Introduction
One of the eastern Siouan tribes, formerly living in Virginia and North Carolina (see map below). The relation of the Tutelo appears to have been most intimate with the Saponi, the language of the two tribes being substantially the same. Their intimate association with the Occaneechi and their allied tribes indicates ethnic relationship. The history of the Tutelo is virtually the same as that of the Saponi. The name Tutelo, although by the English commonly used to designate a particular tribe, was by the Iroquois applied as a generic term for all the Siouan tribes of Virginia and Carolina, being applied more particularly to the allied tribes gathered at Ft Christanna.

They are first mentioned by Capt. John Smith in 1609 under the names of Monacan and Mannahoac, with many subtribes, occupying the upper waters of James and Rappahannock rivers, Va., and described by him as very barbarous, subsisting chiefly on the products of the chase and wild fruits. They were at constant war with the Powhatan Indians and in mortal dread of the Iroquois. Lederer, in his exploration from Virginia into North Carolina in 1670, passed through their territory and mentions the names of Nahyssan (Monahassanough) and Sapon (Saponi). In their frontier position at the base of the mountains the Saponi and Tutelo were directly in the path of the Iroquois.
     Unable to with stand the constant attacks of these northern enemies, they abandoned this location some time between 1671 and 1701, and removed to the junction of Staunton and Dan rivers, where they established themselves near their friends and kinsmen, the Occaneechi, occupying two of the islands in the Roanoke immediately below the forks, the Tutelo settling on the upper one. How long they remained here is unknown; it is certain, however, that in 1701 Lawson found the Saponi on Yadkin river, N. C., and says that the Tutelo were living in the neighboring mountains toward the west, probably about the headwaters of the Yadkin. At this time, according to Lawson, the 5 Siouan tribes, the Tutelo, Saponi, Keyauwee, Occaneechi, and Shakori, numbered together only about 750 souls. Soon after Lawson's visit they all moved in toward the white settlements, and, crossing the Roanoke, occupied a village called Sapona town, a short distance east of the river, about 15 miles west of the present Windsor, Bertie county, N. C. Soon after this they removed and settled near Ft Christanna.
     In 1722, through the efforts of the Colonial governments, peace was finally made between the Iroquois and the Virginia tribes. In consequence the Saponi and Tutelo some years later moved to the north and settled on the Susquehanna at Shamokin, Pa., under Iroquois protection, later moving up the river to Skogari. Their chiefs were allowed to sit in the great council of the Six Nations. In 1763 the two tribes, together with the Nanticoke and Conoy, numbered, according to Sir Wm. Johnson, 200 men, possibly 1,000 souls. In 1771 the Tutelo were settled on the east side of Cayuga inlet, about 3 miles from the south end of the lake, in a town called Coreorgonel, which was destroyed in 1779 by Gen. Sullivan.
     The last surviving full-blood Tutelo known was Nikonha, from whom Hale obtained the linguistic material by which he determined the relation of the tribe to the Siouan stock. He died in 1871. It is believed there are still a few mixed-bloods in Canada, but the last one who could speak the language was John Key, or Gostango ('Below the Rock'), whose Tutelo name was Nastabon ('One Step'), and who died in 1898, aged about 80 years (Chadwick, People of the Longhouse, 19, 1897; Boyle in Ann. Archmol. Rep. Ontario, 55, pl. xviii, b, 1898). Lawson describes the Tutelo as "tall, likely men, having great plenty of buffaloes, elks, and bears, with every sort of deer amongst them, which strong food makes large, robust bodies." Nevertheless the evidence is clear that they were cultivators of the soil and relied thereon to a large extent for subsistence.

Carrie Buck was from the Lynchburg, VA area. When whites first explored the area the Tutelo Indians were living there. Many of them eventually fled to Canada, where they were adopted by the Cayuga.

A notable Chief of the Tutelo incorporated with the Six Nations, perhaps the last man to hold that title, was John Buck. There are a good many Tutelo descendants among the Cayuga to this day by the name of Buck. The name is also associated with Virginia families believed to be of Tutelo origin. A made-for-TV movie was made about Carrie's life called "Against Her Wil." A review of it can be seen at http://clem.mscd.edu/~princer/review3.htm. The reviewer, R. Prince, reports that some of the movie is factual: "Carrie's separation from her infant, Vivian and her forced encarceration in the Lynchburg Colony for having been an unwed mother are accurate. So is the contrived `kangaroo court' process which leads her case from the Lynchburg Colony [for Epileptics and the Feebleminded] in 1924 to the Supreme Court on May 2, 1927 which was soon followed by Buck's sterilization." R. Prince goes on to say:

Far less plausible - one has to wonder why she was thus portrayed - was the portrayal of Carrie as mildly mentally retarded. There is nothing - no factual data - to indicate that she was anything but normal. There is no indication that she spoke with some kind of speech impediment or that she was mentally anything other than normal. This odd portrayal could suggest that perhaps she deserved what she got. I found it disturbing. - R. Prince

The movie added an inappropriate romantic twist. Carrie's lawyer was played by Melissa Gilbert, who, if the plot is accurate was the fiancee of the attorney who was pleading IN FAVOR of Carrie's sterilization. Uh, isn't that's what's known as a CONFLICT OF INTEREST?? How could such a flagrant irregularity make it all the way to the Supreme Court? The subplot of this relationship was apparently employed to beef up the story. Obviously, the filmmakers missed the real subplot that those of here at www.saponitown.com could have told them. We know she was one of our own. She was a marooned Eastern Siouan "Saponi/Tutelo" descendant who was, because of her origins, seen by the legal and medical clowns sealing her fate as belonging "to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South.” In Canada, people like us were called Metís. But the preceding quote from the man who ran the asylum to which she was committed, sums up what many of us were called stateside. I had a friend who was a comic. He had a routine he whipped on me once when he had me gasping for air after a string of extreme witticisms. He confided that he was mentally retarded. "Yeah, right, I said, you're one of the cleverest people I know." He told me that was just my prejudice against retarded people. They can be clever too. Then he got very serious and told me, it was true, he was documented as retarded on his birth certificate. He was listed as "mongoloid." His dad was a Mexican Indian. My friend looked just like his dad. They listed him as mongoloid because he looked Indian. Superb line, but not the kind you laugh at. You just kind of gasp in awe at such a trenchant indictment of a people who would use the same word to describe the largest group of people on the planet, and mental retardation -- Mongoloid -- Mongolism. In the white, racist world of the twenties, apparently, the two were indistinguishable. Carrie's daughter lived to be only seven, dying of an illness. But she did complete the first grade. She was an honor student.