MISC: Eskippakithiki (Indian Old Fields), Clark County, Kentucky -------------------------------------------- Contributed for use in USGENWEB Archives by: Pam Brinegar Date: March 10, 2000 -------------------------------------------- **************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net. ***************************************************************************** Eskippakithiki (Indian Old Fields), Clark County, Kentucky Source: History of Pioneer Kentucky, R.S. Cotterill, Johnson & Hardin, Cincinnati, 1917. There were, in truth, in 1750 but three places in Kentucky where the red men dwelt. These were the extreme west of Kentucky, where the Chickasaws lived in savage independence on the cliffs of the Mississippi; a small section of ground opposite the mouth of the Scioto River, occupied by a Shawnese town; and an isolated town in Central Kentucky. The record of the last of these is at once the most interesting and the least known. In 1745, Chartier, a French trader, met and traded with the Shawnese Indians at the Falls of the Ohio (Draper, MSS. Life of Boone, Vol. II, p. 169). Setting out from the Falls in company with a predatory band of Indians, his company soon encountered two traders whom they despoiled of their goods, amounting to about 1600 pounds in value. Continuing their journey southward, they settled on a small stream that was afterwards named Lulbegrud Creek (Lulbegrud Creek was so named by Boone). Here they laid out a town to which they gave the name Eskippakithiki. Though the town has long since disappeared, the present name, Indian Old Fields, preserves the memory of the ancient post (the site of the old town is some fifteen miles from the present town of Winchester). Dwelling in the heart of the bluegrass region and at a distance from both kinsman and foe, the exiled Shawnese prospered and grew apace. But after two or three years the warriors of the Six Nations learned of the trespassers on their hunting grounds. From that hour the life of the Shawnese was one of danger and fear; the Iroquois harassed them incessantly. The northern Shawnese meanwhile sent reiterated requests for their wandering brethren to return to the tribe, but they were reluctant to leave Kentucky. Finally, worn out by Iroquois attacks, the exiles began their journey out of the land. Numbering four hundred and fifty, they traveled down the Lulbegrud, the Red, the Kentucky, and the Ohio, to the Tennessee. Ascending the Tennessee to Bear Creek they met and wantonly attacked the Chickasaws. That warlike tribe speedily punished and expelled the intruders, who fled to the Creeks of the south. In 1748 the remnant of the tribe took up anew the journey to the Ohio Shawnese. They tarried for awhile on the Cumberland River in Tennessee until attacked by the unforgiving Chickasaws. Reduced to two hundred and fifty they set out again down the Cumberland, having their women and children in canoes and the warriors traveling on guard along the bank. They reached the Ohio, but on account of the heavy rains were unable to ascend it. Stopping at the Wabash they were persuaded to join the Indians at Kaskaskia. After a stay here of two years they were, in 1762, taken home by the Ohio Shawnese. Eskippakithiki at one time was a town of considerable size. It was a market and a neutral meeting place for the northern and southern Indians. In the period of its prosperity and after its abandonment, it was visited frequently by white traders, among whom the rollicking John Finley was conspicuous. It was at Eskippakithiki that the venerable Shawnese chieftan, Black Hoof, was born. He accompanied the tribe on all its wanderings, and years afterwards when Kentucky was settled and himself an old man, he revisited his old home, identified its landmarks and related its history.