Protohistory of West Virginia
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The
protohistoric Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in ...
period of the state of
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
in the United States began in the mid-sixteenth century with the arrival of European trade goods. Explorers and colonists brought these goods to the eastern and southern coasts of North America and were brought inland by native trade routes. This was a period characterized by increased intertribal strife, rapid population decline, the abandonment of traditional life styles, and the extinction and migrations of many Native American groups. Written accounts of the area begin by the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century with the scattered documentation and journals of early explorers. These accounts frequently portray a sparsely inhabited area, possibly due to the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
wars to monopolize the European fur trade or the devastating effects of new diseases introduced by Europeans.


Archaeological cultures

During the climatic warming of the
Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from to . Proxy (climate), Climate proxy records show peak warmth oc ...
(900–1200 CE), the introduction of the bow and arrow and maize led many Late Woodland period groups in Eastern and Southern North America to develop sedentary agriculture based societies, which lead to larger populations. The harsh droughts and cold winters during the
Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...
(sixteenth to nineteenth centuries), put these larger groups under severe social stress as they competed for scarcer resources, such as less timber, less fertile farm land and fewer game animals. These groups were already unstable when Europeans arrived during the sixteenth century with superior weapons and diseases to which the native populations had no resistance. Many of these groups are now only known through the archaeological record.


Fort Ancient and Monongahela

Groups of the Fort Ancient and
Monongahela culture The Monongahela culture were an Iroquoian Native American cultural manifestation of Late Woodland peoples from AD 1050 to 1635 in present-day western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. The culture was named by Mary ...
s lived in the western part of the state (and in the adjoining states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Kentucky) along the
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
and its tributaries. Late Fort Ancient (1400 to 1750) and Late Monongahela (1580 to 1635) peoples began consolidating their villages into larger settlements with more defensive measures such as wooden
palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...
s during this time. Archaeologists suggest that this means that intergroup strife had increased, with the smaller settlements amalgamating into larger entities for mutual protection. These cultures were very similar and were both influenced by
Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern United States, Midwestern, Eastern United States, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from appr ...
s to their south and west. Exotic trade items from the Mississippian regions have been found in excavated Fort Ancient and Monongahela villages. These items include
shell gorget Shell gorgets are a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated (pierced with openings). Shell gorgets were mos ...
s from Eastern Tennessee, a head pot similar to those produced in the Central Mississippi Valley by the peoples of the Middle Mississippian Parkin and
Nodena phase The Nodena phase is an archaeological phase in eastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri of the Late Mississippian culture which dates from about 1400–1650 CE. The Nodena phase is known from a collection of villages along the Mississippi Ri ...
s, and pottery with motifs and decoration methods connected with Angel phase sites in the Lower Ohio Valley. Such items made their way into this region through long established native trade routes. European items were deposited into the archaeological record at sites such as Lower Shawneetown and Hardin Village in nearby Greenup County, Kentucky and the Buffalo, Rolf Lee and
Clover site The Clover site (46CB40) is a Fort Ancient culture archeological site located near Lesage in Cabell County, West Virginia, United States. It is significant for its well-preserved remains of a late prehistoric/protohistoric Native American vill ...
s in Putnam,
Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...
and
Cabell Cabell is both a surname and a given name. The Cabell family has "been prominent in Virginia since the American Revolution." Notable people with the name include: Surname: * Charles P. Cabell (1903–1971), United States Air Force, CIA * Earle Cab ...
Countys in West Virginia, which have all produced European metal objects dated after 1550. These objects came from Spanish, French, and English explorers who had begun to explore the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast of the present United States by the sixteenth century. One such expedition that left objects in the archaeological record was the de Soto Entrada of the early 1540s, which encountered many Late Mississippian groups. This expedition spent almost four years trekking from Florida up to the eastern Tennessee region, down through Alabama, across Mississippi to Eastern Arkansas, through Northern Louisiana and into Texas, before doubling back to Arkansas and down the Mississippi to Mexico by way of the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
. These groups were extinct by the time Europeans colonized West Virginia, either becoming victims of European diseases, which at times had as much as a 90% death rate among Native American populations, or migrating to other areas to avoid intergroup warfare such as the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
wars to control the
fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...
. The Franquelin map of Ohio also shows an unidentified tribe labelled the ''"Casa"'' as existing roughly in the region of what is now Ohio which was once occupied by the Monongahela.louis, franquelin, jean baptiste. "Franquelin's map of Louisiana.". LOC.gov. Retrieved August 17, 2017. It's possible that this name could be connected to them. Archaeology has also shown odd traits among the people, such as domestication of turkeys & the building of stone walls across certain mountain valleys. The uses of the walls are unknown, but they may have been used to control movement through the regions & seem to have also been used as traps to pen in and slaughter Forest Buffalo & other large game, according to a great deal of animal bones found at such sites. Archaeology seems to show an influx of Siouan speaking people into the region forcing them to the northernmost reaches of their territory during the 15th & 16th centuries and a possible union with the Fort Ancient culture to the west. ''See also Shenandoah.''


