The Seneca were relative newcomers to the Allegheny Forest—their villages begin to appear only around 1600 CE. The county I live in now, and the forest I hope to move into, both take their names from a river that drains northwestern Pennsylvania, runs south, and joins the Monongahela flowing north from West Virginia to form the Ohio. It gives its name to the mountains as well, contesting “Appalachia” until the late 19th century for the name of the whole eastern continental divide of North America. Some early pioneers even suggested it for the name of the whole continent. This name—Allegheny—comes from the French spelling, and echoes the myth-shrouded predecessors of the Seneca in the Allegheny Forest, most often called the Allegewi.

The legends of the Allegewi also speak to one of the most shameful chapters in U.S. history: the displacement of Native peoples, particularly the “Trail of Tears.” Many of the legends identify the Allegewi as the “Mound Builders,” the people who constructed the enigmatic earthworks found throughout Ohio, now identified with the “Hopewell” and “Adena” archaeological complexes, and to a lesser degree, the larger mounds of the Mississippian culture, such as those at Cahokia. Thomas Jefferson, something of an amateur archaeologist, excavated some mounds, and concluded that they resembled Native funeral practices in his own day too much to allow any conclusion but that the mounds had been built by Native Americans. Few others shared that opinion, though; instead, they were convinced that the mounds could not possibly have been constructed by the “savages” they encountered. Benjamin Smith Barton considered them the work of Vikings who had since disappeared; Greeks, Africans, Chinese or assorted other European groups were other popular contenders. The “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel” made frequent appearances, and it was in the midst of this racist milieu that Joseph Smith codified such notions in writing the Book of Mormon, one of several obvious hoaxes written at the time to lend credence to these myths of the “Mound Builders.” Reverend Landon West even invoked divine placement for the Serpent Mound rather than give credit to Native Americans (though another sign of his madness is surely evident in his identification of Eden in Ohio). Lafcadio Hearn attributed the mounds to Atlanteans.

Quickly, these myths became so widely believed that a general consensus of American history emerged in the mid-1800s completely divergent from archaeological evidence. The Trail of Tears removed Native Americans from areas the mound builders had once inhabited in the 1830’s, in part because so much of white America believed that these “savages” had torn down an ancient Euro-American civilization. White, European U.S. citizens saw it as their “divine mandate” to restore the glory, and racial integrity, of the ancient Mound Builders’ dominion. Much of the furor to name even the continent itself after the Allegewi stemmed from this cruel vision.

The Moundbuilder myth was born out of a twofold desire. First, a nationalistic, “deeply felt need to prove the quality of America, to defend it from rather scurrilous attacks from abroad,” as Williams put it. Evidence for an ancient lost civilization in the Midwest would show that the United States had a deep and honorable heritage, that it was not just an upstart nation founded on nothing but Enlightenment ideals and bountiful natural resources.

The other desire was a darker one, born of greed and virulent racism. Plainly put, it was a lust for land, and a genocidal hatred for the Native Americans who were so inconveniently occupying it. As Randall H. McGuire writes in Archeology and the First Americans (1992), “The people that promoted the myth of the mound builders were…by and large frontiersmen, who were active in the removal of Indian people and who stood to profit from the economic growth of the region.” The myth of the Moundbuilders conveniently invented an ancient civilization in the Midwest, probably founded by whites, that had been brought down by “red savages.”

Consider this from Ephraim G. Squier, coauthor of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848), widely considered to be one of the founders of American archaeology: “the Indians were hunters averse to labor, and not known to have constructed any works approaching in skillfulness of design or in magnitude those under notice [the mounds].” Or, more chilling, this from J. W. Foster in 1873, who was then president of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and former head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

“The Indian possesses a conformation of skull which clearly separates him from the pre-historic Mound Builder, and such a conformation must give rise to different mental traits…. His character, since first known to the white man has been signalized by treachery and cruelty. He repels all efforts to raise him from his degraded position: and whilst he has not the moral nature to adopt the virtues of civilization, his brutal instincts lead him to welcome its vices…. To suppose that such a race threw up the strong lines of circumvallation and the symmetrical mounds which crown so many of our river-terraces, is as preposterous, almost, as to suppose that they built the pyramids of Egypt.”¹

