[MarcSnelling]

The Tutelo Spirit Adoption
Ceremony

Re-clothing the Living in
The Name of the Dead

Frank G. Speck

Transcriptions and Analysis
of Tutelo Music

George Herzog

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Department of Public Instruction

Pennsylvania Historical Commission

Harrisburg

1942

ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate 1: Frontispiece. Necklace of shell disk beads placed about Candidate’s neck in Tutelo Adoption Ceremony

Plate 2. Group of Cayuga in festival costume

Place 3 John Buck, Sr.

Plate 4 Portraits of Mrs. James Hess
Plate 5 Lower Cayuga Long House, Six Nations Reserve

Figure 1 Tutelo water drum

Figure 2 Older form of Tutelo drumstick; Tutelo striking stick 24
Figure 3 Hand rattle of cow horn; Tutelo drumstick

Figure 4. Tutelo deer hoof knfee rattles

Figure 5. Looped strings of wampum and glass beads used in Tutelo Adoption Rite
List of Symbols Used in Ground Plans
Schematic Chart of Sequence of Action in Adoption Rite

Examples of Tutelo Music

INTRODUCTION
THE TUTELO INDIANS IN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY

The Tutelo Indians whose rites of mourning and adoption form the subject of Doctor Speck’s paper were one of several remnant tribes to play a part in the history of the Pennsylvania frontier during the 18th century. They were a Siouan-speaking people whose earlier home lay to the south in the piedmont and eastern foothills of Virginia. Dislodged from that region by the attacks of the Iroquois, the Tutelo were finally forced after a series of migrations, to seek protection from their foes in the vicinity of the white settlements. Thereafter, factors arising from Indian-European contact accelerated their numerical and cultural decline to such a degree that they finally sought protection of the Six Nations and removed to the north. Residing for brief periods in Pennsylvania and in New York the Tutelo finally migrated to Canada, where their descendants survive to the present day. During their sojourn in Pennsylvania, the Adoption Ceremony must have been given as a recurring festival in the religious cycle of the tribe, whenever the death of a Tutelo called forth its performance.

Definition was first given the Virginia Siouans both as confederated and individual tribes in the chronicles of the Jamestown colonists. During his journey up the Rappahannock river in 1608, Captain John Smith met with a large Siouan hunting party. From one of its members whom he made prisoner, Smith obtained some general facts on the territories of the piedmont tribes, their alliances and warfares, and their mode of life (Mooney, 26). 1 On his well-known map of Virginia (11624) the names of five Indian groups composing the Monacan Confederacy are placed along the upper and middle courses of the James river. Two of these, the Monahassanugh and the Monasuckapanough, shown as farthest removed from the English settlement, have since been identified as the Tutelo and Saponi, respectively (Bushnell, 1930, 13, 17).

The term Monahassanugh, as well as the later Nessoneicks of Bland (165), Nahyssan of Lederer (1670), and Hanohaski of Batts (1671) are all considered to be forms of Yesang, a native word meaning “people” and presumable applied by all of the Siouan tribes of Virginia to themselves. It has been pointed out that this stem, if combined with the prefix mono, “land, earth”, of the southern (Catawba) division, forms a compound meaning “people of the land”(Speck, 1935, 205). An alternative possibility suggested by the writer is the combination of

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1 Reference is thus made by author and page to the historical sources compiled at the end of the Introduction.

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yesang with the prefix, mani, “waters” of the northern Siouan division (Tutelo), to mean “people of the water (stream?).”

In its various forms, the designation Tutelo, Totero, or Todiricheroone has been shown to be a generic Iroquois name for all the Siouan peoples of the southeast. During and after their removal to the north, this term became more common in the historical records as applied to a particular tribe. According to an early student (Hale, 11(, the term has no translatable meaning to the ears of either the Tutelo or the Iroquois, hence its possible adoption by the latter from some southern tribe.

The term Saponi (Monicikapanough) was apparently restricted to a particular tribe which continued in close association and merged with the Tutelo during their subsequent history.

Following their initial encounter with the parties of Smith, and of Newport in 1608, the Virginia Siouans continued in isolation from white contact for several generations. During this period the impact of European civilization was borne, of course, byt he coastal Algonkian through whom alien influences filtered slowly and with diminished effect. by the middle of the century, however, English penetration of the eastern piedmont was under way. In 1643 a part of whites was authorized to explore the country west and south of the Appomattox river, with the right to trade for fourteen years. Stringent laws were enacted by Virginia in 1665 for the government of the Indians and thereafter, their chiefs were appointed by the governor. At this time most of the Siouan villages were still located beyond the settlements, since a census of 1669 refers solely to the easternmost (Monacan) division (Mooney, 28(.

Their frontier position, however, did not serve to protect the foothill Siouans against aggressive influences from another quarter. Beginning at an unknown date prior to white contact, the Indians of Maryland and Virginia became subject to the attack of Iroquois warriors from the north. In 1608 aggression from this source was already under way. John Smith learned from the Indians with whom he came in contact that the Massawomeke, as their enemies were called, made war upon all the world; the both coastal and foothill tribes regarded them as mortal foes; and that even the powerful Susquehanna at the head of Chesapeake were palisaded in towns against them (quoted by Mooney, 13(. The decimation of the Mannnahoac tribes, reflect in part by the expulsion of the Rechahecrians, possibly Shackaconia and Nahyssan, from the highlands in the middle 17th century (Bushnell, 1935, 14(, is perhaps to be traced to the same agency. The effects of these and subsequent raids are well summarized in the following comment, “the great over-mastering fact in the history of the Siouan tribes of the east is that of their destruction by the Iroquois.” (Mooney, 14).

