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I posted this recently to my Mingo-EGADs language group, thought I should share it here.
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Learned something interesting recently. It was in a documentary, “The Last of the Tutelo” sponsored by the George Washington National Forest, where a lot of archeological research on a Tutelo site has been done (Totero Town). This is near Roanoke, VA. The script was largely straightforward summaries of historical texts, some of which I recognized.
The narrative stated that Shickellamy’s wife was a Tutelo lady. If we assume that Tutelo roughly equates to Sapony, which in turn relates to (Eastern) Blackfoot identifications, and we know that Shickellamy’s son was John Logan who we associate with WV Mingoes, then that goes to explain the “Blackfoot of the Seneca” references to West Virginia.
As Philip summarized for us last year on this list:
Shikellemus, according to Crantz (Hist. of the Brethren, 269, 1780), was a white man, taken prisoner in Canada and reared among the Natives, and was later made chief of all or a part of the Natives residing at Shamokin. He is usually spoken of as a Cayuga chief, while others call him a Mingo, the common term in the colonial period for those Iroquois living beyond their proper boundaries. Bartram says he was a Frenchman born in Montreal, but as a prisoner was adopted by the Oneida.
I also learned in this documentary that there was a noticeable community of Tutelo in Shamokin during that time. Since they were among the first Natives to meet with the “Indian school” experience (ca. 1715 in Fort Christanna, VA), those at Shamokin would have been English speaking, some perhaps literate, and found themselves often brought into diplomatic functions for that reason. A marriage between a lady from these people and a white adoptee would make sense, in the sense that they shared anglicization, and that they would be logically useful in the same capacity as go-betweens. (met “on the job”?? hehe)
In 1753 some Tutelo were adopted by the Cayuga. Interesting coincidence that the Appalachian Iroquois language resembles Cayuga so much? I would like to think that the Mingo language is Cayuga with a Tutelo accent.
There are some Cayuga at Six Nations who descend from the Tutelo who ended up there. They continue to observe some of their customs. Maybe a little incentive for some of us on the list with this “Blackfoot” heritage to persevere with our Mingo studies. We might get to offer a few appropriate phrases to these Lower Cayuga cousins someday.
I know three of the people interviewed in this documentary, John Blackfeather, Lawrence Dunsmore and Forrest Hazel. I’ll beat the bushes and see if I can get a shortcut to the original sources for some of this information.
Linda
[This message has been edited by Linda (edited 04-03-2001).]
Mecou Linda, is this Tutelo Town site documentary the same as the Occaneechi Town site that University of North Carolina has on CD-ROM? If it is a different one please let me know how to obtain it. Bila huk, Cotton Top (Scott)
Yes, this is a different tape. We have a copy of a copy of a copy. I was just thinking about contacting those people at George Washington Forest and finding out about getting a few fresh copies. It was packed with information. To anybody else, it would be dull, but for us, it’s invaluable.
I’ll look into it.
No they are not the same sites. Tutelo (Totero) town was near present day Roanoke based upon the tape. They moved to an island next to Occaneechi Town in Clarksville. They may have for a while called this island Tutelo town.
I believe what is on the CD is Occaneechi Town in Hillsborough where many of the Occaneechi moved to shorthly after the Bacon battle. This is where UNC did their work on the Occaneechi.
Barry Carter
Now this is going way back…… I’d like to see some references to the availabilityt on “The great Trading path”, some of these videos etc may just sell there.
I did track down the owners of the copyright and hte dubbing masters. It was done by a Planetarium in or outside of Roanoke. They have no plans to re-issue it. Basically, they’ll sell the master for I believe $800 bucks. I let some tribal leaders know about it, but I don’t think anybody has done anything with it. It’s probably still sitting there, gathering dust.
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