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Moneton

New River, a tributary of the Kanawha River, in West Virginia
Total population
extinct as a tribe
Regions with significant populations
West Virginia
Languages
Moneton language
Religion
Indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
likely Manahoac and Monacan

The Moneton were a historical Native American tribe from West Virginia. In the late 17th century, they lived in the Kanawha Valley near the Kanawha and New Rivers.

Name

Their name translates to "Big Water" people. In the 1670s, Abraham Wood wrote their name "Moneton" and as another variant, "Monyton."

Territory

The Moneton lived in southern West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. Their settlements were near the Manahoac, Moneton, and Tutelo, Siouan language–speaking tribes of Virginia.

History

The Moneton may have been a Fort Ancient culture, an Indigenous culture that thrived from 1000 to 1750 CE in the Ohio River Valley. They might have been related to the Shawnee, an Algonquian-speaking people.

The first written mention of the Moneton was made by English settler Thomas Batts in 1671.

In 1674, English colonist Abraham Wood sent his servant Gabriel Arthur from Fort Henry in Wheeling, West Virginia to visit local tribes to expand the fur trade. Arthur visited them and described their capital as "a great town," which might be Saint Albans or Buffalo, West Virginia. That is the last contemporary mention of them.

They likely merged into other Siouan-speaking tribes in the Piedmont region of Virginia.

Language

It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Moneton language. (Discuss) (July 2024)

The Moneton language was a Siouan language and likely related to the Manahoac, Monacan, and Ofo languages.

See also

• History of West Virginia
• Fort Ancient
• Prehistory of West Virginia
• Protohistory of West Virginia
• West Virginia Waterways

Notes

1. ^ Swanton, John Reed (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America. U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-87474-092-9.
2. Demallie, p. 287
3. John R. Swanton, Indian Tribes of North America, p. 61.
4. ^ Rice and Brown, West Virginia, p. 9.
5. ^ Rice and Brown, West Virginia, p. 13.

References

• Demallie, Raymond J. "Tutelo and Neighboring Groups." Sturtevant, William C., general ed. Raymond D. Fogelson, volume ed. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
• Rice, Otis K.; Brown, Stephen W. (2010). West Virginia: A History. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 9, 13. ISBN 9780813127330.
• Swanton, John Reed (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-87474-092-9.

• Extinct Native American tribes
• Native American tribes in West Virginia
• Pre-statehood history of West Virginia
• Extinct languages of North America
• Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands
• Unattested languages of North America
• Western Siouan languages