Moneton
{{Short description|Historical Native American tribe from West Virginia}}
{{redirect|Monyton|the English archdeacon|Hugh de Monyton}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Moneton
| image =
| image_alt = Detail of map by Homann Johann Baptist
| total = extinct as a tribe
| total_year =
| total_source =
| total_ref =
| regions = West Virginia
| languages = Moneton language
| religions = Indigenous religion
| related_groups = likely Manahoac and Monacan
}}File:New-river-mountains-fog - West Virginia - ForestWander.jpg, a tributary of the
Kanawha River, in West Virginia]]
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.Demallie, p. 287
Name
Their name translates to "Big Water" people.{{Cite book |last=Swanton |first=John Reed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7BmTAAAAIAAJ&q=Moneton |title=The Indian Tribes of North America |date=1952 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-87474-092-9 |language=en}} In the 1670s, Abraham Wood wrote their name "Moneton" and as another variant, "Monyton."{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
Territory
History
File:Map of Native American locations in WV by county during the latter half of the 17th Century.png
The Moneton may have been a Fort Ancient culture,Rice and Brown, West Virginia, p. 9. 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.Rice and Brown, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-GcC_XbfuUEC&q=Moneton West Virginia], p. 13. 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
{{Infobox language
| name = Moneton
| states = United States
| region = West Virginia
| extinct = likely late 17th century
| ref =
| familycolor = American
| fam1 = Siouan
| fam2 = Western Siouan
| fam3 = Ohio Valley Siouan
| fam4 = Virginia Siouan
| iso3 = none
| glotto = none
| altname = Monyton
| ethnicity = Moneton
}}
The Moneton language was a Siouan language and likely related to the Manahoac, Monacan, and Ofo languages.
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
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}}.
- {{cite book |last1=Rice |first1=Otis K. |last2=Brown |first2=Stephen W. |title=West Virginia: A History |date=2010 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=9780813127330 |pages=9, 13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GcC_XbfuUEC}}
- {{cite book |last1=Swanton |first1=John Reed |title=The Indian Tribes of North America |date=1952 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC |page=74 |isbn=978-0-87474-092-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7BmTAAAAIAAJ}}
{{Siouan languages|state=collapsed}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Extinct Native American tribes
Category:Native American tribes in West Virginia
Category:Pre-statehood history of West Virginia
Category:Extinct languages of North America
Category:Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands