CHAPTER IV. No Indian tribes found dwelling in Kentucky. This the common hunting-ground. Remains of prehistoric races. Indian superstitions in regard to their burial-places. Tribal origin and succession of the Indians. When the Shawanees occupied Kentucky. Cox's map shows that they were here in 1654; the map in Marquette's Journal, in 1681; and that in Charlevoix's History, in 1744. Evan's map shows them to have removed in 1755; but marks a war-path through Northern Kentucky. All traces of Shawanee lodges removed from Kentucky, in Filson's map, in 1784. Chief Black Hoof visits Kentucky in 1816; states that he was born at Indian Old Fields, Clark county, Ky., about 1730. Ficklin's letter on the question. Legend of the "Lover's Cave." Subdued by the Mohawks of the North east. Harassed by the Southern tribes, they abandon Kentucky and establish their villages in Ohio. Transfers of title by the Mohawks, the Shawanees, and the Cherokees, successively, to the whites. After all these treaties and transfers, Kentucky was won by the valor of her pioneer children. It was phenomenal that no Indian villages were found in Kentucky, and no evidences are of record of any tribal habitations being located within this territory, since 1750, except a few temporary lodges on the Ohio bank, opposite the mouth of the Scioto. From that date, as tradition held, it was by tacit concession the common hunting-ground for all the tribes on the North, the South, and the West. 1 The lodges nearest Kentucky were those of the Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Catawbas on the Hogotege, now the Tennessee, river, southward, and the Shawanees, Wyandots, and Delawares on the Scioto and Miami rivers, northward. From these abodes would issue. forth, repeatedly, bands of savages, often professedly for the hunt, but always painted, equipped, and armed to assume the role of warrior when opportunity tempted. The great unoccupied forest and prairie country that lay west of the mountains, bordered on the north by the Ohio, and on the south by the Shawance, now Cumberland, river, was the favorite resort of these roving and predatory Indian parties. Often the warriors of different tribes. met on these excursions in deadly conflict, and re-enacted the bloody tragedies for which Indian warfare has ever been noted. It was traditional that this had long been, not only the famed hunting range of neighboring tribes, but the fated field of frequent and sanguinary combat between partisan 1 Rafinesque, p. 38, in Marshall's History. 11 EVIDENCES OF A PREHISTORIC RACE. bands or organized armies of hostile tribes. From this association with strife and blood, and from the awe-inspiring solitude that reigned over the vast uninhabited forest, the Indians left to this land the expressive title, "Dark and Bloody Ground.” The Indian tribes only are known to history as the aborigines, or original occupants, of the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. But ancient mounds, earthworks, and antiquarian relics found distributed over these valleys give indisputable evidence that a prehistoric race, of a civilization superior to that of the Indian, were previous occupants. Their utensils, their use of copper, and their knowledge of geometry displayed in the construction of mound-works, show that they were more advanced in the arts of peace and the science of war, than were the rude denizens who disputed with the white man the supremacy of the new world of America. Of the origin, characteristics, and destiny of this mysterious and extinct people we know nothing, except by fabled story, hieroglyphic records, and antique remains. The Indians repeated to the pioneer whites a legendary tradition, which they said their fathers had handed down, that ages before there dwelt in the valleys on either side of the Ohio a numerous and powerful people, with whom their tribes engaged in destructive war. After much fighting, these primitive people were finally defeated in a great battle near the falls of the Ohio river. The remnant of their armies retreated for refuge on an island just below the falls, where they were pursued and exterminated by their fierce foes. The location of Sand Island, and the appearances of a vast burying ground on the north bank of the Ohio opposite, seem to lend an interest of probability to the story. Conclusive testimonies to the existence of such a prehistoric nation are in the many tumuli, or mound works, distributed over the savannas of the Gulf States, the plains of the Mississippi and tributaries, and as far north as the Genesee and Susquehanna valleys. Their form, position, structure, and contents not only show their artificial origin, but distinguish them as intended for sepultures, temples, or fortresses. In Collins' History of Kentucky may be found ample descriptions of these in Allen, Bourbon, Butler, Greenup, Mason, Trigg, and other counties. They are uniformly found in valleys, or in fertile lands capable of supporting dense populations, after the habit of ancient nations on the Eastern continent. The aged trees grown on the mounds, and other evidences, show these tumuli were constructed six or seven centuries ago, or more. The Indian traditions were of divers, but concurring, sources, agreeing