MINGO INDIANS

(Iroquois or Six Nations)

What follows was intended to be a LOT longer, but alas I may never get time to complete my research on the Mingo Indians. It seems that a number of our members are interested in their Native American roots so I submit the following notes to aid such persons in their understanding of the "Indians" who roamed central West Virginia.

I will not go into a debate as to which family of natives lived on the Potomac. It is clear, however, that Indian occupation of the Tygart Valley in Randolph and Barbour Counties was never numerous, and that the only group ever to occupy that area were the "Mingo".

Below will be found the notes I have accumulated about that family of Native Americans. I have tried to cite my sources fully. The list at the end is an index of references I have found to SPECIFIC Mingo or Iroquios individuals. These persons would have been relatives or acquaintances of the Tygart Valley Mingoes. I have included only people whose names I have found in source records.

Since the Mingoes had no written language, the spellings are those rendered by the white man, based upon how the names sounded to him. It is best if interested persons try and read the names out loud to get a "feel" of how the Mingo language and names would have sounded. I submit the following as a tribute to the many forgotten Native Americans who were here to witness the onslaught of Europeans into a once pristine America.

George Washington's 1753-54 map of Ohio Country shows Mingo Town about 20 miles below present Pittsburgh, about two miles below Logs Town. An anonymous map of the Ohio drawn about 1755 shows the notation at the same location that "Senecas moved from here last summer". These two sources will show that the Mingoes were also considered as Senecas. Brown, Lloyd Arnold, EARLY MAPS OF THE OHIO VALLEY, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1959

The Return of Prisoners from Detroit by Lt. Robert Holmes 26 Dec 1760, reports that Charles Grant of Montgomerys Highlanders, who had been taken prisoner with Major Grant in 1758 was prisoner with the Mingoe Indians. Stevens, BOUQUET Ibid.

Minutes of Indian Conference at Pittsburgh 8 Jan 1759 shows among the participants "Canigaatt, the White Mingo" Stevens, Sylvester K. and Kent, Donald H., EDs., THE PAPERS OF COL HENRY BOUQUET., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1943

At Ft Pitt 6 Jun 1761 a speach was sent by a 6 nation chief called Otchithenengush and was delivered by The White MingoStevens, BOUGUET PAPERS, Ibid

Thomas Hutchins map of the Western Country and the Ohio 1778 shows Mingo Town at presentday Steubenville, Ohio. Brown, EARLY MAPS, Ibid.

Augusta County Court Papers Petitions March 1775, Mary Gregory appeared before John Poage and made oath that Mingo Indians about five years previous (1770) had came to her house on the Head of Greenbrier and stole 4 hogs and 1 horse. Chalkley, Lyman. CHRONICLES OF THE SCOTCH IRISH SETTLEMENT Vol I page 511

Notes of Thomas Jefferson 1784 shows Mingos as numbering 60 in 1779 and living on the Scioto River in Ohio, also there the Shawnees. Jefferson lists the Mingos as separate from the Senecas, who he shows as numbering 650 in 1779 and living in the north. Bergh, Albert Ellery, Ed., THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, Washington, DC, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1907

When the white man first penetrated the Monongahela and Allegheny River Valleys the land was partially occupied by roving bands of Indians whose primary settlements were near the confluence of the rivers, but who had in the interior a few transient villages or camps. These were chiefly Delaware and Shawnee, but they had living among them several colonized bands of Iroquois called "Mingoes", who had been sent by the powerful six nation Iroquois to live among their vassals the Delawares. In 1768 the "castle" of the "White Mingo" was on the Allegheny River a few miles above it's mouth. Crumrine, Boyd, HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, L. H. Everts and Co., 1882

Joseph Friend in 1784 in Harrison County made an entry for 200 acres on the West Side of the Tygart Valley River as assignee of Joseph Hastings who was assignee of Charles Grigsby. The entry was to include the "Mingo Cabin" Harrison County Entry Book

Title of Mingo, WV (Indian Village Site):