Historic groups

This region was inhabited by members of several different major language families when Europeans first arrived. These groups shared similar cultures, but spoke languages that had diverged from each other over thousands of years. Archaeological cultures such as the Monongahela and Fort Ancient groups may have been confederacies whose constituent members did not all speak a common language instead of individual tribes or communities. The major language groups inhabiting the West Virginia region were the
Central Algonquian The Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though the grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping, not a geneti ...
,
Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian la ...
and Ohio Valley Siouan. In the seventeenth century, Native Americans groups had not yet formed the large political "tribes" known from the historical era during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and many tribal names used in historical literature do not apply in the seventeenth century. Many tribal names were actually amalgamations of earlier groups that had been decimated by wars and disease and banded together for mutual safety. Groups were also known by many different names, which also made identifying specific groups difficult. Group names were often recorded before the group met Europeans, and was frequently the name that enemies knew them by and in a different language family from what the group themselves spoke. These names were then transliterated into several European written languages, particularly French, English, Dutch, and Spanish. These European languages often had different phonetic stylings for the foreign languages of the Native Americans, and this translation and transliteration was conducted in an era before many modern writing conventions, resulting in inconsistent spelling, grammar and alphabetic characters.


Algonquian groups

The
Algonquian peoples The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...
were one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. They were most concentrated in the New England region. The
Central Algonquian languages The Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though the grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping, not a geneti ...
are a subgroup of the Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic language family. The languages are grouped together because they were spoken near each other, not because they are any closer related to one another than to any other Algonquian language. Within the Central Algonquian grouping, the only languages known to be more closely related to each other than to any other Algonquian languages are
Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
and
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
. However, there is some evidence for a larger subbranch "Eastern Great Lakes" or "Core Central", consisting of
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
-
Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
,
Miami-Illinois Miami-Illinois (endonym: , ) also known as Irenwa, or Irenwe is an indigenous Algonquian language spoken in the United States, primarily in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, western Ohio and adjacent areas along the Mississippi River by the Miami a ...
, Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo, and
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
, and excluding Cree-Montagnais and Menominee. At the time of the European arrival, the ''Haudenosaunee'' or
Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
was regularly at war with its Algonquian neighbours and forced other tribes out of Iroquois-occupied territories.


Shawnee

This tribe, known variously as the ''
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
'', ''Chaouanon'', ''Shaawanwaki'', ''Shaawanooki'', ''Shaawanowi lenaweeki'', ''Sawanogi'', ''Sawanons'' and ''Savanoa'', was one of the more mobile of the tribes encountered by early European explorers. They occupied areas Delaware and Pennsylvania to the Ohio Valley region in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, the
Cumberland River The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and ...
region of Central Tennessee, and in Georgia, where the
Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...
is named for them. The tribe consisted of a number of autonomous subdivisions known as "septs" who shared a common language and culture: the
Mekoche Mekoche (or Mequachake, Shawnee: ''mecoce'') was the name of one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Kispoko, Pekowi, and Hathawekela. ...
, Pekowi,
Chalahgawtha Chalahgawtha (or, more commonly in English, Chillicothe) was the name of one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. It was also the name of the principal village of the division. The ot ...
,
Hathawekela Hathawekela (also spelled Oawikila, Thaawikila, Thawegila, Shawnee: ''θawikila'', French: ''Chalaqua'') was one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native American people during the 18th century. The other four divisions were the ...
and
Kispoko Kispoko (also spelled Kiscopocoke, Kispokotha, Spitotha) is the name of one of the five divisions (or septs) of the Shawnee, a Native American people. The Kispoko were the smallest of the five septs or divisions during the 18th century. They lived ...
. This tribe may have been indigenous to the West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky area and could be descendants of the Fort Ancient or Monangahela cultures. Some protohistoric Shawnee villages have been found at locations that were former Fort Ancient sites, such as Lower Shawneetown. Their mobile lifestyle may have been due to being driven from their ancestral homelands by the Iroquois Confederacy. They are usually described as being in a near constant state of war with the Iroquois Confederacy, who were making inroads during the protohistoric period into the Ohio Valley region in a bid to control the fur trade. The Shawnee, under
Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...
, sided with the British during the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
and were removed to the west of the Mississippi River after the war. Like the Cisca ( Yuchi territory) in neighboring
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, this area's Shawnee Cheskepe village originally traded with the Spanish. Kentucky is derived from an Iroquois word, kentáke, meaning "where prairies are." Another Shawnee village known as Eskippakithiki was located on Upper Howard Creek (Kentucky River Basin) was called "kenta aki," meaning the "place of level land," by the Iroquois. A few peculiar artifacts are found in collections from the curious protohistoric period. At Madisonville, intertribal trade ending in the 1610s included Basque kettle parts and Clarksdale bell type associated with the "de Soto entrada" variety of artifacts, and other. Basque kettle parts and brass have been found similar to a few St. Lawrence River early protohistoric fisherman locations. The Algonquian language of Core Central consists of Ojibwe–Potawatomi, Shawnee, Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo, and Miami-Illinois — Eastern Great Lakes languages. The Shawnee attacked the
Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...
in the winter of 1661–1662. The Onondaga also attacked the Shawnee village of Ontouagannha on the Ohio River eight years earlier. In April, 1663, the Susquehannock village on the upper Ohio River was attacked by
Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...
,
Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...
, and Onondaga. The Treaty of Camp Charlotte, 1774 finalized in 1775 by Captain John Connolly, invited a final local phratry of splinter Shawnee, Chief Cornstalk's sister, Nonhelema clan, to live about the Mouth of the Kanawha. Among the Cornstalk oratory, there is a story of young Kentucky warriors who mistakenly massacrued "Spiritual or Holy People" in southwest Kentucky. This young gang's trophies were declared not Spanish by the elders upon return to Kentucky counsel. A similar story was told by other Shawnee to the 1770s surveyors at the Scioto village (Thomas Bullitt 1773 with Shawnees at Chillicothe, also similar legend explored by Joseph 2010:78). The now old Chief at the Mouth of the Kanawha explained why they passed beyond the western of the state to build their towns on the Scioto valley in western
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. This policy also applied to game taking in West Virginia. Ouabano was a band of Mohicans or Eastern
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
, like the others westerly of the state, who traded with the Spanish before the French arrival. It was Minsis and Mohican who led some Shawnee from Lower Ohio Valley in 1692 to join the Minisink villagers of the Delaware (Hanna 1911:158). Soon, these provided guides followed by the Viele of Albany Expedition. The Shawnee arrived later in the century by 1697 on the Eastern Panhandle with Sauvanoos from the south east colonies (Darlington; Hanna). Batts and Fallams, 1671, briefly mentions an abandoned Mohican village (Mohecan as transcribed journal entry date September 16, 1671, Summers 1929) on the Kanawha-New River area. Beginning in the late 18th century on modern maps, Big and Little Loup creeks are found opposite of
Alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
bottom below the Kanawha Falls about three miles. It is about two miles upstream of Mt Carbon of Armstrong Creek with local ancient stone wall legends occasionally heard. Delaware Chief Bull's old town, son of Teedyuscung, of
Burnsville Lake Burnsville Lake is both a recreational and flood control reservoir on Little Kanawha River located southeast of Burnsville in Braxton County, West Virginia. Burnsville Lake was authorized by the U.S. Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1938. Co ...
Wildlife Management Area in Braxton County, dates from 1754 through 1772. They migrated to the White River, eighteen miles from the Wabash. Of these and colonial assimilation, there are still some descendants living in West Virginia


