The Mohetans.

Dan,

Here is another name I was not familiar with until today.

History of Ohio Co. WV:

The first native settlers in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle (Brooke, Hancock, Ohio and Marshall counties) were the Mound Builders, also known as the ADENA people.

According to missionary reports, several thousand Hurons occupied present-day West Virginia during the late 1500s and early 1600s. During the 1600s, the Iroquois Confederacy (then consisting of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida and Seneca tribes) drove the Hurons from the state. The Iroquois Confederacy was headquartered in New York and was not interested in occupying present-day West Virginia. Instead, they used it as a hunting ground during the spring and summer months.

During the early 1700s, the Northern Panhandle was also used as a hunting ground by the Mingo, who lived in the Tygart Valley and along the Ohio River, and 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 Mingo were not actually an Indian tribe, but a multi-cultural group of Indians that established several communities within present-day West Virginia.

Brenda,

Is that new word you came across, “ADENA” ?

Did a looking poking on the ‘net and there doesn’t seem to be much online about Mohetons, or the Tomaheton Cherokee. I did stumble across something I found a bit odd and interesting.

Here is a link to a page that the following paragraph is taken from

http://www.distantcousin.com/links/Ethnic/Native/Algonquian.html

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The Ani-Stohini/Unami Nation

From the site :

An Algonquian language group speaking Native American tribe located in the rural Appalachian Mountain Counties of Washington, Smyth, Grayson, Wythe, Carroll, Patrick, and Floyd in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in Surry County, North Carolina. Due to historical blood ties to the Cherokee, we are sometimes referred to as the Turtle Clan Cherokee, even though ours is a different language and culture. We have also been referred to by both our Indian neighbors and historians as the Tutelo or Tutera tribe as well as the Turtle Indians, Xualans, Mohetans, Hansthaskies, and various other names. The tribe has applied for federal recognition and is very active in regional and national politics.

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Some of this info seems to contradict the historic record, at least as they are widely interpreted. Maybe I’m just misinterpreting this paragraph. At any rate, the web link given for this tribe is now defunct.

Digging a little further with a search for “The Ani-Stohini/Unami Nation” I came across this:

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The Ani-Stohini/Unami Nation is a small Indian tribe located in the mountains of southern Appalachia primarily in the seven mountain counties of Carroll, Grayson, Wythe, Washington, Smyth, Patrick, and Floyd in the state of Virginia and Surry and Alleghany Counties in North Carolina.

Historically the people have been linked to the Catabaw to the South and southeast, to the Cherokee to the south and southwest, to the Shawnee, to the Delaware of the Ohio Valley, as well as Siouan speaking peoples. The people themselves have been called over forty different names throughout history. It is possible that the people come from an ancient peoples who have resided in the area for over fourteen thousand years. The original Tla Wilano language probably didn’t resemble the modern language which may also contain elements of Iroquoian Cherokee and Algonquin Delaware on top of the remains of the original language.

The tribe is one of nine tribes located in Virginia and one of many tribes located in North Carolina. Traditional villages were located along the high forks of the Holston River, along the New River, and south along the drainage streams from the high country to the Dan and Mayo Rivers and South. In North Carolina settlement extended from the southern villages west to Sauratown with Chichilaweechi(Pilot Mountain) being the southern boundary and up again into the mountains of Alleghany County, N.C.

The tribe has been active in politics, helping 9th District Congressman Rick Boucher to save the Indian Child Welfare Act and by networking with Senator John Warner to help gain federal protection for the Appalachian Mountain Bog Turtle(see our Bog Turtle Site). In addition, the tribal government has worked for over three years with Virginia’s Migrant Health Network to better the lives of Hispanic Migrant workers who come to our area, some of whom are Indigenous speaking peoples from Mexico and Guatemala.

The tribe remains one of the poorest tribes in the United States. While the tribe is petitioning for federal acknowledgement, it remains the only tribe in the eastern United States with a tribal language still intact that does not have federal status. The tribe receives no aid from the state or federal governments. Most of the people live in rural communities and exist below the poverty level. Farming, limited factory work, and service industries make up the majority of employment.

