Who are the Talligewi or Alligewi Indians?
The Delaware (Leni Lenape) had a
written history called the "Walum Olum" or "Red Score" is
the migration legend of the Leni Lenape or Delaware Indians, translated by
Constantine Rafinesque (1783-1840), a professor at Transylvania University in
Lexington, Kentucky, and published by the Indiana Historical Society. It covers
time as far back as when the tribes crossed the land bridge from Asia to North
America and continues its account to a date not too distant from when
Rafinesque was born. There are numerous historical references to the Talligewi
(Ancient Ones). This record is the only one of its kind and was translated and
interpreted by linguistic, historical, archaeological, ethnological and physical anthropological studies.
The Delaware, whom the Indians of every tribe addressed in reverence of their antiquity as "grandfathers" were accustomed to relate as an authentic tradition that eastern North America was at one time occupied by Talligewi. They were no savages or nomads but a nation of fixed habitation and great culture. Whence they had come or when, are points upon which the traditions are silent. But the traditions of the Delaware, the Sac, the Shawnee and even other tribes attest the fact of their presence, their civilization and their power.
In the dim past, continue the traditions, the savage Iroquois emerged from the great western country and began to hew their conquering way to the present abode. The Delaware at the same time began migration to the east but took a route much to the south of the Iroquois.
Both tribes were confronted and halted on the banks of the Mississippi (editor's note Ohio River?) by the strange Talligewi. But through the Iroquois forced their way restlessly across, the weaker Delaware soon formed an alliance and began a merciless war against their common enemy. The Talligewi in a number of terrific battles were driven southward and finally stood desperately at the bay of their favorite land, Kentucky. Here they built huge mounds for fortifications, for burial places and for temples. How long their last stand respited the Talligewi no one knows, but finally at the falls of the Ohio they staked their lives and fortunes on the issue of one great battle and lost? Their people were expelled and their civilization forgotten."
What you may want to know first is what were these people called and what was the proper name. There are many historians state that they have found the possibility that they were called by several names. Such as; Alligewi, Allegewi, Allegans, Alliwegis, Talligeu or Talligewi Indians.
The Delaware Indians called them Talligewi, which in Delaware language means “The Ancient Ones.” Actually there is no Delaware word for Alligewi so assume it was another name, maybe a mispronounced or shortened name that was there real name. Just like the Cherokee were called the Ani-Yunwiya, which means, “The Principal People.”
‘Yun’ wiya’ – This word is compounded from ‘yumwi (person) and ‘ya’ ( real or principal). The Iroquois, Delaware and Pawnee call themselves ‘Ofiwe-hofi we, Leni-lenape’, and Tsariksi-tsa’riks, all of which means ‘men of men,” “ men surpassing other men,” or “real men.”
‘Kitu’ hwagi’ – This word cannot be analyzed, is derived from Kitu’ hwa, the name of an ancient Cherokee settlement that was on the Tuckasegge River in Swain County, North Carolina. It is that in 1730 as one of the “seven mother towns” of the tribe. Its inhabitants were called Ani’-Kitu’h wagi which means people of the Kituhwa and seems to have exercised a controlling influence over those towns that were on the Tuckasegee and the upper part of the Little Tennessee Rivers. All the towns inhabitants were together called Ani’-Kitu’ hwagi.
The dialect of these towns held a middle place linguistically between those spoken to the east, on the heads of Savannah, and to the west, on Hiwassee, Cheowah,and the lower course of the Little Tennessee. In various forms the word was adopted by the Delawares, Shawano, and other northern Algonquian tribes as a synonym for Cherokee, probably from the fact that the Kituhwa people guarded the Cherokee northern frontier. The Kituhwa is now the name of a powerful secret society.
Cherokee – The English settlers in 1708 became familiar with the word Tsa’ragi’ which meant Cherokee in the Eastern and lower dialect. In other dialects the form is Tsa’ lagi’. It is evidentially foreign to the tribe, as is frequently the case in tribal names, and in all probability is of Choctaw origin, having come from the south through the medium of the Mobilian trade jargon.