Iroquoian groups

The
Iroquoian languages The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian la ...
have a common historical and cultural origin, which later diverged to create different languages.
Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
evidence shows that Iroquois ancestors lived in the Finger Lakes and surrounding regions from at least 1000 CE. These languages include Mohawk, Huron-Wyandot, Neutral, Erie and
Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, among others. Members of the Iroquois Confederacy (
Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...
,
Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...
,
Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida Na ...
,
Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada * Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...
and Mohawk) speak Iroquoian languages that are distinctly different from those of other Iroquoian speakers. In 1649 the tribes constituting the
Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
and Petun confederations were displaced by war parties from the Iroquois Confederacy. Many of the survivors went on to form the
Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language * Wyandot religion Places * Wyandot, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Wyandot County, Ohio * Camp Wyandot, a Camp Fire Boys and ...
tribe. The languages of the tribes that constituted these confederations were very poorly documented. These groups were called ''Atiwandaronk'' meaning 'they who understand the language' by the
Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
, and thus are historically grouped with them. After becoming united in the League, the Iroquois invaded the Ohio River Valley in present-day
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
to seek additional hunting grounds. One theory is that the Iroquois had pushed tribes of the
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
valley, such as the Quapaw (Akansea) & Saponi, out of the region in a migration west of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
by around 1200 CE, however Iroquoian tribes no longer held this land by the 17th century.
Robert La Salle The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
listed the
Mosopelea The Mosopelea, or Ofo, were a Siouan-speaking Native American people who historically inhabited the upper Ohio River. In reaction to Iroquois Confederacy invasions to take control of hunting grounds in the late 17th century, they moved south to t ...
among the Ohio Valley peoples defeated by the Iroquois in the early 1670s, during the
Beaver Wars The Beaver Wars ( moh, Tsianì kayonkwere), also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (french: Guerres franco-iroquoises) were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout t ...
. These Siouan-speaking groups had settled in the Midwest by 1673, establishing what became known as their historical territories. Just as the Siouan peoples were displaced by the Iroquois, they displaced less powerful tribes whom they encountered in the Midwest, such as the
Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode b ...
, who moved further west. Iroquoian cultural was matrilineal, several families of girls and brothers from the same maternal lineage shared a longhouse. A married man moved into his wife's longhouse. Unlike the
Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
of upstate New York, West Virginia saw no large centralized sovereign national governments of Native Americans. The extent of ''proto-Iroquoia'' and ''proto-Shanwan'' cultural and language in West Virginia was similar to the
St. Lawrence Iroquoians The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were an Iroquoian Indigenous people who existed from the 14th century to about 1580. They concentrated along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and in the American states o ...
' (
Laurentian language Laurentian, or St. Lawrence Iroquoian, was an Iroquoian language spoken until the late 16th century along the shores of the Saint Lawrence River in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Canada. It is believed to have disappeared with the extinction ...
). By the fourteenth century, a distinct St. Lawrence Iroquoian culture had created fortified villages and introduced corn to the St. Lawrence valley.


Susquehannock

The
Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...
(an Algonquian name meaning "people of the muddy river" adopted by the English of Maryland and Virginia) were known by a variety of
ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
s such as the ''Andastes'' by the French (adapted from the
Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
name ''Andastoerrhonon'', meaning "people of the blackened ridge pole,) the ''Minquas'' by the Dutch and Swedes (adapted from the
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
name for their traditional enemy, which meant "treacherous"), and the ''Conestogas'' by the English of Pennsylvania (adapted from ''Kanastoge'' or "place of the immersed pole", the name of a Susquehanna village in Pennsylvania), although their Iroquoian autonym is unknown. The Susquehannock were separated into two groups known as the White Minquas and the Black Minquas. The White Minquas were located in villages along the
Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
and its tributaries from Pennsylvania to southern New York. The Black Minqua were located in the
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
( Grant,
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
and
Hardy Hardy may refer to: People * Hardy (surname) * Hardy (given name) * Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica * Mount Hardy, Enderby Land * Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island * Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands Australia * Hardy, Sout ...
counties) and
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
( Allegany County) areas that share the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...
as a border. They may have been part of the
Erie people The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvani ...
, and were bitter enemies of the Iroquois Confederacy for control of the fur trade like their Erie and Huron allies. These tribes ought to have been centered east of the Kanawha River and held little land in what is now West Virginia.


