The Indians of West Virginia
a selection from "Moccasin Tracks and Other Imprints" by William Christian Dodrill (1915)
II. THE INDIANS OF WEST VIRGINIA.
In order to fully understand the pioneer history of West Virginia it is necessary to know something of the roving tribes of Indians who hunted and fished in the territory between the Alleghanies and the Ohio. Besides these occupations they waged a relentless war against each other and were ever ready to dispute the right of the white settlers to the country. It will not be necessary to enter into an extended account of the Mound Builders. It is evident from the great earth works, called "Mounds," that a race in many ways superior to the Indians at one time dwelt•in the Ohio valley. But a correct answer to the question, Who were they? will probably never be given to the satisfaction of ethnologists.
That the Indians were here when the continent of North America was discovered is a fact of history, but from whence they came is still an unsolved mystery. That they exerted a powerful influence on the history of every county of West Virginia is unquestioned. From a geographical standpoint the study of the Indians is most fascinating. The grandest mountains and the noblest rivers of the state are known by names of Indian derivation. Appalachia, an applier to the great chain of mountains, means "the endless mountains." Alleghany. as applied to the greatest range of these
mountains, signifies "the place of the foot print," because of the early and late snows in that region. Ohio means "the river of blood," because of the great amount of Indian blood that flowed in the wars for the retention of this beautiful and most important river. The Great Kanawha in the Shawnee language was Keninsheka, meaning "the river of evil spirits". The Shawnees called the Elk Tiskelwah, "river of fat elk".
The Delawares called it Pequoni, "the walnut river". The Gauley was called by the Delawares, Tokobelloke, "the falling creek". The present name of that stream is of French derivation. The Shenandoah was "the river of stars", and the Potomeck has been changed to Potomac. While the Indians spoke a guttural language, yet the names of our mountains and rivers derived from their language are very pleasing to the ear. The West Virginia counties of Kanawha, Logan, Mingo, Monongalia, Ohio, Pocahontas and Wyoming have names of Indian derivation. It is to be regretted that more of these names are not to be found on the map of the state. No tribe of Indians really possessed the soil of West Virginia when the first white man visited the region. A few scattering wigwams in the best fishing and hunting grounds belonged to temporary sojourners, who expected to remain for a short time only. There was a time when West Virginia was the permanent home of the savages, but they were either driven out or exterminated. The conquerors were the Mohawks, a warlike tribe of Indians, whose home was in New York. They carried their conquest into many regions by means of firearms furnished by the Dutch, of New York, between the years 1656 and 1672. A tribe of Indians, believed to be the Hurons, occupied the country from the forks of the Ohio southward along the Monongahela and its tributaries to the Great Kanawha and the Kentucky line. According to the accounts of the missionaries who were among them, not a Huron was left in the state. If a remnant escaped, none returned to occupy the land of their fathers. The conquerors did not choose to permanently occupy the subjugated territory. From this time until the final subjugation of the Indians by the whites, in 1795, many different tribes resorted to West Virginia during the spring, summer and autumn, but they returned to their homes, with few exceptions, beyond the Ohio, or to the northward into Pennsylvania or New York, upon the approach of winter, and did not again return until the following spring. Each tribe had certain indefinite boundaries, confining them to particular territory. Bloody battles were often fought when one tribe was found on the territory of another. This occurred when game was scarce in one part of the state and more plentiful in another section. Feuds of long standing and fancied wrongs of other years were settled on the hunting grounds of West Virginia. The Cherokees, whose home was in the southeastern part of the United States, claimed that part of the state lying south of the Great Kanawha. The valleys of the Guyandotte and Big Coal rivers were hunting grounds that rivaled in excellence those of Kentucky.
The Shawnees occupied the basin of the Great Kanawha. This was a fierce, warlike tribe and was responsible for many of the massacres perpetrated upon the frontier settlers. This tribe was the most permanently located of all the tribes in the state. They had towns in both Greenbrier and Mason counties.
The Mingoes, located in the state of Ohio, claimed the territory between the Little Kanawha and the present site of Wheeling. These Indians were responsible for much of the border warfare. Logan, noted for his friendship for the whites, was a Mingo chief.
The Delawares occupied the valley of the Monongahela, while the eastern panhandle was considered the home of the Tuscaroras. The last named tribe was driven out of North Carolina in 1712 by a neighboring tribe, and migrating to the north. They became the sixth member of the Five Nations, with whom they claimed kinship. Thus constituted, the Six Nations, comprising the Mohawks, Tuscaroras, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, became the most powerful Indian confederacy in America. As formerly stated, the Mohawks of this confederation conquered all the territory now embraced in West Virginia. All the tribes roaming over West Virginia acknowledged the supremacy of the Six Nations in the territory between the Alleghany mountains and the Ohio.
West Virginia was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians. The rivers were full of all kinds of fish: vast herds of buffalo, elk, and deer were found: the black bear, wild turkey, and ruffed grouse were in abundance. It is not at all strange that the Indians resented the encroachments of the white settlers upon this hunters' paradise, and that they waged a war of extermination against them.
