Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
Following the tradition it is fair to conclude, notwithstanding
the fact that Heckewelder interpreted "Namaesi Sipu" by
Mississippi, that the principal seats of this tribe or nation were
in the region of the Ohio and the western slope of the Allegheny
Mountains, and hence it is not wholly a gratuitous supposition to
believe they were the authors of some of the principal ancient
works of eastern Ohio (including those of the Scioto Valley) and
the western part of West Virginia. Moreover, there is the
statement by Haywood, already referred to, that the Cherokees had
a tradition that in former times they dwelt on the Ohio and built
mounds.
These data, though slender, when combined with the apparent
similarity between the name Tallegwi and Cherokee or Chellakee,
and the character of the works and traditions of the latter,
furnish some ground for assuming that the two were one and the
same people. But this assumption necessitates the further
inference that the pressure which drove them southward is to be
attributed to some other people than the Iroquois as known to
history, as this movement must have taken place previous to the
time the latter attained their ascendancy. It is probable that Mr.
Hale is correct in deciding that the "Namaesi Sipu" of the
tradition was not the Mississippi. [Footnote: Am. Antiquarian,
vol. 5, 1883, p. 117.] His suggestion that it was that portion of
the great river of the North (the St. Lawrence) which connects
Lake Huron with Lake Erie, seems also to be more in conformity
with the tradition and other data than any other which has been
offered. If this supposition is accepted it would lead to the
inference that the Talamatau, the people who joined the Delawares
in their war on the Tallegwi, were Hurons or Huron-Iroquois
previous to separation. That the reader may have the benefit of
Mr. Hale's views on this question, the following quotation from
the article mentioned is given:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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