in the story that the confederate armies of the tribes of the North drove this ancient people back on the Ohio, where the remnant were finally destroyed at the falls. Traces of extensive military defenses are found in the mound-fortifications of Fayette, Pendleton, Boone, and other counties, which some antiquarian writers assume to be part of a great line of similar works, which is traced from the lakes, south east, through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, to the South Atlantic coast. The mysterious and deep impressions, which these legends made on the superstitious minds of the savages, lent an additional coloring to the spirit of awe with which Kentucky was regarded. The Indians believed that the spirits of the dead lingered about the places of their sepulture. The slain of these vaguely-remembered wars, by myriads, were believed to lie buried in the valleys of the Licking, the Cumberland, the Kentucky, and the Ohio rivers; and this gave more intensity to their weird conceptions. It was a land of legends. Among the contents of these mound-works excavated, have been found proofs that the indigenous maize, or Indian corn, was the chief product of agriculture, on which the prehistoric people relied for breadstuffs; as it was with the savages, until the coming of the whites to America varied the products of the soil with seeds from the granaries of Europe. Of course, we must consider most that has been written in regard to this traceless people of many centuries ago, as conjectural, and leave investigation to the scientist who may be fond of antiquarian research. We know little beyond the fact that such a people as described, inhabited this region before the advent and occupancy of the Indian. Were they exterminated by the latter in relentless wars, or were they induced to move southward to escape their cruel foes or the rigors of an inhospitable climate, finally to be merged into the great Aztec family of Mexico? The curious may inquire, but history is as voiceless and mysterious as the burial-mounds, which tell us but little else than such a people lived and died. We must not burden the historic page, or confuse the reader, with an account of tribal successions, with all their ramifications. The restless and improvident habits of the Indians forbade that they should numerously and densely populate any locality; while their cruel, treacherous, and destructive spirit led to the frequent extermination or dispersion of opposing tribes, and hence they often changed locality and condition. The powerful and warlike Shawanees held their home in Kentucky during the seventeenth, and late in first half of the eighteenth, centuries; but were often at war with tribes north and south of them. About 1660, the Mohawks, or Iroquois, of the north-east, having procured firearms, came down the Ohio in large war parties, laid waste the country, and defeated the Shawanees and many other tribes on both sides of the river. In 1700, this was repeated, and the latter were further reduced and humbled; after which peace ensued between the two. Being also harassed by the Cherokees, Catawbas, Muscogees, and Chickasaws, from the Tennessee valley, they retired from Kentucky and built their lodges on the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum rivers, in Ohio. They then allied themselves with their old enemies, the Iroquois, against the southern hostiles just named. After this, no villages were known to exist between the Ohio and Cumberland; and Kentucky was henceforth the common hunting-ground, as well as the battlefield, of the tribes north and 1 Rafinesque; Ancient Annals of Kentucky, in Marshall's History, Vol. I., pp. 37 and 38. CHIEF BLACK HOOF VISITS KENTUCKY. 13 south; until the whites enforced, by conquest, the claim and possession, which before they had purchased. From the notes of Colonel Wood, of his journey through this country in 1654, and from other sources, Daniel Cox published his "Description of Carolana, as called by the English, or La Louisiane by the French; and of the great and famous Meschachebe river." On the map accompanying this work, the "Chaouanons," from whence came the word Shawanese,, are located west of the Alleghanies, and between the Ohio and Cumberland rivers. This is repeated on the map of "Marquette's Journal," published in Paris, in 1681; and finally confirmed by the map with "Charlevoix's History of New France," put forth in 1744. In Evans' map of 1755, Pownell's edition, the "Shawanese" are located on both sides of the Ohio river. but mainly on the north side, from the Miami to the Hockhocking. One or two traces of villages only, on the south side, and below the Big Sandy, are pointed out, and these of vague uncertainty. A warpath of the nation is laid down, beginning near the mouth of Kanawha. Then crossing Big Sandy, by way of Blue Licks, Elkhorn valley, and Eagle Hills, it passes over into Ohio, above the mouth of the Kentucky. On Filson's "Map of Kentucke," issued in Philadelphia, in 1784, the lodges of the Shawanees are all located north of the Ohio, of course; nor does he, in his history, the materials of which he gathered from the earliest pioneers, as well as from his own explorations of the country, give