingos and this link might answer your ?s~~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mingo 😀 Greydove
That’s an interesting link, and probably does refer to the people Brenda Dillon was talking about. When I hear “Mingo” I think of Piomingo, aka Mountain Leader, who was a Chickasaw principal chief around the time Nashville was “settled,” i.e. by Euro-Americans. Anyway, mingo means “chief” in Muskogean languages, like Chickasaw (I think they spell it miko, and pronounce it minko).
And then there are the Mikkosukee people, in Florida. Some etymologies trace that to the Spanish (of Ponce de Leone), micos sucios — “dirty monkeys.” Things like this are behind the trend for NA people in our more enlightened times (if you believe that) to change their tribal name, and take offense if you use the one you’ve always heard before. But in so many cases, the name by which early English speakers identified a tribe turns out to have been an insulting term, used by some of their neighbors.
Thanks Greydove. I know many of these people in OK. I know this location well. The Seneca-Cayuga have some land on the Grand Lake just down the road from the Twin Bridges. They are located very near the Wyandottes.
I think I’ll ask some if they know anything about these Mingo peoples.
If anyone has read the book “That Dark and Bloody River” by Allan W. Eckert, he goes into the origins and histories of many of the tribes involved. Although this is considered a fiction novel, it is based on historic information and he talks extensively about the Mingo tribe. Very good reading.
Here is an Industry review:
Eckert (A Sorrow in Our Heart, LJ 2/15/92) stands on an uncommon ground between academic and popular writers. His use of the “hidden dialog” as a means of writing history had been termed “documentary fiction.” Here, he takes on the long and varied history of the Ohio River valley, engendered by indigenous Americans and settlers from European powers French, Dutch, English, and Spanish. Eckert introduces a considerable number of Indians into the Ohio environment, utilizing a variety of fascinating primary resources to tell the history of the region and its people from 1768 to 1795. The final product, readable and rich in history, nevertheless will create problems for the historian and concern for the general reader. Those looking for a thorough history of the valley will be disappointed, and book selectors need to be aware of the type of history this book represents. Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala. Breitman
Another one:
The Ohio River, a principal route for pioneers pushing westward along its 981-mile course from Pennsylvania through Kentucky and Indiana to Illinois, was the scene of fierce battles among warring Indian tribes Shawnee, Miami, Cherokee, Iroquois, etc. and between Native Americans and white settlers. Tapping journals, letters, diaries and government memoranda from 1768 to 1799, and fleshing out his panoramic chronicle with reconstructed dialogue adapted from primary sources, historian-novelist Eckert has fashioned an epic narrative history of the struggle for dominance of the Ohio River Valley that makes compelling reading. The lives of notable pioneer families (Zanes, Bradys, Wetzels), incursions of traders, explorers, colonists, adventurers and the historic exploits of George Washington, Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark and others intersect. A biographer of Shawnee chief Tecumseh (A Sorrow in Our Heart), Eckert emphasizes the sudden, overwhelming movement of whites into Native American lands and the Indians’ initial restraint and tolerance, followed by furious raids, wars and expulsions. Maps. (Nov.)
Bernstein
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