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The preceding was taken from this website:

http://www.expage.com/page/tlawilano1

I’m not familiar with these folks, other than what I’ve just found and shared. Just thought someone might find it interesting.

Randall

It was two Doeg Indians who got into a clash on the Matthews plantation, were cheated in a trade and stole some hogs in return. They were shot, and then several people on the plantation were killed in retribution. The Doegs ran off, and some British went after them. They came upon some Susquehannocks minding their own business who happened to have some of the booty from the raid on the Matthews plantation. Their fortress was besieged and Bacon’s Rebellion was underfoot. It was this war that toppled the Occoneechee and ended the political autonomy and prosperity of all the Piedmont Siouan.

Ten years earlier, when the explorer was killed, his name’s on the tip of my tongue, in a clash with an Occaneechi, the Yuchi were involved. I’ve heard some say they were really the Cherokee, but it seems to me there was a lot of political wrangling go on. Arthur was captured and taken on a huge odyssey throughout the south, up to Ohio and down to Florida I believe. Prof. Brice (right name?) surmised that the popular will among the Yuchi was to protec the Occoneechee and kill Arthur to silence him as a witness, but the leadership took him on this huge tour to keep him safe, then deliver him up to the British. It seems like a decision was being made to get rid of the Occoneechee, who stood in the way of trade with anyone to the west of them.

If this is correct, then the Yuchi would not likely be Siouan. I think the word Tomahitan also comes up in these accounts, but I don’t recall offhand.

Linda,

The explorer you were trying to think of (that was killed) was James Needham. Gabriel Arthur accompanied him on his trek into present day Tennessee. They were both in the employ of Abraham Wood at the time. A letter from Abraham Wood to John Richards in London gave the account of the events of that journey, including the death of Needham. The journey of Needham and Arthur began in April of 1673 and ended, at least for Arthur, in June of 1674. The letter written by Wood was dated August 22, 1674 and was, for the most part, a retelling of the events Arthur described to him.

The book “Early Travels in the Tennessee Country 1540-1800” by Samuel Cole Williams contains a well annotated account of this story, including the full letter of Abraham Wood. I have just recently read it and scanned back over it again after reading this thread. I do not see any mention of the Yuchi in this account, at least not by name. Also, Gabriel Arthur was not technically captured by anyone.

The man that allegedly killed James Needham was an Occaneechi known as Indian John. The other Indians in the party were “Tomahitans” (as spelled in the letter); part of the Cherokee Nation. The party of Tomahitans, along with Needham, had been staying in the town of the Occaneechis just prior to Needham’s death. Apparently, the Occaneechis blamed the Tomahitans for killing Needham. Arthur was not with this party at the time; Needham had left him back in the Tomahitan’s town in order to learn their language.

Whatever the details of the political intrigues were, it seems that some of the Tomahitans were friendlier with the Occaneechis than others among them were. At Indian John’s urging, according to the account, they returned home to kill Arthur. The Tomahitan chief intervened, violently, and saved Arthur’s life. He took Arthur into his home and, subsequently, involved him in quite an adventure before finally escorting him back to Abraham Wood.

According to Williams’ book, these Tomahitan Cherokee were originally Mohetans that had been abosorbed into the Cherokee Nation. As the account relates, these Tomahitan still had close ties with the Mohetans (alternately referred to as Monetons) in Virginia during the time of these events.

The account is too lengthy to do it justice here, but it’s highly interesting reading and probably a must read as early historic reference pertinent to this forum. There are several tribal groups mentioned or directly involved in the story, including various Siouan peoples. Interestingly, the individual in the Tomahitan camp that was most bent on killing Gabriel Arthur was reportedly a Waxhaw Indian that was living amongst them. The inter-relations of the various tribes and the geographically broad reach of most of them, I think, is really under appreciated or realized by many people today.

Randall

Originally posted by Brenda Collins Dillon

Dan,

Here is another name I was not familiar with until today.

The Adena are thought to have built the Serpent’s Mound in Southern Ohio and are quite ancient.