Primary Sources

Henry Schoolcraft was one of several scholars who helped turn that tide. Cyrus Thomas‘ 1894 report to the Bureau of American Ethnology ended much of the prominence once given to “Mound builder” myths, but much of that built on Schoolcraft’s work. Regarding the Allegewi, Schoolcraft wrote:

The oldest tribe of the United States, of which there is a distinct tradition, 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 Ohio valley and its confluent streams, which 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 Ohio. The word Ohio is of Iroquois origin, and of a far later period; having been bestowed by them after their conquest of the country, in alliance with the Lenapees. The term was applied to the entire river, from its confluence with the Mississippi, to its origin in the broad spurs of the Alleghanies, in New York and Pennsylvania; and the designation, to its sources, is still continued in use by that people.

From the traditions of the Lenapees, given to the Moravian missionaries, while the lamp of their traditional history still threw out its flickering but enlivening flames, the Alleghans had been a strong and mighty people, capable of great exertions and doing wonders.

The “Moravian missionaries” Schoolcraft refers to are David Zeisberger, John Heckewelder and their companions. Heckewelder was born in Bedford, England in 1743, and joined the Unity of Brethren, a.k.a., the Moravians. In 1762, he came to western Pennsylvania with Christopher Frederick Post to preach to Christian Lenape already being pushed west. Later in life, Heckewelder wrote about the Natives he’d tried to convert, and in Cherokees in Pre-Columbian Times, he set down this account:

The Lenni Lenape (according to the tradition handed down to them by their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago in a very distant country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason which I do not find accounted for, they determined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very long journey and many nights’ encampment by the way, they at length arrived on the Namaesi-Sipu, where they fell in with the Mengwe, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of the Delawares: they were proceeding on to the eastward until they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitering had, long before their arrival, discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those people (as I was told) called themselves Talligeu or Tallegewi… Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall and stout; and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves regular fortifications or intrenchments, from whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. I have seen many of the fortifications said to have been built by them, two of which in particular were remarkable. One of them was near the mouth of the river Huron, which empties itself into the lake St. Clair on the north side of that lake, at the distance of about twenty miles northeast of Detroit. This spot of ground was, in the year 1776, owned and occupied by a Mr. Tucker. The other works, properly intrenchments, being walls or banks of earth regularly thrown up, with a deep ditch on the outside, were on the Huron River, east of the Sandusky, about six or eight miles from Lake Erie. Outside of the gateway of each of these two intrenchments, which lay within a mile of each other, were a number of large flat mounds, in which, the Indian pilot said, were buried hundreds of the slain Tallegwi, whom I shall hereafter, with Colonel Gibson, call Alligewi. Of these intrenchments Mr. Abraham Steiner, who was with me at the time when I saw them, gave a very accurate description, which was published in Philadelphia in 1789 or 1790, in some periodical work the name of which I can not at present remember. When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle themselves in their neighborhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi-Sipu, when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and, in fact, they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack upon those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. Fired at the treachery of these people and the great loss of men they had sustained, and, besides, not being prepared for a conflict, the Lenape consulted on what was to be clone—whether to retreat in the best manner they could, or to try their strength and let the enemy see that they were not cowards, but men, and too high-minded to suffer themselves to be driven off before they had made a trial of their strength and were convinced that the enemy was too powerful for them. The Mengwe, who had hitherto been satisfied with being spectators from a distance, offered to join them on condition that after conquering the country they should be entitled to share it with them. Their proposal was accepted, and the resolution was taken by the two nations to conquer or die. Having thus united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers or near lakes, where they were successfully attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi River, from whence they never returned. The war which was carried on with this nation lasted many years, during which the Lenape lost a great number of their warriors, while the Mengwe would always hang back in the rear, leaving them to face the enemy In the end the conquerors divided the country between themselves. The Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the Great Lakes and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country to the south. For a long period of time, some say many hundred years, the two nations resided peacefully in this country and increased very fast. Some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the great swamps, and, falling on the streams running to the eastward, followed them down to the great bay river (meaning the Susquehanna, which they call the great bay river from where the west branch falls into the main stream), thence into the bay itself, which we call Chesapeake. As they pursued their travels partly by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on the great salt-water lake, as they call the sea, they discovered the great river which we call the Delaware.

