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.

Name

Their name translates to "Big Water" people. In the 1670s, Abraham Wood wrote their name "Moneton" and as another variant, "Monyton."

Territory

The Moneton lived in southern West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. Their settlements were near the Manahoac, Moneton, and Tutelo, Siouan language–speaking tribes of Virginia.

History

The Moneton may have been a Fort Ancient culture, 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. The first written mention of the Moneton was made by English settler Thomas Batts in 1671. 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. Arthur visited them and described their capital as "a great town," which might be Saint Albans or Buffalo, West Virginia. That is the last contemporary mention of them. They likely merged into other Siouan-speaking tribes in the Piedmont region of Virginia.

Language

The Moneton language was a Siouan language and likely related to the Manahoac, Monacan, and Ofo languages.