Erie

Erie populi is the earliest recognizable tribal grouping documented, including the northerly region "Riviere de la Ronceverte" of the state. The Huron Map of 1642 shows a river in the Allegheny Mountains delineating French territory from Virginian territory. Another map from 1657 by Francesco Bressani, titled ''Novae Franciae accurata delineatio'', shows the same river of the French Canadien domain adjoining the Virginia domain below the mountain line. The
Erie people The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvani ...
or ''Cat Nation'' (also known as the ''Nation de Chat'', ''Rickohockans'', and ''Rechahecrians'') appear on Edward Bland's "Discovery of New Brittaine" map dated August 31, 1650, in the New River-Holston divide watershed region. Coming from beyond the Monetons, the Rickahockans or Ricahecrians entered Piedmont Virginia in 1656. This eastern Virginia Algonquian phrase referred to "from beyond the mountains." This groups has been identified in various ways, including as ancient Cherokee, as a Cat Nation division called ''Rique'', and as "Riquehronnons" or "Rigueronnons".


Neutrals

The Chonnonton ("people of the deer", or "the people who tend or manage deer") were known as the
Neutral Nation The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or ''Attawandaron'' by neighbouring tribes) were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now southwestern and south-central Ontario in Canada, North America. They lived throughout ...
by the Europeans (first named so in 1615 by
Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fre ...
because they were then at peace with the Iroquois Confederacy and the Hurons) and the ''Attiwandaronk'' by the Hurons, meaning "people whose speech is awry or a little different". They were based in the Hamilton-Niagara district of southwestern Ontario and across the Niagara River in Western New York state but had trading and war alliances with many of the surrounding Iroquoian-speaking peoples including the Petun, Huron, Wenro, Kakwa, Erie, Andasté, Massawomek and the Iroquois Confederacy. During the early seventeenth century the Neutrals had reached a political sophistication previously unknown in this part of the country and may have even been a nascent chiefdom. This chiefdom consisted of ten tribes with a governing council united under a warrior-priest-chief named ''Tsouharissen'' ("Child of the Sun"). Like other groups, their adoption of maize agriculture had let them develop a large population. They were the largest native society in the area in the mid-seventeenth century and may have had a population as high as 40,000 with 4,000 to 6,000 warriors. Unlike other groups, they may have also begun to semi-domesticate white tail deer, as several early reports detail how they kept them in pens to manage them for the lucrative trade in fur and skins. The chiefdom failed in 1646 with the death of the ''Tsouharissen'', and in 1651 the Iroquois Confederacy were able to annihilate their old enemies. By 1671 they are no longer mentioned in the historical records. These early Iroquois or proto-Iroquoians were from an earlier ''Neutralia'' trade network south of the
Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
ian of the Canadien region south of
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
. The Iroquois League destroyed the
Neutral Nation The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or ''Attawandaron'' by neighbouring tribes) were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now southwestern and south-central Ontario in Canada, North America. They lived throughout ...
's trade network by 1653. The Rickohockans arrived in Virginia soon after this. Although both peoples, the Rickahockans and later Westo, were characterized as very aggressive and warring, they were thought to be expelled from
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
by the Iroquois League leaving an estimated 700 to 900 warriors to arrive in the early Virginia colonial trade area.


Siouan groups

Linguistic and historical records indicate a possible southern origin of Siouan peoples, with migrations over a thousand years ago from North Carolina and Virginia to Ohio. Some peoples continued down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and up the Missouri River, and others across Ohio to Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, home of the Dakota. Ohio Valley Siouan (Southeastern Siouan) is a group of related
Siouan languages Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the entire ...
, which included the
Ofo language The Ofo language was a language spoken by the Mosopelea tribe until c. 1673 in what is now Ohio, along the Ohio River. The tribe moved down the Mississippi River to Mississippi, near the Natchez people, and then to Louisiana, settling near the ...
, Biloxi language, and the Tutelo language. The Tutelo language was a group of mutually intelligible dialects spoken by the Tutelo, Monacan,
Manahoac The Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan-language Native Americans (Indigenous people) in northern Virginia at the time of European contact. They numbered approximately 1,000 and lived primarily along the Rappahannock R ...
and Nahyssan confederacies, and Occaneechi in what is now Virginia and West Virginia.


Mosopelea

Franquelin's map of 1684 shows tribal villages of eastern Siouan
Mosopelea The Mosopelea, or Ofo, were a Siouan-speaking Native American people who historically inhabited the upper Ohio River. In reaction to Iroquois Confederacy invasions to take control of hunting grounds in the late 17th century, they moved south to t ...
group, which had been destroyed on the central region
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
. On August 5, 1684, the
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
Iroqouis The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
were encouraged to take control of the Ohio Valley to establish New York trade from the lower half of the Ohio Valley with the French.Broshar, 1920:232. The first documented Albany Trade began with the Vielle of Albany during the 1692–94 expedition. Virginians were already trading with groups in West Virginia at this point.Wood 1674.


Mohetans

The Mohetans were the earliest Native American tribe reported by Virginians in central West Virginia. They are found during the Batts and Fallams' 1671 Expedition, and this expedition also found evidence that others colonists preceded them into the area. Earlier authors considered Mohetan to be a northernmost Mountain Cherokee; today, scholars consider them Eastern Siouan. A "Sepiny" Indian guide of the Sapony River returned to the expeditionary party and reported that he heard a drum and a gunshot towards the north, possibly the Greenbrier or Gauley River valleys. A Mohetan runner met the Virginian and Siouan group to discover whether they were planning to attack or not, and was given ammunition for his European gun. This was prior to Bacon's Rebellion, the Virginian farmers uprising against their locale tribes in 1676.