In his historic rebuttal of the mound-builder myth, Cyrus Thomas followed in Schoolcraft’s steps by trying to link these accounts of the “Allegewi” with the archaeological Adena and Hopewell complexes.

In his 1894 paper, “The Problem of Ohio Mounds,” archaeologist Cyrus Thomas attempts to pair the Indian traditions related by Cusick with those provided by Rev. Heckewelder—hoping to explain hazy accounts of ancient conflicts between the mysterious “Tallegwi” and other paleoIndians south of Lake Erie. Whether the “Tallegwi” were Adena-Hopewell “Mound-Builders” or simply some Algonquin tribe, Thomas fails to demonstrate with any degree of certainty.²

Mentioned here is David Cusick, a Oneida who wrote Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations in 1828, including his rendition of Haudenosaunee myth. The account is highly suspect, but it does include similar tales of “giants” that might align with the stories of the Allegewi.

About this time the Eagwehoewe people inhabited on the river Kanawaga or St. Lawrence; but they could not enjoy tranquillity, as they were invaded by the giants called Ronnongwetowanea, who came from the north and inhabited considerably; but their mode of attack was slily, and never dared to precipitate themselves upon the enemy without prospect of success; especially they took advantage when the warriors were absent from the town. After plundering the people’s houses and making captives those who were found, and hastily retreat to their residence in the north. An instance—a family of princes lived near the river St. Lawrence, of whom, containing six brothers and a sister and their father, was a noble chieftain, who fell at the contest of the enemy. One time the brothers went out a day’s hunt and leaving their sister alone in the camp; unfortunately while they were gone the giant makes vigorous attacks and the woman soon became a prey to the invaders. On the eve the brothers returned and were much grieved that their sister was found missing; they immediately made a search, but the night was getting too late, and the darkness prevented them. On the morning the eldest brother determined to pursue the enemy until he could discover something about their sister, and promised to return in seven days if nothing should happen, accordingly the princes set out and pursued the traces of the enemy; after journeyed three days he reached the giant’s residence about sundown; at first sight he discovered his sister was gathering some sticks for fuel near the house; but as he approached the sister retired; the princess soon proved by her conduct that she had fell in love with the giant, and that it was impossible to gain her confidence. The prince was now brought to a point of view about the dread of the enemy; but however he was willing to risk the dangers he was about to meet; he remained until about dusk and then entered the house: happily he was received with most favorable terms, and his fears were soon dissipated, the giant offered his pipe as a tribute of respect, which the prince accepted. After receiving the evening diet they talked a good while without a least appearance of hostility” as the night was getting late the prince was invited to a bed; but the giant was now acting to deceive the prince; he commenced to amuse him part of the night in singing songs; the giant had determined to assassinate the visitor the first opportunity as the prince was so fatigued that he was now fast asleep: he killed him on the bed and the body was deposited in a cave near the house where he had stored the carcasses. The giant was much pleased of his conquest over the prince, he advised his wife to watch daily in order to impose on another enemy. The seven days elapsed, as the brother did not return, the youngest brother Donhtonha was much excited about his brother and resolved to pursue him; the Donhtonha was the most stoutest and ferocious looking fellow, after arming himself commenced the journey, and also armed at the place and time as mentioned, and found his sister; but before he had time to reconcile her she returned to the house as she had formerly done, and informed the giant that some person was coming: the Donhtonha entered the house with appearances of hostile disposition. and enquired for his brother; this produced alarm: the giant was promptly to pacify the prince: he replied that he had made peace with the brother. who had gone to visit some people in the neighborhood, and it was expected he would return every moment. Upon this assurance the Donhtonha became some abated: the sister provided some food and he soon enjoyed the domestic felicity: but. alas, the giant was far from being friendly and was only forming a plan to deceive the visitor. The evening was late, the Donhtonha was out of patience waiting for his brother to come home. and renewed his enquiries: the visitor was invited to bed; the giant was in hopes to exterminate the visitor; he rose from his seat and commenced his usual custom in singing. The Donhtonha perceived that some evil design was performing against him and resolved to abandon the bed for awhile: he begged leave for a few moments and went out after various considerations from being imposed; he procured some pieces of wood which produced a faint light in the night and put it above his eyelids and again went to bed; the giant was now deceived; while the visitor was asleep his eyes appeared as though he was awake continually. As soon as day light the visitor hurried from the bed, and was about to make a search for the deceased brother. but the giant protested which soon excited suspicions of the act: after a long debate the Donhtonha attacked the giant; a severe conflict ensued, at last the giant was killed; and burnt him in the ruins of his house, but his spirit fled to heaven and changed into one of the eastern stars. During the engagement his sister was grieved and fled to the wilderness, and lamented for her deceased husband, and she died in despair, and her spirit also became one of the northern stars. After the conquest the search was prosecuted, he discovered the remains of his brother and weeps over it and burnt it to ashes.

