Tutelo

The Tutelo, who called themselves Yesah, 'the people', were a Siouan-speaking nation of the Virginia and West Virginia uplands. Their tradition traced them to Ohio and the Fort Ancient culture, from which they moved east centuries before colonization.

During the later Beaver Wars, around 1670, the Haudenosaunee overran their homeland; the Batts and Fallam expedition found Totero Town near Salem in 1671. The Tutelo then took shelter successively with the Occaneechi and the Saponi, merging into the Nahyssan. They moved to the Yadkin headwaters in 1701 and Fort Christanna after 1714, then north to Shamokin after the 1722 Treaty of Albany ended Haudenosaunee attacks.

In 1753 the Cayuga adopted them, and they built Coreorgonel beside Cayuga Lake. Sullivan's expedition destroyed the village in 1779, and survivors followed the Cayuga to the Six Nations reserve on the Grand River, where intermarriage absorbed them.