An Odyssey among the Iroquois: A History of Tutelo Relations in New York

As suggested in the title "An Odyssey among the Iroquois," there is an epic sense of classical ironic drama in finding the Tutelo among the Hodenosaunee, Great League of the Iroquois. Classified amid the Monacan Division of eastern Siouan nations, the Tutelo together with the Saponi were known as Nahyssans and they were one of three Monacan tribal confederations during the colonial contact era.¹ As aboriginals, these Monacan tribes occupied the Virginia Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Valley provinces, as well as westward along the New River into present-day West Virginia. Of these, the Nahyssan group, including the Yesang or Tutelo and the Monasukapanough or Saponi, occupied the central piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Valley region near contemporary Lynchburg, living in an area of general expanse from present-day Charlottesville to Roanoke.²

Drained by the James and Rivanna rivers, these Nahyssan homelands include the rolling hills in the piedmont, the rugged mountains of the Blue Ridge, which crest near four thousand feet, and the rich bottomlands of the interior valley of Virginia. These rivers run fast and deep; in the case of the James, it has cut a significant gorge through the Blue Ridge that includes several formable rapids and falls. Forests in this province were largely composed of broadleaf, mast producing hardwoods including chestnut, oak, hickory, walnut, and butternut varieties. Large game animals that the Nahyssans hunted included deer, black bear, turkey, and possibly some elk and buffalo that inhabited the glades in present day Nelson County. They also hunted and trapped many small game animals including beaver, raccoon, opossum, rabbit, squirrel, grouse, as well as other upland species and waterfowl. From the rivers they harvested many varieties of shellfish, turtles, and fish including varieties of bass and the ocean-going chad and sturgeon. In their upland gardens they practiced the "three sisters"—corn, beans, squash—agriculture and gathered wild foods, primarily nuts, berries, grapes, plums, and various tubers, such as wild flag, from the surrounding forests. In addition, they cultivated orchards of cherry and peach trees near their villages.

Physically the Nahyssans were well-formed people. John Lawson describes the Toteros or Tuteloes as "tall, likely men . . . with large, robust bodies."³ Primarily drawing his conclusions from Lawson and utilizing an "ideal personality" index of culture, Ernest Lewis has concluded that eastern Siouan tradition was "masculine," "cooperative," and "non-compulsive."⁴ By "masculine" culture, Lewis concluded that the eastern Siouan social organization emphasized "male dominance" and "male abilities" where the "male was ruler of the household."⁵ These societies, nevertheless, were matrilineal in acknowledging kinship and descent, as well as matrilocal in agricultural practices.⁶ Accordingly the feminine role may have been more significant than that recorded by Lawson and other early observers. By cooperative, Lewis suggests that "in-group conflict was minimal, communal activities and mutual aid stressed, and with status derived from ability rather than worldly accumulation," among these tribes.⁷ In concluding a lack of compulsion among these people, Lewis stresses a relaxed attitude where "patience was a universal virtue."⁸

Utilizing a post and pole framework, the Nahyssans created loaf shaped houses that were covered with bark and thatch as a means of keeping the elements out. These homes featured a central hearth, with a smoke hole above it. Woven reed mats were used for ground cover. Houses were clustered in villages with log palisades surrounding them for protection from enemies. For clothing, the Nahyssans relied mostly upon the deerskin breech clout among men while women wore apron skirts. Overcoats of deerskin were also used by both men and women, while feather match-coats were used by medicine men and tribal leaders. A number of woven articles of "cloth" fabric including sashes and girdles were made from "silk-grass" and mulberry bark, as well as "garters of opossum fur." In ceremonial practice, the eastern Siouans...