SIOUAN 

 MOONEY 



] ALGONQUIAN AND IROQUOIAN STOCKS. 



some must forever remaiu unclassified, for the tribes have perished 

 from the earth without leaving a word of their languages behind. 



The Indians occupying the coast of Virginia, and extending as far 

 inland as the geologic structure line marked by the falls of the ])riuci- 

 pal streams, formed the Powhatan confederacy, belonging to the Algon- 

 quian stock. Adjoining them on the south were another Algonquian 

 people, known to Raleigh's colonists of 1585 as the Weapemeoc, and 

 at a later date as Yeopim ( Waqjeme-oc)^ Perquinian, Pasquotanlc, and 

 Poteskeet, occupying tliat pcu'tion of North Carolina north of Albemarle 

 sound and extending as far westward as Edenton ; between Albemarle 

 sound and Pamlico river and on the outlying islands were the 

 Secotan of Raleigh's time, known afterward as Mattamuskeet, Mach- 

 apunga and Hatteras Indians; while the Pamlico country, between Pam- 

 lico and the estuary of Neuse river, was held by the Pamlico or Pamti- 

 cough, together with the Bear River Indians, the Pomouik or Pama- 

 waioc of Raleigh's colonists; all these people being Algonquian. The 

 tribes here classed as Algonquian are known to have been such from 

 the vocabularies and isolated words of their languages given by Smith, 

 Strachey, Lawson, and others, and from the numerous local names 

 Avhich they have left behind in the territory they once occupied. The 

 Neusiok, who in 1585 lived just south of the Neuse estuary, in the 

 extreme eastern parts of Craven and Carteret counties, in ]S"orth Caro- 

 lina, and who were in alliance with tlie Pamlico, may also have been 

 Algonquian, this bringing the southern limit of that stock along the 

 coast almost to Cape Lookout. The Chowanoc or Chowan, on Chowan 

 river — chiefly on the eastern bank, contiguous to the Weapemeoc — 

 seem also to have belonged to the same stock, judging from the half 

 dozen names preserved by Lane. 



Tlie Iroquoian stock was represented by at least four tribes, three of 

 which are known from vocabularies and other linguistic material. 

 First came the jSTottoway on Nottoway and Blackwater rivers in south- 

 eastern Virginia, contiguous on the north and east to the Powhatan con- 

 federacy and on the south to the Chowanoc. The name Nottoway, by 

 which they were commonly known, signifies ''snakes" or "enemies," 

 and was given by their neighbors, the Powhatan, being one of the 

 generic names used by the Algonquian tribes to denote any of a dif- 

 ferent stock. Mangoac, the name by which they were known to the 

 tribes on the sound, is another generic term used by the Algonquian 

 tribes to designate those of Iroquoian stock, and signifies '' stealthy 

 ones." In the north it was commonly written Mingo or Mengwe. 

 They called themselves Cbiroe"haka, a word of uncertain etymology. 

 The fact that neither of tliese generic terms was ever applied to the 

 Chowanoc is evidence that they belonged to the common Algo-nquian 

 stock. Adjoining the Nottoway, and in close alliance with them, were 

 the Meherrin, on the lower course of the river of the same name. 

 They were a remnant of the Susquehanna or Conestoga, who had 



