| Group: | Moneton |
| Image Alt: | Detail of map by Homann Johann Baptist |
| Total: | extinct as a tribe |
| Regions: | West Virginia |
| Languages: | Moneton language |
| Religions: | Indigenous religion |
| Related Groups: | likely Manahoac and Monacan |
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.[1]
Their name translates to "Big Water" people.[2] In the 1670s, Abraham Wood wrote their name "Moneton" and as another variant, "Monyton."
The Moneton lived in southern West Virginia, along the Kanawha River.[2] Their settlements were near the Manahoac, Moneton, and Tutelo, Siouan language–speaking tribes of Virginia.[3]
The Moneton may have been a Fort Ancient culture,[4] 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.[4]
The first written mention of the Moneton was made by English settler Thomas Batts in 1671.[2]
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.[5] Arthur visited them and described their capital as "a great town,"[2] which might be Saint Albans or Buffalo, West Virginia.[5] That is the last contemporary mention of them.[2]
They likely merged into other Siouan-speaking tribes in the Piedmont region of Virginia.[2]
| Moneton | |
| States: | United States |
| Region: | West Virginia |
| Extinct: | likely late 17th century |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Siouan |
| Fam2: | Western Siouan |
| Fam3: | Ohio Valley Siouan |
| Fam4: | Virginia Siouan |
| Iso3: | tta |
| Iso3comment: | (as Tutelo) |
| Glotto: | none |
The Moneton language was a Siouan language and likely related to Manahoac, Monacan, and Ofo languages.[2]