OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio Shawnee Indians [4] *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 February 12, 2002 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Ohio Shawnee Indians *********************************************************************** Ohio Shawnees -- Part 4. Shawnee Captives -- Part 4. Boone-- " Sheltowee " -- [ Big Turtle ] On May 1, 1769, Daniel Boone, who was a great woodsman and hunter, his brother in law John Stuart, John Finley, and three others, journeyed over the Blue Ridge across the Holston, Clinch, and Powell Valleys. Beyond lay the seemingly impenetable wall of Cumberland Mountain. They had heard of huge buffalo herds, feeding on great strands of cane, deer at every salt lick, and lush land for the taking. The men soon found a hunters trace that lead them to the gap discovered by Dr. Thomas Walker and named for the Duke of Cumberland. There they turned north up the Warrior's Path, a route traveled by hunting and war parties of the Cherokee and Shawnee. This was one the Indian's sacred land's. Except for brief periods, the Indians built no villages in Kentucky, reserving the land for hunting. The absence of Indians, was one reason white settlers were attracted to the region. By the end of May, Boone and his companions set up a base camp on a creek called Station Camp. After about seven months of excellant hunting, they were surprised by the Shawnee, where they were robbed of all the horses and all the deer skins. All except Boone and Stuart returned to the settlement, but they were not alone for long, as Boone's brother Squire found the hunters, bringing fresh horses and ammunition, a feat he was able to do and duplicate two more times, carrying skins to the Yadkin and returning with supplies, which he had done before during Boones two year hunting and exploration trip. In February 1771, Amaghqua or " Beaver," with a Shawnee hunting party captured Daniel Boone and John Stuart in their camp along the Psquawwetheepi [ Red River ]. Amaghqua, who understood English well enough to converse brokenly in that tongue, learned who they were and that one of the others the Shawnee had treated so kindly and allowed to enter their country, provided he would only trade and not hunt or trap or try to settle there was also with them [ John Findley ]. The game and furs that they had accumulated were confiscated, along with their horses, and Boone and Stuart were taken prisoner and were held for seven days before they were released with a stern warning and just enough supplies to sustain them on their return home. " Now brothers, " Amaghqua had said upon setting them free, " you go home and stay there. Do not come here anymore. This is Indian hunting ground and all the animals, skins, and furs are ours. If you are so fooish as to come here again, you can be sure the wasps an yellow jackets will sting you severely." But the released men did not go home. Keeping out of sight, they trailed Amaghqua's party, slipped into the Shawnee camp under cover of night and recovered their horses. Amaghqua was both impressed and angered at such audacity and immediately followed their trail, captured them again and reconfiscatd the horses. During the night however, Boone and Stuart managed to escape on foot and thi time eluded Amaghqua's determined efforts to recapture them. Early the following spring, John Findley was again captured descending the Ohio and though he protested that he had only come to trade, he was killed. At about the same time another Shawnee hunting party discovered Boone, Squire, and Stuart had come back into the Kan-tuck-kee hunting grounds and were again killing game. Stuart was overtaken and wounded with gunshot, but he escaped and could not be found. Though the Shawnee made a determined effort to capture Boone, he earned their grudging respect and fear by beating them in woods lore, living in various caves and consistantly managing to elude them while occasionally making phenomenally long shots to kill the Indians he encountered.On the brother's journey home in March of 1771, they arrived empty handed. The Indians had confiscated their furs from them once again. Daniel Boone first attempted to settle in Kentucky in 1773. The Boones and a few score others, including some in laws, set out with a packtrain, cattle, and household goods. Near Powell Valley, Boone and his eldest son, James, went back for more supplies. Dark caught the sixteen year old and his companions only three miles from rejoining the pioneers, when the Indians attacked. James and his friend Henry Russell were tortured to death. They were buried there, wrapped in one of Rebecca Boones [ James' mother ] linen sheets. Scared and disheartened, the would be settlers convinced Boone to turn back. the first effort to settle Kentucky was a failure. A man with a grand design for settlement, a whole new colony, was North Carolina's Judge Richard Henderson, an old friend and advocate of Boone. Britain had forbidden further westward settlements, but the American rebellion was beginning to boil. Henderson proceeded with his plans. HisTransylvania Company paid 10,000 pounds in goods to the Cherokee for 20 mllion acres between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers. Not all the Cherokee were in favor. " Dragging Canoe" took Boone by the hand and said, " Brother, we have given you fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it." Hired by Henderson to cut a path for the new settlers, Boone on March 10, 1775, assembled 30 mounted axmen at Long Island in the Holston River. Then on March 24th, he and his exhausted party camped on gently rolling hills country south of todays present Richmond. They were fired upon by the Indians about an hour before day. Captain Twitty was shot in both knees, and died the third day following and Felix Walker was badly wounded. Some of the men panicked and ran, others grabbed their rifles and fired back. When the skimish ended, the men hastily threw up a log fort and cared for the wounded. Courage failed some of the men, and they returned home. The remaining trailblazers placed Walker on a liter and followed Otter Creek to the Kentucky River. There they made a station, and named it Boonesborough. In those first days of Boonesborough most of the men were too busy claiming land to build fortifications. They busied in putting in crops. Henderson, who arrived with his group on April 20th, complained a month later of no meat but bear fat, and almost starved. They drank coffee and trusted to luck what they could catch for dinner. A convention to form the new government of Transylvania was held at Boonesborough beginning May 23, 1775. Among those attending was James Harrod, who in 1774 had beaten Boone in founding the first permanent British settlement in Kentucky.[ Harrodsburg ]. Courts were established, the militia organized, the laws to protect game. Speeches of the day referred to the British crown; no one knew of the battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought a month earlier. Kentucky soon felt the effects of the war. Raids by the Indians allied with the British became common. Fearing for their lives, more than half of the new settlement left. At one time only 12 women remained in Kentucky, among them Rebecca Boone and her four daughters, Just after the first Independence Day, a small band of Shawnee and Cherokee watched from a canebrake as Jemima Boone ad her friends Betsey amd Fanny Callaway drifted down the Kentucky in a canoe. Suddenly the girls were overpowered and kidnapped. When they were discovred missing, Boone and others set off in pursuit. Guided by signs the plucky girls had managed to leave, the men caught up with the band on the third day. As the long rifles fired, you could hear Jemima yell, " That's Daddy!" The rescue was major news in the settlements and the story was told over and over again. Daniel Boone and his family was slowly becoming a legend. In January of 1778, Boonesborough was desperately in need of salt. The Indians usually kept cloe to home in winter, so Boone took 30 men to boil a supply at the mineral springs at Blue Licks, 70 miles to the north. Weeks later, Boone off hunting alone, was surprised and captured by the Shawnee. At the camp, he was shocked to find a force of more than a hundred warriors. They were eager to avenge the murder of their Great Chief, Cornstalk, who a few months earlier had been killed by the whites, while on a mission of peace. The Shawnee were led by Chief Blackfish, who knew of the saltmaker's camp and intended to attack Boonesborough. Boone promised to surrender the men at Blue Licks, but he persuaded Blackfish that it would be better to take Boonseborough in the spring when the women and children could more easily survive the trek north, either to be adopted by the Shawnee or sold to the British. The captured Kentuckians were marched to old Chillicothe, a Shawnee community on the Little Miami River, near present day Xenia, Ohio. Boone and ten others were taken to Lt. Gov. Henry Hamilton in Detroit, who paid a bounty for all but Boone, whom Blackfish refused to surrender. Taken back to Old Chillicothe, Boone, who hd been adopted by Blackfish, became known as " Sheltowee " [ Big Turtle.] ******************************************* to be continued in part 5.