At a time another Ronnongwetowanea attacked a small town located on the bank of the Kanawage, (St. Lawrence.) This occurred in a season when the people were out to hunt and there was no person in the town except an old chief and an attendant named Yatatonwatea; while they were enjoying repose in their houses were suddenly attacked by the Ronnongwetowanea: but the Yatatonwatea escaped, went out the back door and deserted the aged chief to the fate: however the enemy spared no time, the chase was soon prosecuted which caused the Yatatonwatea to retreat as fast as possible; he attempted to make resistance in various places, but was compelled to retire at the appearance of the enemy; in vain he endeavored to gain retreat by traversing various creeks and hills: he undertook a new method of giving little effect upon the progress of the enemy; after running some distance he discovered which would promptly cherish the imposition, he drove a flock of pigeons in the way to amuse the (giant) until he could hide himself under the bank of the river, unfortunately the flattering hope seemed to fail: after remaining there but a short time before he saw the enemy was coming in full speed, and was soon obliged to abandon the position and continue the flight: again he tried to conceal himself among the rocks of the mountains, but in a meantime the enemy advanced at the moment. of which he became dismayed, finding that nothing could resist the impetuosity of the pursuer, but determined not to surrender as long as be was capable to keep out of the reach; he immediately took the path which leads to the hunting grounds in search of some people, fortunately at a short distance met two warriors and he was instantly supported and made vigorous resistance: after terrible combat, the Ronnongwetowanea was exterminated: during the time the warriors conducted themselves as heroes, which gained the triumph, notwithstanding one of them received a severe wound by the club. The Yatatonwatea with alarm whoop hastened to the encampment and advised the people of the substance and the dangers which the enemy might commit upon the vacant towns. As soon as the people received the intelligence immediately returned to their settlements, and a convention were held by the chieftains in order to take some measures to defend their country. As the Ronnongwetowanea tribe were not numerous and deemed it inexpedient to raise a large force and therefore a few hundred warriors were sent to subdue them: after decisive contests the warriors gained the victory: and it was supposed that the Ronnongwetowanea tribe has ever since ceased to exist. (This fate happened probably about two thousand five hundred winters before Columbus discovered America.) The depredations of the enemy which so often exercised upon the inhabitants were now terminated and the country enjoyed without disturbance many winters.

The “silly” mode of attack seems to line up with the surprise attack mentioned by Heckewelder, and like other accounts, the identification of the Allegewi as “giants” seems to point to an inordinate stature, as James Athearn Jones emphasized in Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2.

They told, that they had found the further bank of the River of Fish inhabited by a very powerful people, who dwelt in great villages, surrounded by high walls. They were very tall—so tall that the head of the tallest Lenape could not reach their arms, and their women were of higher stature and heavier limbs than the loftiest and largest man in the confederate nations. They were called the Allegewi, and were men delighting in red and black paint, and the shrill war-whoop, and the strife of the spear. Such was the relation made by the spies to their countrymen.