Monetons and Monecans

Monetons traded with Tomahitans of Holston River Valley and adjoining lower
Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...
region. Today, there is a growing consensus that Monetons were Eastern Siouan and possibly a westerly branch of the
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
Monacan, also known as the Manachee. However, this theory is moderated when looking at the archaeology of Eastern
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
of the Yuchi (Cisca) and the late Clover Phase of West Virginia (1550-1650), although the lingua franca or Virginia trade language, Occaneechi, is thought to be their primary language. This acculturated multi-tribe permitted others to live with them as subordinate Siouan ''Occaneechi''. From 800 to 900 CE, the latest Woodland hamlet farmers (i.e. Drew Tradition) were experiencing milder weather and the introduction of corn. Around 1250, just prior to the Woodland II period (1350–1607), the Monacan, or Algonquian called "Mandoag", were driven by enemies from the northwest into the Piedmont
James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...
region of Virginia. There they found a hunter-gathering people who did not grow corn. Monacan legend reports that they taught the Doeg how to crop farm. The Doeg's language is similar to Piscataway or Nanticoke.


Other historic groups

Many native groups other than the Algonquian, Iroquois, and Sioux also inhabited this area. For example, the Occhenechees, also known as the Akenatzy, were the middle men in the regional trade network. Another group known as the Ocanahonon dressed like Europeans and carried curved swords at a village ten days west beyond the mountains by 1607. Ocanahonon archaeological sites excavated between the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
and the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
in the Ohio Valley have been found with both gun and knife parts. Trade goods found here and in the greater "Riviere de la Ronceverte" were likely the result of intertribal contact.


Canaragay

The Canaragay lived near the
New River (Kanawha River) The New River is a river which flows through the U.S. states of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia before joining with the Gauley River to form the Kanawha River at the town of Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. Part of the Ohio River wate ...
watershed region in north-western
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
area. This southern
Appalachian Mountain The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
chain heads a number of rivers that drain directly to the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
, directly to the Atlantic Ocean and the Ohio Valley thence to the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, which drains to the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
. The west slope of the divide has the Holston River. This area is now part of the Kingsport–Bristol (TN)–Bristol (VA) Metropolitan Statistical Area.
John Lederer John Lederer was a 17th-century German physician and an explorer of the Appalachian Mountains. He and the members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains (1669) and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the ...
, on behalf of the colonial governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, made expeditions into the Appalachians in 1669 and 1670 reaching the mouth of the Kanawha River and reported no hostilities on the Kanawha Valley from the early "Cherokee People". He settled in western Maryland and made trips to the head waters of the Potomac area. The Iroquoian stock of the Virginias, Nottoway or Mangoac and allied Meherrin and remnant Susquehanna, calling themselves ''Chiroenhaka,'' according to James Mooney. In the north, this linguistic grouping was called Mingo or Mengwe by the Dutch trade or New England Algonquian stock. John Lederer's guide was a Susquehanna on his journey to southwest Virginia and North Carolina, home of the Early Cherokee people.


Tomahittans

The Tomahitans developed from either the Yuchi or the Cherokee from eastern Tennessee. Both the Hernando de Soto Expedition in 1542 and the Captain Juan Pardo Expedition in 1568 made contact with the ancient Uchi, who were also referred to as the Chisca. In western North Carolina Hernando Moyano attacked and burned the Chisca village of Maniatique ( Saltville, Virginia) on the upper Holston River near the New River watershed during the spring of 1567. Beginning in 1675, the Yamasee were regularly recorded by the Spanish of the missionary provinces of Guale (central Georgia coast) after being pushed to northeastern Florida from the
Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...
by the
Westo The Westo were an Iroquoian Native American tribe encountered in the Southeastern U.S. by Europeans in the 17th century. They probably spoke an Iroquoian language. The Spanish called these people Chichimeco (not to be confused with Chichimeca i ...
. The ancient
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
settled here.#refBritannica, "Britannica" 12:596:2b, Britannica 29:358:1b, Britannica 1:95:3a, Britannica 22:782:Table 60, Britannica 13:344 through 13:352 (ref. "The Appalachian Indian Frontier" by Wilbert R. Jacobs 1967 Bison). The Carolina Algonquians had lived in southern lower lands for nearly six hundred years. In 1727, a delegation of southern
Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, close neighbors of the Muscogee (Creek), visiting
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
referred to the Tomahitans as old enemies of their allies the Yamasee of the Muskogean language.