Talligewi – No name in the Lenape legends has given rise to more extensive discussion than this. In an old map drawn in 1727, by a man called Colden, he showed the “Alleghans” living on the Allegheny River. Heckewelder, who recorded the Delawares tradition in 1819, says: “Those people, as I was told, called themselves Talligue or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and spoke several of their languages, was of the opinion that they were not called Talligewi, but Alligewi; and it would seem that he was right from the traces of their name which still remain in the country, the Allegheny River and the mountains having indubitably been named after them. The Delawares still call the former Alligewi Sipu (the river of the Alligewi) – Indian Nations, p. 48, ed 1876. Loskiel, writing on the authority of Zeisberger, says that the Delawares knew the whole country drained by the Ohio under the name of Alligewinengk, meaning “the land in which they arrived from a distant places,” basing his interpretation upon an etymology compounded fron talli or alli, there, icku, to that place, and ewak, they go, with a locative final. Ettwein, another Moravian writer, says the Delawares called “the western country” Alligewenork, meaning a warpath, and called the river Alligewi Sipo. This definition would make the word come from palliton or alliton, to fight, to make war, ewak, they go and a location, i.e., “they go there to fight.” Trumbull, an authority on Algonquian languages, derives the river name from wulik, meaning good or best, hanne, meaning rapid stream and sipu, meaning river, of which rendering its Iroqnois name, Ohio, is nearly and equivalent. Rafinesque renders Talligewi as “there found,” from talli, meaning there, and some other root, not given (Brighton, Walam Olum, pp. 229-230, 1885).
It must be noted that the names Ohio and Alligewi (or Allegheny) were not applied by the Indians, as with the whites, to different parts of the same river, but to the whole stream, or at least the greater portion of it from its head downward. Although Brinton sees no necessary connection between the river name and the traditional tribal name, the statement of Heckewelder, generally a competent authority on Delaware matters makes them identical.
In the traditional name, Talligewi or Alligewi, wi is an assertive verbal suffix, so that the form properly means “he is Tallige” or “they are Tallige.” This comes very near to Tsa’lagi’, the name by which the Cherokee call themselves, and it may have been an early corruption of that name. In Zeisberger’s Delaware dictionary, however, we find waloh or walok, signifying a cave or hole, while in the”Walam Olum “ we have oligonunk rendered “at the place of caves,” the region being furthered described as a buffalo land on a pleasant plain, where the Lenape’ advanced seaward from a less abundant northern region, at last found food (Walam Olum, pp. 194-195). Unfortunately, like other aboriginal productions of its kind among the northern tribes, the Lenape chronicle is suggestive rather than complete and connected. With more light it may be that seeming discrepancies would disappear and we should find at last that the Cherokee, in ancient times as in the historic period, were always the southern vanguard of the Iroquoian race, always primarily a mountain people, but with their flank resting upon the Ohio and its great tributaries following the trend of the Blue ridge and Cumberland as they slowly gave way before the pressure from the north until they were finally cut off from the parent stock by the wedge of Algonquian invasion, but always, whether in the north or in the south, keeping their distinctive title among the tribes as the “people of the cave country.”
As the Cherokee have occupied a prominent place in history for so long a period their name appears in many synonyms and diverse spellings (History, myths and sacred formulas of the Cherokee, Mooney, pp. 182-185).
Some historians think that the name Tallige-wi was believed to be the same as Alligewi, and was a correction of the Cherokee name Tsalagi, but closer studies leads to the word Tallige-wi was a Delaware word walo or walok which meant cave or hole. In other words the Delaware may have called the Talligewi, “Cave Dwellers.”
Another tribe that could have been the Talligewi or Alligewi was the oldest tribe of the United States, which were the Alleghans.
The term is perpetuated in the principal chain of mountains traversing the country. This tribe, at an antique period, had the seat of their power in the Northern Ohio, the Ohio valley, bordering on Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and their rivers and streams. These areas were the sites of their numerous towns and villages.
They appear originally to have borne the name of Alli, or Alleg, and hence the names of Talligewi and Allegewi. By adding to the radical of this word the particle hany or ghany, meaning river, they described the principal scene of their residence namely, the Allegheny, or River of the Alleghans, now called the Ohio River.
The Delaware (Leni Lenape) history about the Talligewi was written in the "Walam Olum" or "Red Score" The Delaware’s Walam Olum provide the important written evidence which supports the existence of the Talligewi. The “Walam Olum or Red Score” record is the only one of its kind and was translated and interpreted by linguistic, historical, archaeological, ethnological and physical anthropological studies
There are numerous historical references to the Talligewi on the east coast of America and dated by the Delaware around 700 A.D.. But the Delawares written history went back as far as when the tribes crossed the land bridge from Asia to North America.
The Delaware do mention a prehistoric migration of the Talligewis throughout the reign of three Delaware chiefs at a time when the Delaware were inhabitants of the Eastern seaboard.,
Very few Indian tribes are known by the names they called themselves. The whites usually heard of a tribe from its neighbors, speaking other languages, before coming on the tribe itself. Many of the tribal names were originally nicknames given to them by neighboring tribes. As a rule each tribe had a different name in every surrounding Indian language.