to the reader any definite knowledge as to when the last villages of the Indians were removed from the territory of Kentucky. Black Hoof (Catahecassa), who preceded Tecumseh as a commanding chief of the Shawanees, and who was prominent in nearly all the great battles of that nation, from Braddock's defeat to Wayne's victory, was an implacable foe of the English, and afterward of the Americans. Disheartened by Wayne's victory, he made peace with the whites, which he kept in good faith. In 1816, when over one hundred years of age, he made a tour through Central Kentucky, and stated to white residents that he was born at Indian Old Fields, in the eastern part of what is now Clark county. This spot has long been known as the site of an Indian town; and perhaps about the last occupied in Kentucky by the Shawanees. Black Hoof familiarly pointed out and described other objects and peculiarities in that section, familiar to his boyhood days. He died in 1831, aged nearly one hundred and twenty years. We quote from Ficklin's letter from Lexington, dated August 31, 1847, to H. R. Schoolcraft, in answer to inquiries in regard to the last Indian villages: "There is one fact favorable to this State, which belongs to few, if any, of the sister States. We have not to answer to any tribunal for the crime of driving off the Indian tribes and possessing their lands. There were no Indians located within our limits on our taking possession of this country. A discontented portion of the Shawanee tribe, from Virginia, broke off from the nation, which had removed to the Scioto country, in Ohio, about the year 1730, and formed a town, known to the whites by the name of Lulbegrud, in what is now Clark county, about thirty miles east of this place. The tribe left this country about 1750 and went to East Tennessee, to the Cherokee Nation. Soon after they returned to Ohio and joined the rest of the nation, after spending a few years on the Ohio river, giving name to Shawneetown, in the State of Illinois, a place of some note at this time. This information is founded on the account of the Indians at the first settlement of this State, and since confirmed by Black Hoof, a native of Lulbegrud, who visited this country in 1816, and went on the spot, describing the water-streams and hills in a manner to satisfy everybody that he was acquainted with the place." Thus the inquiry, as to the exact time the Shawanees made their final removal northward, bears us from the clearer light of historic research, to the fading twilight of tradition and legend. There are many stories of romance in the domain of the latter, which might lend a picturesque charm to our pages, if it were not intrusion to introduce them into the narrative of history. At the time of the visits of the early pioneers, after 1750, the title to this country, on the part of the Indians, was held on various pleas by different nations. The Mohawks, now known as the Six Nations, by their policy of incorporating the tribes as they conquered them, asserted title to it on the ground that they had subdued the Shawanees, and occupied it as their own for a time. So much faith was reposed in this title by the English Government, that at the great council, held in October, 1768, at Fort Stanwix, in the State of New York, the Six Nations included all of Kentucky east of the Tennessee river in the treaty cession made there, and in consideration of which cession they received of the English a little over £10,000, as stipulated by the agents, Sir William Johnson and Dr. Franklin.1 A second claim to this country, on the part of Virginia, was founded on the treaty made by Lord Dunmore, governor, with the Shawanees and their Miami confederates, in 1774. In that year, these tribes allied their forces, to avenge the murders of the family and kindred of Chief Logan, as asserted, and invaded Virginia, near the Kanawha river, with an estimated army of fifteen hundred warriors. The colonial Legislature, at Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia, had ordered the raising of an armed force to repel them. Governor Dunmore led fourteen hundred of these, who had rendezvoused at Fort Pitt, and marched down the Ohio. General Andrew Lewis, at the head of eleven hundred veteran frontiersmen, forming the left wing *Lulbegrud is not of Indian origin. In Book No. 1, page 156, of the Clark County Court, is the following, furnished by Judge Wm. M. Beckner, and published with the oration of Colonel John Mason Brown, at the centennial of the battle of Blue Licks: "The deposition of Daniel Boone, being of lawful age, taken before us, the subscribing commis. sioners, this 15th day of September, 1796, being first duly sworn, deposeth and sayeth that in the year 1770 I encamped on Red river with five other men, and we had with us for our amusement the History of Samuel Gulliver's Travels, wherein he gave an account of his young master, Glumdelick, careing him on a market day for a show to a town called Lulbegrud. "A young man of our company called Alexander Neely came to camp to camp one night & told is he had been that day to Lulbegrud, & had killed two Brobdignags in their capital, * and further sayeth not. DANIEL BOONE." 1 Treaty of Stanwix. Butler's History, p. 378. |