Siouan languages
Authors who call the entire family "Siouan" distinguish the two branches as "Western Siouan" and "Eastern Siouan" or as "Siouan-proper" and "Catawban". Others restrict the name "Siouan" to the western branch and use the name "Siouan–Catawban" for the entire family. Generally, however, the name "Siouan" is used without distinction.
Protohistory of West Virginia
Linguistic and historical records indicate a possible southern origin of Siouan peoples, with migrations over a thousand years ago from North Carolina and Virginia to Ohio. Some peoples continued down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and up the Missouri River, and others across Ohio to Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, home of the Dakota. Ohio Valley Siouan (Southeastern Siouan) is a group of related Siouan languages, which included the Ofo language, Biloxi language, and the Tutelo language. The Tutelo language was a group of mutually intelligible dialects spoken by the Tutelo, Monacan, Manahoac and Nahyssan confederacies, and Occaneechi in what is now Virginia and West Virginia.