There does not seem to be a Delaware word for Alligewi so we must assume it was another name. Just like the Cherokee were called the Ani-Yunwiya, which means, “The Principal People.”
For the further purpose of reducing the confusion in the name, we will just call them Talligewi.
The Delaware, whom the Indians of every tribe addressed in reverence of their antiquity as "grandfathers" were accustomed to relate as an authentic tradition that eastern North America was at one time occupied by Talligewi. They were no savages or nomads but a nation of fixed habitation and great culture. Whence they had come or when, are points upon which the traditions are silent. But the traditions of the Delaware, the Sac, the Shawnee and even other tribes attest the fact of their presence, their civilization and their power.
In the dim past, continue the traditions, the savage Iroquois emerged from the great western country and began to hew their conquering way to the present abode. The Delaware at the same time began migration to the east but took a route much to the south of the Iroquois.
Both tribes were confronted and halted on the banks of the Mississippi (editor's note Ohio River?) by the strange Talligewi. But through the Iroquois forced their way restlessly across, the weaker Delaware soon formed an alliance and began a merciless war against their common enemy. The Talligewi in a number of terrific battles were driven southward and finally stood desperately at the bay of their favorite land, Kentucky. Here they built huge mounds for fortifications, for burial places and for temples. How long their last stand respited the Talligewi no one knows, but finally at the falls of the Ohio they staked their lives and fortunes on the issue of one great battle and lost? Their people were expelled and their civilization forgotten."
What you may want to know first is what were these people called and what was the proper name. There are many historians state that they have found the possibility that they were called by several names. Such as; Alligewi, Allegewi, Allegans, Alliwegis, Talligeu or Talligewi Indians.
The Delaware Indians called them Talligewi, which in Delaware language means “The Ancient Ones.” Actually there is no Delaware word for Alligewi so assume it was another name, maybe a mispronounced or shortened name that was there real name. Just like the Cherokee were called the Ani-Yunwiya, which means, “The Principal People.”
‘Yun’ wiya’ – This word is compounded from ‘yumwi (person) and ‘ya’ ( real or principal). The Iroquois, Delaware and Pawnee call themselves ‘Ofiwe-hofi we, Leni-lenape’, and Tsariksi-tsa’riks, all of which means ‘men of men,” “ men surpassing other men,” or “real men.”
‘Kitu’ hwagi’ – This word cannot be analyzed, is derived from Kitu’ hwa, the name of an ancient Cherokee settlement that was on the Tuckasegge River in Swain County, North Carolina. It is that in 1730 as one of the “seven mother towns” of the tribe. Its inhabitants were called Ani’-Kitu’h wagi which means people of the Kituhwa and seems to have exercised a controlling influence over those towns that were on the Tuckasegee and the upper part of the Little Tennessee Rivers. All the towns inhabitants were together called Ani’-Kitu’ hwagi.
The dialect of these towns held a middle place linguistically between those spoken to the east, on the heads of Savannah, and to the west, on Hiwassee, Cheowah,and the lower course of the Little Tennessee. In various forms the word was adopted by the Delawares, Shawano, and other northern Algonquian tribes as a synonym for Cherokee, probably from the fact that the Kituhwa people guarded the Cherokee northern frontier. The Kituhwa is now the name of a powerful secret society.
Cherokee – The English settlers in 1708 became familiar with the word Tsa’ragi’ which meant Cherokee in the Eastern and lower dialect. In other dialects the form is Tsa’ lagi’. It is evidentially foreign to the tribe, as is frequently the case in tribal names, and in all probability is of Choctaw origin, having come from the south through the medium of the Mobilian trade jargon.
Talligewi – No name in the Lenape legends has given rise to more extensive discussion than this. In an old map drawn in 1727, by a man called Colden, he showed the “Alleghans” living on the Allegheny River. Heckewelder, who recorded the Delawares tradition in 1819, says: “Those people, as I was told, called themselves Talligue or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and spoke several of their languages, was of the opinion that they were not called Talligewi, but Alligewi; and it would seem that he was right from the traces of their name which still remain in the country, the Allegheny River and the mountains having indubitably been named after them. The Delawares still call the former Alligewi Sipu (the river of the Alligewi) – Indian Nations, p. 48, ed 1876. Loskiel, writing on the authority of Zeisberger, says that the Delawares knew the whole country drained by the Ohio under the name of Alligewinengk, meaning “the land in which they arrived from a distant places,” basing his interpretation upon an etymology compounded fron talli or alli, there, icku, to that place, and ewak, they go, with a locative final. Ettwein, another Moravian writer, says the Delawares called “the western country” Alligewenork, meaning a warpath, and called the river Alligewi Sipo. This definition would make the word come from palliton or alliton, to fight, to make war, ewak, they go and a location, i.e., “they go there to fight.” Trumbull, an authority on Algonquian languages, derives the river name from wulik, meaning good or best, hanne, meaning rapid stream and sipu, meaning river, of which rendering its Iroqnois name, Ohio, is nearly and equivalent. Rafinesque renders Talligewi as “there found,” from talli, meaning there, and some other root, not given (Brighton, Walam Olum, pp. 229-230, 1885).