Giants?

Several of the above accounts emphasize the statue of the Allegewi, even calling them giants. Accounts of giants even eight feet tall being dug up by Ohio farmers abound, but evidence is scanty. There is evidence that the mound-builders may have been unusually tall, as Don Dragoo relates in Mounds for the Dead.

Two outstanding traits have been noted repeatedly for [the Adena]. One is the protruding and massive chin often with prominent bilateral protrusions. The second trait is the large size of many of the males and some of the females. A male of six feet was common and some individuals approaching seven feet in height have been found … Not only were these Adena people tall, but also the massiveness of the bones indicates powerfully built individuals. The head was generally big with a large cranial capacity.

There seems enough here to suggest that the Allegewi may have skewed somewhat taller than average, a possibility that suggests better nutrition than their neighbors. By this point, most of the neighboring populations were at least horticultural; one possible exception might lay with the Fort Ancient culture. The Fort Ancient culture built fortified settlements, as several of the accounts describe, as well as such mounds as Serpent Mound. Yet their settlements show no indication of rank or status, as most contemporary villages do; rather, they may have been laid out as a solar calendar. Settlements were rarely permanent; though they relied to some degree on the “Three Sisters” permacultural guild, they also relied heavily on hunting and fishing, existing much further along the hunter-gatherer side of the spectrum than most of their contemporaries.

DNA evidence shows that the Fort Ancient culture was something of an outlier in terms of genetics, as well.

Interestingly, however, the Hopewell site individuals did not show a close relationship to the Fort Ancient culture samples. Perhaps, as some scholars have suggested, some Fort Ancient-era groups (circa AD 1000-1550) moved into Ohio from elsewhere.³

Might the Fort Ancient culture provide an example of sustainable, hunter-gatherer complexity? And might that explain the legends of “giants,” if the Fort Ancient people are the same people as the Allegewi? There is no conclusive evidence on such questions, only provocative questions.

The Kickapoo?

In Man’s Rise to Civilization, As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State, Peter Farb made a convincing case that most of the Plains Indians tribes were, in fact, created from refugees and displaced groups from further east, united around European horses and European guns in trying to form a new way of life after the apocalyptic trauma of European contact, and the massive mortality and collapse that followed. As such, it should come as no surprise that some accounts suggest that the Allegewi may have been wiped out in the convulsions that followed European contact, with survivors fleeding down the Ohio, and then the Mississippi, to eventually form a new group—in this case, the Kickapoo. In recounting the battle of the Lenape and Mingos against the Allegewi, the Fort Hill Cemetary 1853 Handbook records:

The sun of the next morning shone on fields of slaughter and prodigies of valour. The confederated nations met the giant people; a great battle was fought, and many, very many, warriors fell. With the potent war-medicine of the Lenapes, borne by a priest, the confederates attacked their enemies, and were victors. The beaten and discomfited Allegewi retreated within the high banks which surrounded their villages and great towns, and there awaited the assault of our brave and fearless warriors. They were attacked, and numbers, greater than the forest leaves, fell in the first engagement. None were spared; the man who asked for quarter sooner received the arrow in his bosom—sooner felt the thrust of the spear, than he who was too brave to beg the poor boon of a few days longer stay on a cold and bleak earth, and preferred going hence without dishonour. Again, and again, were the Lenapes victorious. Beaten in many battles, and finding that complete extirpation awaited them, if they longer delayed flight, the Allegewi loaded their canoes with their wives and children, and took their course adown the broad bosom of the Mississippi. Never more were they or their descendants seen upon the lands where the Lenapes found them.

An online message board records the oral tradition of a West Virginian Mingo that follows a similar trajectory, and identifies the Allegewi survivors with the Kickapoo.

