Tutelo Indians

Tutelo Tribe: Significance unknown but used by the Iroquois, who seem to have taken it from some southern tongue. Also called: Kattera, another form of Tutelo. Shateras, a third form of the name. Tutelo Connections. The Tutelo belonged to the Siouan linguistic family, their nearest connections being the Saponi and probably the Monacan. Tutelo Location. The oldest known town site of the Tutelo was near Salem, Va., though the Big Sandy River at one time bore their name and may have been an earlier seat. (See also North Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania.) Tutelo History. In 1671 Fallam and Batts … Read more

The Saponi and Tutelo Indians

The Tutelo and Saponi tribes must be considered together. Their history under either name begins in 1670. As already stated, Monahassanugh and Nahyssan are other forms of Yesan, the name given to themselves by the last surviving Tutelo, and which seems to have been the generic term used by all the tribes of this connection to designate them as a people. The name Saponi (Monasickapanough?) was generally limited to a particular tribe or aggregation of tribal remnants, while the Iroquois name Tutelo, Totero, or Todirich-roone, in its various forms, although commonly used by the English to designate a particular tribe, … Read more

Tutelo Tribe

Tutelo Indians. One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in Virginia and North Carolina, but now extinct. Hale first made it known that the Tutelo language pertained to the Siouan stock, a discovery which, followed by the investigations of Gatschet, Mooney, and J. O. Dorsey, brought to light the fact that a considerable group of Siouan tribes formerly inhabited the piedmont region of Virginia and the Carolinas.