West Virginia extract from
John Reed Swanton's
The Indian Tribes of North America

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(West Virginia) Extract from

The Indian Tribes of North America

by John R. Swanton

Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145—1953

[726 pages—Smithsonian Institution]

(pp. 74)

West Virginia

Moneton. Meaning "Big Water" people.

Connections.—The Moneton belonged to the Siouan linguistic family; their nearest connections were probably the Manahoac and Monacan of Virginia and perhaps the Ofo of Ohio and Mississippi.

Location.—Probably on the lower course of Kanawha River.

History.—The Moneton were first mentioned by Thomas Batts in 1671. (See Alvord and Bidgood, 1912.) Three years later they were visited by Gabriel Arthur, an indentured servant of the trader Abraham Wood, and this is the last we hear of them as an independent tribe. They probably united with the Siouan people in the Piedmont region of Virginia.

Population.—Unknown. Arthur calls the principal Moneton settlement "a great town."

Cherokee (see Tennessee), Conoy (see Maryland), Delaware (see New Jersey), Honniasont and Susquehanna (see Pennsylvania), and Shawnee (see Tennessee) settled in various parts of West Virginia from time to time, but none of them was established there at an early date for an appreciable period except perhaps the Conoy, whose name appears to be perpetuated in that of the Kanawha River. There is no information regarding the Moneton residence there other than the preservation of their name.