In assigning responsibility for those conquests to the Iroquois, care should be exercised in defining the particular groups involved. Monney’s identification (12-13) of the Massawomeké as the Five Nations is no longer acceptable in light of recent investigation. There is no question that after the conquest of the Susquhanna in 1675, the Seneca and Oneida pursued the fleeing remnants into Virginia and thereafter carried on a war of expulsion against their Siouan allies. Prior to this date, however, the contacts of the Five Nations with the southern Indians could scarcely have been of much importance. Evidence based upon”investigations of Hewitt and Hunt questioning the above mentioned identification has recently been published by Fenton 235). Thus, for example, in Smith’s day, the Five Nations were a beaten people hiding with palisaded towns to escape attack by nearby foes; they had at this period no contact with French traders, as Smith believed; and until their overthrow by the Maryland colonists, the Susquehanna constituted a barrier against any major thrust to the south by the Five Nations. It is, therefore, considered more probable that the Massawomeke were Pennsylvania Iroquois (Brule’s Carantouan) residing upon the upper Susquehanna, above Wyoming, who carried internecine warfare not only down the river and into Virginia, but also north against the League itself.

First white contact with the Tutelo, Saponi and other highland groups awaited upon the expeditions of Lederer (1670), and of Batts (1671). An earlier reference by Bland (1650) shows the Nessonnnneicks still resident upon the upper James, and the allied Occaneechi situatied upon and island in the Roanoke (quoted by Speck, 1935, 211-12). Starting at the falls of the James, Lederer traveled southwestward through Virginia and North Carolina. After leaving the Monacan village two days journey above the falls, he arrived at tht e village of the Saponi located by Monney (30) on the Otter river, a tributary of the Staunton, southwest of present Lynchburg, Virginia. Not far distant on the same river, according to Lederer, was located another town, Pentahae, at which the Nahyssan chief lived. Lederer next visited the Occaneechi at the island village in the Roanoke, below the confluence of the Staunton and the Dan, near the present Clarksville, Virginia. The following year the expedition of Batts and Fallam visited two Saponi villages, probably the same as those mentioned by Lederer, and farther to the southwest, the Tutelo town. Mooney places the latter on the headwaters of the Dan river, well within the mountains.

From Lederer’s remarks on the Siouan people whom he met, it is possible to form a general picture, at least of their history at that period. Despite his statement that the Nahyssan had been at war with the whites for ten years, it is not probable that any pressure was as yet being exerted upon them by the colonists. Nor is it likely that aggression from the Iroquois (Massawomeke) of the upper Susquehanna continued to this late date, while the Five Nations were still to clear a path to the south. Instead, from casual statements of Lederer, contacts at this time or even earlier had been established by the Nahyssan, both with the Susquehanna proper and certain southern tribes located near the Spanish settlements. From the latter Indians they obtained pearls, silver and other articles in trade or by raiding. The island village of the Occaneechi, described as the great trade center “for all Indians for at least 500 miles,” probably played an important role in the intertribal commerce (Mooney, 54(. Its wealth in furs in 1676 was sufficiently great to bring down and attack by Bacon’s forces.

That friendly trade relations were maintained with the Susquehanna Indians of upper Chesapeake is suggested by observations of Lederer and of Batts. Both parties were greeted upon their approach to the Siouan villages by a friendly discharge of firearms, indicating that the frontier tribes at this time were already supplied with guns. The immediate source of such wares is revealed in the instructions of Lederer to white trades. He recommends that upon nearing an Indian village, the trader ascertain from his native guide whether the inhabitants have held communication with the Susquehanna. If so, the trading party should indicate its approach by a discharge of guns. In the case of more isolated tribe, such a signal was to be omitted as a possible cause for alarm and flight. In evaluating this data, Mooney (32) concludes ït would seem that the Susquehanna living at the head of Chesapeake Bay were the medium through which the Virginia and Carolina Indians obtained firearms.” The familiarity of this Iroquoian group with the southern piedmont is further attested by the fact that one of Lederer’s guides was a Susquehanna. Further, a portion of the Susquehanna after their conquest in 1676 sought refuge among the Occaneechi, “with whom they had long been on friendly terms” (Mooney, 54).

A brief review of recorded Susquehanna history reveals that they, like the Five Nations to the north, quickly seized he role of intermediary in Indian-European commerce. With the development of the fur trade, the upper Chesapeake Iroquois took over trading activities between surrounding tribes and the white settlements. Trade relations, confirmed archaeologically by Cadzow (84-92, 126-132), were established with Dutch outposts as early as 1615, and continued thereafter with the Swedes and English. A dominant position, perhaps already in existence or gained shortly thereafter over their neighbors, secured to them

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control of the fur

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