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Nahyssan

  

 

Ethnie: NAHYSSAN
Language: Tutelo
Family: Southeastern Siouan
Stock: Siouan Proper
Phylum: Siouan
Macro-Culture: Eastern Woodlands
Speakers None
       The Nahyssan were a sedentary hunter/farmer tribe. They were located on the south bank of the James River above present Wingina at the time of European arrival. The eastern Siouans fissioned from the greater Siouan culture about 1,000 B. C. and crossed the Appalachians displacing the previous inhabitants. The tribe experienced conflicts with Whites and other tribes before uniting with other Siouan tribes, probably the Saponi and Tutelo.
Aboriginal Locations: Subdivisions (Villages)
VA   1 (1)
Present Locations
Extinct as a culture
Year History
1650 Noted by Blande and his companions near present Petersburg; soon after appeared at falls of James River, fleeing Susquehanna; defeated a force of colonials and Powhatans
1670 Smallpox epidemic after this year
1675 Settled on an island at junction of Dan and Staunton Rivers
1701 Apparently joined Tutelo and Saponi at headwaters of Yadkin
Year Total VA Pop. Source
1600     NAHDB aboriginal estimate
1700   NAHDB calculation
1800 0 NAHDB calculation
1900 0 NAHDB calculation 
2000 0 NAHDB calculation 
Other speakers of the same language:
Manahoac, Monacan, Moneton, Saponi, Tutelo
Nahyssan Sites:
Tutelo Language  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tta
Tutelo Language  http://www.native-languages.org/tutelo.htm
Tutelo Language Revitalized  http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411042
Tutelo Linguistic Lineage  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=tta
Virginia Indian Tribes  http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/virginia/

Last updated 10/13/05  Copyright © 2005 by Four Directions Press