According to our tradition, the Alligewi were Siouxian speaking people, and when they were defeated by our Iroquois people and the Lenape allies, they fled down the Mississippi River to their relatives. The Alligewi became the Biloxi and Kickapoo and later moved back up the Mississippi River and became the Omahas and still later other Siouxian people. Some of the Alligewi escaped over the mountains to the upper Potomac River and migrated down to become the Saponi of VA and NC. That’s our tradition and that’s the way I learned it. I believe it and no matter what the “books say” I think it’s right.⁴

Interestingly enough, modern DNA evidence has linked some Hopewell sites with several of these Siouxan groups:

Modern groups with whom the individuals at the Hopewell site share some degree of relatedness include the Chippewa/Ojibwa and Kickapoo of the Great Lakes region. Some genetic links also are indicated between one or more of the individuals from the Hopewell site and tribes as diverse and widespread as the Apache, Iowa, Micmac, Pawnee, Pima, Seri, Southwest Sioux, and Yakima.⁵

So, perhaps we can find the descendants of the Allegewi among the Kickapoo—or the Biloxi, or the Omaha, or any other number of Siouxan peoples. But those aren’t the only groups that claim the Allegewi for their ancestors.

The Cherokee?

Like so many other Indian groups, the “Cherokee” are given that name by their enemies. What they call themselves is “TsálăgÄ­,” which, some have claimed, might have been corrupted to “Talligewi,” and even “Allegewi.” Does that mean that these legends actually refer to the ancient Cherokee? Unfortunately, there’s little more to support this idea beyond the similarities in names. Genetically, it doesn’t seem likely that the Cherokee are related to the mound-builders at least.

Mills looked, in particular, for evidence of ancestral ties between the individuals at the Hopewell site and Cherokee Indians, since some oral traditions have suggested a relationship between them. She found that Cherokee mtDNA samples “…do not cluster close to the Ohio Hopewell.”⁶

However, there is an intriguing Cherokee legend of the Ani-kutani, an ancient priesthood that grew into a tyannical theocracy, and were violently overthrown. James Mooney writes in History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees:

The people long brooded in silence over the oppressions and outrages of this high caste, whom they deeply hated but greatly feared. At length a daring young man, a member of an influential family, organized a conspiracy among the people for the massacre of the priesthood. The immediate provocation was the abduction of the wife of the young leader of the conspiracy. His wife was remarkable for her beauty, and was forcibly abducted and violated by one of the Nicotani while he was absent on the chase. On his return he found no difficulty in exciting in others the resentment which he himself experienced. So many had suffered in the same way, so many feared that they might be made to suffer, that nothing was wanted but a leader. A leader appearing in the person of the young brave whom we have named, the people rose under his direction and killed every Nicotani, young and old. Thus perished a hereditary secret society, since which time no hereditary privileges have been tolerated among the Cherokee.

The Nicotani, or nigutani, are elsewhere called the “Ani-kutani,” a name that is difficult to translate, but may mean, “the people who came from the place of the sun.” They apparently counted four previous worlds of humans, and considered the sun their own ultimate birthplace, a legend that echoes the “Emergence” stories so common in the southwest. They were said to have developed a form of writing prior to Sequoyah’s Syllabary. The Fort Hill Cemetary 1853 Handbook records of the Allegewi:

Davies, in his notes concerning American Indians, refers to a people occupying the foreground in aboriginal history, who extended over the entire Mississippi valley, and the country below, to the borders of Mexican America, and held a higher reputation for knowledge of the arts and sciences than their successors. He asserts on the authority of Father Raymond, that they styled themselves “Allegwi;” that they exercised sovereignty over a vast area of territory; that they had orders of Priesthood among them, and were worshippers of the Sun. This author evidently supposed them to be extinct.

The supposition of extinction, the priesthood of the sun, and the “higher reputation for knowledge of the arts and sciences” all align with the stories of the Ani-kutani. So could the Allegewi be ancestral Cherokee—or at least, a secretive Cherokee priesthood?

Conclusion?

The Legends of the Allegewi are just that—legends. The pre-Haudenosaunee history of the Allegheny, the group that gives its name to our river, our forest, and so much else around us, seems lost forever to the realm of myth.

And perhaps that’s just the way we need it to be.