It must be noted that the names Ohio and Alligewi (or Allegheny) were not applied by the Indians, as with the whites, to different parts of the same river, but to the whole stream, or at least the greater portion of it from its head downward. Although Brinton sees no necessary connection between the river name and the traditional tribal name, the statement of Heckewelder, generally a competent authority on Delaware matters makes them identical.
In the traditional name, Talligewi or Alligewi, wi is an assertive verbal suffix, so that the form properly means “he is Tallige” or “they are Tallige.” This comes very near to Tsa’lagi’, the name by which the Cherokee call themselves, and it may have been an early corruption of that name. In Zeisberger’s Delaware dictionary, however, we find waloh or walok, signifying a cave or hole, while in the”Walam Olum “ we have oligonunk rendered “at the place of caves,” the region being furthered described as a buffalo land on a pleasant plain, where the Lenape’ advanced seaward from a less abundant northern region, at last found food (Walam Olum, pp. 194-195). Unfortunately, like other aboriginal productions of its kind among the northern tribes, the Lenape chronicle is suggestive rather than complete and connected. With more light it may be that seeming discrepancies would disappear and we should find at last that the Cherokee, in ancient times as in the historic period, were always the southern vanguard of the Iroquoian race, always primarily a mountain people, but with their flank resting upon the Ohio and its great tributaries following the trend of the Blue ridge and Cumberland as they slowly gave way before the pressure from the north until they were finally cut off from the parent stock by the wedge of Algonquian invasion, but always, whether in the north or in the south, keeping their distinctive title among the tribes as the “people of the cave country.”
As the Cherokee have occupied a prominent place in history for so long a period their name appears in many synonyms and diverse spellings (History, myths and sacred formulas of the Cherokee, Mooney, pp. 182-185).
Some historians think that the name Tallige-wi was believed to be the same as Alligewi, and was a correction of the Cherokee name Tsalagi, but closer studies leads to the word Tallige-wi was a Delaware word walo or walok which meant cave or hole. In other words the Delaware may have called the Talligewi, “Cave Dwellers.”
Another tribe that could have been the Talligewi or Alligewi was the oldest tribe of the United States, which were the Alleghans.
The term is perpetuated in the principal chain of mountains traversing the country. This tribe, at an antique period, had the seat of their power in the Northern Ohio, the Ohio valley, bordering on Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and their rivers and streams. These areas were the sites of their numerous towns and villages.
They appear originally to have borne the name of Alli, or Alleg, and hence the names of Talligewi and Allegewi. By adding to the radical of this word the particle hany or ghany, meaning river, they described the principal scene of their residence namely, the Allegheny, or River of the Alleghans, now called the Ohio River.
The Delaware (Leni Lenape) history about the Talligewi was written in the "Walam Olum" or "Red Score" The Delaware’s Walam Olum provide the important written evidence which supports the existence of the Talligewi. The “Walam Olum or Red Score” record is the only one of its kind and was translated and interpreted by linguistic, historical, archaeological, ethnological and physical anthropological studies
There are numerous historical references to the Talligewi on the east coast of America and dated by the Delaware around 700 A.D.. But the Delawares written history went back as far as when the tribes crossed the land bridge from Asia to North America.
The Delaware do mention a prehistoric migration of the Talligewis throughout the reign of three Delaware chiefs at a time when the Delaware were inhabitants of the Eastern seaboard.,
Very few Indian tribes are known by the names they called themselves. The whites usually heard of a tribe from its neighbors, speaking other languages, before coming on the tribe itself. Many of the tribal names were originally nicknames given to them by neighboring tribes. As a rule each tribe had a different name in every surrounding Indian language.
There does not seem to be a Delaware word for Alligewi so we must assume it was another name. Just like the Cherokee were called the Ani-Yunwiya, which means, “The Principal People.”
For the further purpose of reducing the confusion in the name, we will just call them Talligewi.