Webster county seems to have been a favorite resort for the Indians. The saline properties of the water of the "fork lick" attracted large numbers of ruminating animals to its vicinity. The savage hunter laid in wait for his prey along the paths leading to the "lick", or else concealed himself in the bushes and killed the animals when they came to drink.
Arrow heads, stone hatchet. fire stones, pipes, broken pottery, and many other implements of aboriginal manufacture have been found in all parts of the country.
Under a large, overhanging rock across the Elk river from the mouth of Mill run a great many arrow heads have been picked up. Seventy-five years ago these arrow heads were found by the score hidden in the crevices of the rocks. A spring of cold, sparkling water flows from under this rock, and the Indians used this as a camping ground and as an arsenal for storing their surplus supply of implements of the chase and of war. The materials from which these arrow heads, or "darts" as they were locally called, were brought from the regions of the Kanawha and the Great Lakes, and the manufacturing was done in the home while not engaged in hunting or fishing. In many places small chips or spawls of flint strew the ground. Defective or broken arrow heads are also found in the same vicinity. Masses of flint weighing as much as eight or ten pounds have been found on the Elk, the Gauley and the Birch rivers. Each shows unmistakable signs of being chipped by some human agency.
At the mouth of Cooperwood run is a large bottom that was once the site of an Indian camp or village. This bottom has been cleared for probably fifty years and when recently plowed many implements of Indian manufacture were found, including broken pieces of clay pottery. Some of these pieces had cars on the sides, indicating that these receptacles were manufactured with some degree of skill. Other relics were found, including arrow heads, broken pieces of pipes and stone axes. The darts were parti-colored. Some were white and red, while others were dark brown 'or black. In a low gap on Point mountain on a divide between the two Baltimore runs, more arrow heads are to be found than in other localities in the county. These are especially plentiful in Steps Low gap, about three miles from the Charles McDodrill farm. Large quantities of chips and arrow heads can be picked up at this place. These conditions can be accounted for from the fact that this was the greatest hunting ground in the country when first visited by white men. The low gap was a crossing place for the game that wished to pass from one locality to another, and the Indians lay in wait by the side of the path until his intended victim came along. and he shot it at short range with an arrow tipped with flint. There are but few Indian graves and no mounds in the country. The Indians did not bury those who died in battle. The absence of graves conclusively proves that the savages did not permanently occupy the territory embraced in Webster county.
There were two Indian trails leading through the county. The tribes living beyond the Ohio visited relatives in Greenbrier, Pocahontas and Randolph counties. A small band of Mingoes lived at Mingo Flats, in Randolph county, about the time the whites began to occupy the Greenbrier, the Monongahela and the Kanawha valleys. This band was frequently visited by friends from what is now the state of Ohio. They traveled by way of the Little Kanawha and reached the Elk by way of the Flatwoods country. The trail crossed the Elk at the mouth of Laurel creek and led up that stream and crossed the divide midway between Cowen and Upper Glade. It crossed the Gauley at the old Indian Ford near the Jones mill. From that point it crossed the mountain through the low gap on the Gallogly place, and continued up the Williams river to its source. A branch of this path led up Elk river by way of the fork lick. but it iras not so well marked as the other one. When the first settlers came to the county these two trails could be easily traced, and the one passing through the Glade country can be located at this time, although it has not been traveled for more than one hundred years.
Another route traveled by the Indians visiting Webster county was up the Gauley from the Kanawha. It left the Gauley at the mouth of Little Elk and proceeded up that stream, crossing through a low gap to Peters creek and led on by the war of Beaver and Strouds creeks to the Gauley at Allingdale. But few Indians visited this section after 1750. Had Webster county not been an interior county the history of Indian depredations would have been very different. Savage fury fell with the greatest violence on the settlers who lived nearest the permanent homes of the Indians.
It is ever with a feeling of sadness that the historian writes of a conquered and vanished people. The strife and hatred that existed between the Indians, the unlettered children of the forest, and the white men, who in many ways were their superiors, were of such a character that the great-grandchildren of the conquerors still harbor a feeling of resentment against the subjugated people. This is but natural, when it is remembered in what a cruel manner the Indians treated their captives–many of whom were the immediate ancestors of the present generation.
The print of the moccasined foot of the Indian is no longer seen along the banks of our rivers. The old pioneer with whom he fought is no longer seen in the door of his rude cabin on the lookout for the approach of his mortal foe. The buffalo, the elk, the deer, the bear, and the wild turkey have been driven from their accustomed haunts.
The hunting ground over which the contending parties quarreled and fought has been converted into farms and is now being tilled by the pale faces. Populous cities, busy with the hum of industry, occupy the place where once stood the humble dwelling of the Indian. Where he buried his kindred and covered the grave with stones to prevent the body from being devoured by wild beasts, the white farmer, after removing the stones, cultivates his crop unmindful of any desecration. The whistle of the steamboat is heard on the streams over which the Indian silently but simply paddled his birch-bark canoe. The offspring of the savages who occupied the territory now embraced in the state of West Virginia is today living on western reservations and dress and live like the White men, who are their neighbors. They have fine churches and commodious school houses. They are allowed the right of suffrage after they have broken up their tribal relations, and when they have adopted the white man's mode of dress.