8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 89 



quotation refers to the language spoken by the Algonquian tribes of 

 tidewater Virginia in the early seventeenth century. 



From the two quotations just made it is evident that some centuries 

 ago the Siouan tribes who later reached the mountainous country 

 of Virginia were living in close contact with others who moved west- 

 ward beyond the Mississippi ; also that the Algonquian tribes en- 

 countered in Virginia by the first colonists had been separated from 

 some related tribes with whom they had formerly been closely 

 associated. 



The northern thrust of the Iroquoian peoples, when they crossed 

 the Ohio from the south, is now suggested as the cause of the separa- 

 tion of tribes that belonged to the Siouan and Algonquian groups, 

 some going eastward and south, others seeking new homes toward 

 the west. 



Where the Iroquoian tribes may have crossed the Ohio is not known ; 

 however, if the line of fortified camps, already mentioned, prove to 

 have been associated with the movement of the tribes, the approximate 

 locality of their crossing will be suggested. But it is not within reason 

 to suppose that all reached the right bank of the Ohio at the same 

 time or at the same place, and some may have followed up the valley 

 of the stream from its mouth. 



The Cherokee were at that time a part of the Iroquoian group and 

 as such would have participated in the movement from west of the 

 Mississippi ; however, they may have continued eastward to the 

 mountains without having crossed the Ohio, thus approaching the 

 country where they were first encountered by Europeans. Probably 

 the Catawba and other Siouan tribes who occupied parts of Carolina 

 in historic times then moved away from the Ohio valley and advanced 

 farther southward into the mountains. 



MAP 4 



The groups of tribes continued to move, and by the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century they were located approximately as indicated on the 

 last map. 



The Iroquoian tribes had moved far eastward, and some occupied 

 the country south of the St. Lawrence. The Hurons had settled 

 north of Niagara, and the Eries remained south of the lake that bears 

 their name. The Cherokee had become established far south in the 

 Alleghenies, with Uchean tribes to the west of them. 



The Siouan peoples had scattered far from their ancient homes in 

 the valley of the Ohio. Some had traversed the mountainous sections 



