Tutelo

Tutelo, also known as Tutelo–Saponi (Tutelo: Yesá:sahį́) and Virginia Siouan, is a member of the Ohio Valley branch of Siouan language family. Tutelo was originally spoken in what is now Virginia and West Virginia in the United States.

Most Tutelo speakers migrated north to escape warfare. They traveled through North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New York. In 1753, the Tutelo had joined the Iroquois Confederacy under the sponsorship of the Cayuga. They finally settled in Ontario after the American Revolutionary War at what is now known as Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation.

Nikonha, the last fluent speaker in Tutelo country, died in 1871 at age 106. The year before, he had managed to impart about 100 words of vocabulary to the ethnologist Horatio Hale, who had visited him at the Six Nations Reserve.

From Wikipedia · Tutelo language · CC BY-SA 4.0