Kanawha

Kanawha canoemen moved trade along the Ohio Valley and its tributaries of the Oniasantkeronons and Siouan, while Messawomeake moved trade from here across the
Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...
in the Earliest Historic period. Kaháwa means "boat" (canoe) in the local Iroquois dialect. It varies with Iroquois "kahôwö".
Chief Cornstalk Cornstalk (c. 1720? – November 10, 1777) was a Shawnee leader in the Ohio Country in the 1760s and 1770s. His name in the Shawnee language was Hokoleskwa. Little is known about his early life. He may have been born in the Province of Pennsylv ...
's Shawnese (
Chalahgawtha Chalahgawtha (or, more commonly in English, Chillicothe) was the name of one of the five divisions (or bands) of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. It was also the name of the principal village of the division. The ot ...
) word for canoe was locally "Olagashe". Iroquois (Tuscarora, Mingoe & Canawagh) call the anglicized Kanawha River "Ka(ih)nawáˀkye," meaning "waterway," and "kye" is an augmentive suffix. The ''ih'' and variant ''h'', a string of moving water as to a stream, river. "Kényua" is a verb meaning to row a boat or to ferry someone across a stretch of water. The Canawagh (Kanawhas) were last reported as a band in 1774 in the St. Albans area (Hanson Journal) and reportedly joined other Iroquois (Lewis) while some Kanawhan mixed with Shawnee moving to the Potomac near the trade posts. Iroquois warned the French in 1669 that they would be threatened by the Andastes if they traveled down the Ohio River. The Maryland Accokeek Creek site (1300–1650 CE) is associated with the historic
Piscataway Indians The Piscataway or Piscatawa , are Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans. They spoke Algonquian languages, Algonquian Piscataway language, Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke language, Nanticoke. One of their neighboring tribes, ...
. For several centuries there were no archaeological sites of established Piscataway of the lower Potomac Valley in the Ohio Valley nor West Virginia. The Piscataway moved up to the Conoy Island in the
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
region in 1699 after a long Siouan occupation. Later researchers declared that "Kanawha" was not Algonquian
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
. The state does have Algonquian phrases, though these may be from protohistoric Ouabano, ancient Telegwa, or later Makujay influence. White traders began establishing trading houses in the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela valleys in 1717, according to University of Pittsburgh's ''Historic Pittsburgh''. Pennsylvania fur trader Michael Bezallion made a record of his trip from
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
country up the Ohio en route to
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in 1717. The Iroquois established a town at Kanaugha opposite the Mouth of the Kanawha before 1748, and the French constructed a fort nearby prior to the French and Indian War. James (Jacob) Le Tort, Sr. moved his Penn permit trading house of the 1720s and 1730s from the Allegheny's Beaver Creek fur trade area to near the Letart Falls by 1740.
Céloron de Blainville Céloron de Blainville is a French people, French family of officers and colonial administrators, who notably played a role in New France beginning in the 17th century. He is the subject in a folk song by Robert Schmertz (artist) , Robert Schertz e ...
, a French Canadian officer with a flotilla of canoes, encountered English traders with canoes nearby on August 12, 1749. Trade artifacts found in this area have dated from at least the seventeenth century. Hudson's Trading Post Inn and canoe landing, a hunter's camp, village, and archaeological mound site, appeared on Madison's 1807 map opposite St. Albans. Colonial maps from this period depict the upper Ohio River as an extension of the Alleghany River along the West Virginia shores. A Delaware Indian legend of ancient time states that the Allegheny Indians were defeated and allowed to cross the Allegheny River to arrive on the east coast, which became their homeland.


Oniasantkeronons

The Oniasantkeronons are of probably of the Kanawha River area. The hills or mountains south of the Kanawha have been known by several names, including Waseoto, Osioto, Osiata, Oseoto, and Onosiota (La Posta). The ruins of a square fort at the mouth of Bull creek on the Coal River, thirty miles upstream of
St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ro ...
on the Kanawha River has been recorded on maps of the area. Similarly to their trading party to the north known as the Rhiierrhonons, the Oniansantkeronons were scattered from northern Ohio prior to the Mohawk invasion. The Hoñniasontke'roñnons laid down river from the Oniasantkeronons and migrated easterly toward the Monacan sometime after 1699 near
Salem, Virginia Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,346. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combin ...
. Cartographer John Wallis mapped the Scioto River in 1783, recording the river as the ''Sikoder R'' and noting the Lower Shanaois village at its mouth. Franquelin's map of 1684 shows tribal villages in the central
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
region of eastern Sioux, including the Mosopelea. On August 5, 1684, the New York
Iroqouis The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
were encouraged to take control of the Ohio Valley to establish New York trade from the lower half of the Ohio Valley with the French. The first documented Albany Trade began with the Vielle of Albany during the 1692–94 expedition. At this point, Virginians were already trading with native groups in West Virginia. The Sussquahana and Sinaicus destroyed the Black Mincquaas.


Calicuas

The Calicua migrated east to the upper Potomac River trade area, but the tribe was later destroyed and absorbed into other tribes. The earliest location of the Calicuas is depicted as a province north of the
Chisca The Chisca were a tribe of Native Americans living in present-day eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia in the 16th century, and in present day Alabama, Georgia, and Florida in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, by which time they ...
(Uchi) and Appalachians according to the Narrative of De Soto's expedition in 1540–1541. Calicuas is found on Ortelius's 1570 map and 1642 on the Blaeuw map. The next map by Merian was issued about 1650 now with more correct geography showing the Calicuas along the general area of West Virginia. The Guyandottes appeared in southwestern West Virginia and southern Ohio around this time, pushing out from the Acansea (Ohio) Valley the Calicua and
Mosopelea The Mosopelea, or Ofo, were a Siouan-speaking Native American people who historically inhabited the upper Ohio River. In reaction to Iroquois Confederacy invasions to take control of hunting grounds in the late 17th century, they moved south to t ...
(Ohio
Ofo Ofo (), stylised as ofo, was a Beijing-based bicycle sharing company founded in 2014. It used a dockless system with a smartphone app to unlock and locate nearby bicycles, charging an hourly rate for use. In 2017, it had deployed over 10 mil ...
) peoples according to the progressing of contemporary maps. This era is sometimes called a fire-side cabin culture, which is associated with eighteenth-century hunters. Historical trader Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 with these "Trade Indians", then called
Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, stemming from this earlier period called
Cherokee Falls Cherokee Falls is a waterfall located in Cloudland Canyon State Park in Dade County, Georgia. The waterfall, formerly unnamed, was named in a contest.
. The Calicua were reported on the Tygart Valley River and Cheat River region in 1705 and 1707, which are supported by several contemporary maps. Fort Lyttelton and Fort Shirley were built in 1755–56 by the fur trader and Indian agent George Croghan. Colonel Andrew Lewis had roughly estimated sixty
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
Cherokee with him on the Big Sandy Expedition to this area in 1756.


Tionontatacaga

Tionontatacaga (Tobacco Indians, Iroquois) trade mixing from easterly regional tributaries of
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
were generally traditional
Iroquois League The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
enemies. The early historic Ohio Valley Siouans were neighbors with the Cat Nation of Erielhoran to the northeast and their trade neighbor on their eastern environs, the Neutral Nation. The prehistoric culture of the Cat Nation region was named for Charles Whittlesey, a nineteenth-century geologist and archaeologist who began the studies of the Whittlesey Culture (1000 to 1600) and founded the Western Reserve Historical Society of Ohio. Fort Ancient people grew beans at least 1150–1200. Neighboring to the west along Lake Erie's tributaries were the palisaded villages of the Sandusky culture (1400–1500). Late Woodland people were south of the Sandusky people and southwest of the Whittlesey people on the rolling hill watershed of these tributaries in Ohio. A connection of these various Prehistoric people with historic tribes remain unclear for the increasing migrations (Ohio Historical Society). Chief Tsouharissen included a council which united some ten tribes within the Neutralia empire. French
Recollet The Recollects (french: Récollets) were a French reform branch of the Friars Minor, a Franciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects took vows of poverty and devoted their lives to prayer, penance, and spirit ...
friar Daillon in 1626 reported three large deer pens near his village, Ounontisaston. They called themselves Chonnonton, or "people of the deer." Because these ranging trademen were at peace earlier with the League and
Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
, in 1615 Champlain called them, "la Nation neutre." They traded deer hides and byproducts to as far south as the Powhatan chiefdom on
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...
for the prized Snow Whelk ( Buccinidae) marine shells. The Iroquois League in 1651 destroyed this cultural entity. Having been pushed south and pressuring the Siouan, these
Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language * Wyandot religion Places * Wyandot, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Wyandot County, Ohio * Camp Wyandot, a Camp Fire Boys and ...
mix again disseminated. Like the decades earlier of some northerly environ Yuchi, some Tionontatacaga joined the Shawnee and other Wyandot were known as Little Mingoe (Gist 1750–51). The Guyandotte River was named in their memory. It cannot be understated, however, that the Wyandots, or Guyandotte, of West Virginia came to be extremely far from the Ohio Wyandot over time & may have been operating as a separate tribe, also fractured from the Petun. Its possible that they may be the Kentatentonga mentioned on Franquelin's map, with a whopping 19 villages in northwest Pennsylvania having been destroyed.


Shenandoah

Several historic references speak of a separate tribe living in the Shenandoah River Valley along West Virginia's eastern border known as the Senandoa, or Shenandoah, until approximately 1715. It is during this time that they were allegedly destroyed by the Catawba—the most likely scenario being that they sided the Yuchi during the Yamasee War, whereas the Catawbas of North Carolina backed the Yamasee. They appear to have been mound builders, and so may have been associated with the Monongahela Culture to the northwest, who were the only mound building society surviving in the region by that time. While confusion still remains as to whether they could have been associated with the Iroquois, Algonquians or Siouans, they may have, in fact, been a separate tribe from other known groups who passed through the region during the 17th century. They seem to share little to no cultural traits with their Saponi neighbors. Many make a point that the place has been largely forgotten and rarely explored by Archaeologists, warranting a closer look. It's difficult to say what happened to the remaining Senandoa. They may have merged with the Yuchi. Some may have also gone to live among the Saponi to the east, who appear to have remained neutral in the Yamasee War & were being collectively referred to as the Christannas at the time. In the 1883 paper "Tutelo Tribe and Language," Horatio Hale met with the last full-blooded Tutelo living among the Iroquois Confederacy in Canada, Waskiteng/ Nakonha. The man claims that he was 106, remembered times before the American Revolution & claimed that his people's village in New York was referred to as Tutelo, but was made up of a mixture of "Tutelos, Saponis & Botshenins." Although it is assumed that Botshenin may be a nickname for Occaneechi (The three tribes were all Christannas & were a core group who stuck close to one another throughout the 18th century), no one has yet seemed to identify this tribe who they are for certain.


