Extinct Tribe: the Tutelo

When English settlers arrived in Virginia permanently in 1607, they found dozens of Native tribes.  Many were Algonquian-speaking.  However some, such as the Tutelo, were Siouan-speakers.  Tutelo, also known as Totero, among other variants, is an Iroquoian word, echoing an Algonquian name for this people, who lived in Virginia on what is now known as the Big Sandy River.  They were living there when Settlers first encountered them.  During the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois took over the Ohio Valley as their hunting range, putting pressure on other tribes.  The Tutelo joined with the Saponi and moved to the Virginia/North Carolina border area.  By 1701, they had moved as far south as the Yadkin River in North Carolina.

Early descriptions of the Tutelo indicate that their name for themselves was Yesan.  They lived in single family wigwam type structures and supplemented their hunting with agriculture.  As disease, warfare and economic disruption took their toll, the Tutelo merged with other Siouan-speaking tribes in the area.  Beginning in the 1730's, remnants of the Tutelo, Saponi and Ocaneechi tribes, among others, moved to Pennsylvania and sought the protection of Oneida leader Shkellamy.  Eventually, they were formally adopted by the Tuscarora tribe in 1753 and settled in a village near Ithaca, New York.  They stayed there until displaced along with their Iroquois protectors by the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition in 1778-79.  They fled with the Iroquois to Grand River, and continued living among the Tuscarora.  Eventually, descendants intermarried with the Tuscarora and lost their identity as a separate tribe.  The last Tutelo speaker died in 1870.