Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
The settlement of the Shawnees at Shawneetown, on the Ohio River,
in Gallatin County, in comparatively modern times, is attested not
only by history but by the name by which the town is still known.
There is evidence on record that there was an older Shawneetown
located at the very point where this "salt-kettle" pottery and
these stone graves were found. This is mentioned in the American
State Papers [Footnote: Public Lands, Class VIII, vol.2, p. 103,
Gales and Seaton ed.] in the report relating to the famous claim
of the Illinois and Wabash Land Companies. The deed presented was
dated July 20, 1773, and recorded at Kaskaskia, September 2, 1773.
In this mention is made of the "ancient Shawnee town" on Saline
Creek, the exact locality of the stone graves and suit-kettle
pottery. The modern Indian village at Shawneetown on the Ohio
River had not then come into existence, and was but in its prime
in 1806, when visited by Thomas Ashe. [Footnote: Travels in
America, 1808, p. 265.]
As proof that the people of this tribe were in the habit of making
salt the following evidence is presented: Collins, in his "History
of Kentucky", [Footnote: Vol. 2, p. 55.] gives an account of the
capture and adventures of Mrs. Mary Ingals, the first white woman
known to have visited Kentucky. In this narrative occurs the
following statement:
The first white woman in Kentucky was Mrs. Mary Ingals, nee
Draper, who, in 1756 with her two little boys, her sister-in-law,
Mrs. Draper, and others was taken prisoner by the Shawnee Indians,
from her home on the top of the great Allegheny ridge, is now
Montgomery County, W. Va. The captives were taken down the
Kanawha, to the salt region, and, after a few days spent in making
salt, to the Indian village at the mouth of Scioto River.
By the treaty of Fort Wayne, June 7, 1803, between the Delawares,
Shawnees, and other tribes and the United States, it was agreed
that in consideration of the relinquishment of title to "the great
salt spring upon the Saline Creek, which falls into the Ohio below
the mouth of the Wabash, with a quantity of laud surrounding it,
not exceeding 4 miles square," the United States should deliver
"yearly, and every year for the use of said Indians, a quantity of
salt not exceeding 150 bushels." [Footnote: Treaties of United
States with Indian tribes, p. 97.]
Another very significant fact in this connection is that the
fragments of large earthen vessels similar in character to those
found in Gallatin County, Ill., have also been found in connection
with the stone graves of the Cumberland Valley, and, furthermore,
the impressions made by the textile fabrics show the same stitches
as do the former. Another place where pottery of the same kind has
been found is about the salt-lick near Saint Genevieve, Mo., a
section inhabited for a time by Shawnees and Delawares. [Footnote:
C.C. Royce in American Antiquarian, vol. 3, 1881, pp. 188, 189.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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