Trade


Spanish and French trade

In the northern part of Chickasaw country below the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio area of the Chaouanons, Jolliet and Marquette met a band of Iroquoian origin in 1673, which they identified as either Tuscarora or Cherokee. They were reported as trading with the Spanish to the east and had firearms. The French explorers were above the thirty third latitude, in the northern Spanish trade country. John Peter Salley passed through this region describing the Ohio Falls area as a Spanish Manor, beginning on the Kanawha River in 1742. The wild cattle are often assumed to be a smaller subspecies of the Eastern Forest Buffalo, which is now extinct. The last buffalo seen and killed in West Virginia killed in Boone county in 1826. Above the neck of the Potomac, Augustin Herrman charted a map from 1659 to 1670, which shows the unidentified major branching rivers leading into the Allegheny Mountains. These rivers on the map lead into the eastern valleys of West Virginia to the Greenbrier area divide. His explorer parties evidently did not pass through the gaps of the Monongahela National Forest. Documenting early United States history for the Nation's centennial became a popular subject of historians by 1876. Early settlers plowing the fields of Old Town Creek near the Mouth of the Kanawha found more than eighty gun barrels collectively. These settlers also found an anvil, hammers and other evidence of blacksmith ware nearly two centuries after they were distributed in the archaeological records. Before formal archaeological records, locals disinterred tomahawks, pewter basins, and other artifacts from area mound formations. The
Neutral Nation The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or ''Attawandaron'' by neighbouring tribes) were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now southwestern and south-central Ontario in Canada, North America. They lived throughout ...
formed a league of eight hundred Upper Algonquians in 1653. This league was located southwest of Skenchioe, near a Fox village in the Flat Country of The Thumb,
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. The Cat Nation Neighbored the Upper Algonquians to the east and scattered around the southern shore of
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
. From the other direction, kindred Kentaientonga villages were destroyed by Iroquois as they told to the French years afterward. At Le Chine in 1669 at
Montreal Island The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...
, La Salle was told to expect to find Chaouanon (Algonquian) and Honniasontkeronon (Iroquois) villages on the Ohio above the falls or above
Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
. Exploration information was seldom shared between different European nations. The Andasté (Chiroenhaka) found on maps as Calicuas territory impeded the New York Haudenosaunee and the French Canadien trade in this region at the time.


New York trade

Trade between New York and the Ohio Valley region began around 1692–94, though trade between the Ohio Valley area and Fort Henry (Virginia) began at least two decades earlier. Archaeological evidence also indicates that intertribal trade included Europeans began long before this. Under the name Chaskepe in 1683, some Cisca seem to have joined with the
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
who relocate to Fort St. Louis in
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and lived among the French trade (Hanna). Nearly a century later, local stories were still being told of this period of warring and trade establishment.
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
was about fifteen miles below Wheeling, Marshall County according to his entry on Thursday October 25, 1770. An early Cut Creek Indian town was wiped out on Cut Creek (Fish Creek) by the Six Nations (
Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
) according to the hired Crawford Indians (
William Crawford (soldier) William Crawford (2 September 1732 – 11 June 1782) was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. He was tortured a ...
Iroquois-like George Ck neighbors) and the two Croghan Indians aboard with him from White Mingos Castle. These western Virginia Indians explained the geography of each stream they passed on the
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
to and up the Great Kanawha. With some of the hired Indians, George Washington spent the night of November 2, 1770 at the old hunters camp at the 10 Mile Creek before returning to the main camp at the Mouth of the Kanawha. A few days before, he and some of the expedition party hunted through Old Town Creek area near the Old Shawnatown.


Virginia trade

Trade from the
Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...
region began with
Jamestown, Virginia The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James (Powhatan) River about southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was ...
. In the 1999 Interim Report, the Massawomeck offered gifts of bows and arrows, deer and bear flesh, fish, clubs, and bear skins to John Smith during his
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...
exploration in 1608. Next, the Susquesahanock came down and presented venison, tobacco pipes, baskets, targets, bows and arrows. A large cache of small and very well made dark flint Levanna, and small excellently proportioned Madison arrow points appear to be from some of these trade or gifts at the Jamestown archaeological site. In the early seventeenth century, a situation of Messawomeake, from beyond the western slopes of the upper
Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...
, migration to the upper Potomac area for the sake of being closer to English trade ware appears. This was battling circumstances with the Iroquois Trade middlemen the Algonquian Nacotchtank in 1632. Leaving French Canadian trade, they arrived and began trade with Captain Henry Fleet on the upper Chesapeake Bay. Messawomeake settled northerly tributaries of the upper
Potomac Valley Potomac () may refer to: Places in the United States Washington, D.C. area: *The Potomac River, which flows through West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. **The Potomac Highlands, a region of the Potomac River's watershed in West ...
. It appears a period of general peace followed with the Algonquian down the Potomac. In the 1640s, the Virginia Colony built Fort Henry and traded with the
eastern Siouan The Catawban, or Eastern Siouan, languages form a small language family in east North America. The Catawban family is a branch of the larger Siouan a.k.a. Siouan–Catawban family. Family division The Catawban family consists of two languages: ...
of proto-historic West Virginia.First Biennial Report of the Department of Archives and History of the State of West Virginia A fort built of particular protohistoric interest was the James River Fort of William Byrd I established in 1676. It was still closer to Tutelo groups, elemental Swanton's Toteras of interest, and its nearby Monacan east of Roanoke area and Kanawhan
Monetons The Moneton were a historical Native American tribe from West Virginia. In the late seventeenth century they lived in the Kanawha Valley, near the Kanawha and New Rivers. Name and language What the Monetons called themselves is unknown. In ...
following Wood's 1674 contact. Monecaga were a westerly subset of Monacan. According to
John Lederer John Lederer was a 17th-century German physician and an explorer of the Appalachian Mountains. He and the members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains (1669) and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the ...
, The Monacan had been driven by enemies from the northwest into
James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...
and
Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...
region of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
around 1250. There they found a hunter-gatherer people who did not grow corn. Along with Shattera, these were among the Occane-Uchi Virginia trade through the south of the state.


Notes


External links


Mason County, West Virginia – An Archaeological Treasure
Photos and descriptions of artifacts from protohistoric sites in West Virginia

Photos from a Susquehannock site

Division of Culture and History

The Archaeology Channel {{DEFAULTSORT:Prehistory Of West Virginia Pre-statehood history of West Virginia Native American history of West Virginia Archaeological sites in West Virginia Protohistory