(3.^^ 



THE SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST 



liy James Mooney 



"'Tis good to iniise on luitioiia passed away." 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE SOUTHERN ATLANTIC STOCKS. 



Wheu tlie French and English established their first permanent 

 settlement in America they found the whole country in possession of 

 numerous aboriginal tribes, some large and powerful, others restricted 

 to a single village and its environs. The variety of languages and 

 dialects at first appeared to be well-nigh infinite; but on further 

 acquaintance it was discovered that these were easily reducible to a 

 few j)rimary stocks. 



Excluding the Eskimo along the northern coast, the first great group 

 comprised the tribes of the Algonquian stock, whose territory on a 

 linguistic map appears like a large triangle, extending on the north 

 from the Atlantic to the Eocky mountains, but gradually narrowing 

 southward until it dwindles to a mere coast strip in Virginia and North 

 Carolina, and finally ends about the mouth of Neuse river. 



The territory of the next great group, comprising the tribes of the 

 Iroquoian stock, either lay within or bordered on the Algonquian area. 

 Around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and stretching to a considerable 

 distance inland on either vSide, were the Iroquois proper, the Huron 

 or Wyandot, and several other closely connected tribes ; on the lower 

 Susquehanna were the Couestoga or Susquehanna and their allies; 

 on Nottoway and Meherrin rivers, in Virginia, were tribes bearing the 

 names of those streams, and on the lower Neuse, in North Carolina, 

 were the Tuskarora; while on the southwest, in the fastnesses of the 

 southern Alleghanies, were the Cherokee, whose territory extended 

 far into the gulf states. Although the territories held by the several 

 Iroquoian tribes were not all contiguous, the languages, with the excep- 

 tion of that of the Cherokee, which presents marked differences, are so 

 closely related as to indicate a comparatively recent separation. 



The country southwest of* the Savannah was held chiefly by tribes 

 of the Muskhogean stock, occupying the greater portion of Georgia, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi, with parts of Tennessee and Florida. 



5 



