Staff Report
Carter County Times
The Carter County Historical Society hosted a presentation on Native American history and culture in northeastern Kentucky with historian and reenactor Doug Wood last month. The presentation, which spilled over from the library into the auditorium of the Olive Hill Center for Arts & Heritage due to projected crowd size, focused on the history of tribal claims to the area, and the impact of European contact.
With that contact the Natives went from the stone age to the iron age overnight, Wood noted, and were eager to trade the pelts and furs that European hat makers and clothiers craved for the new, metal tomahawks that performed much better than old, stone axes. Their conflicting claims to the land, and the treaties and deals they would make with each other, and later with white settlers and traders, were also a topic of discussion.
For instance, Wood noted, later conflict between settlers and Native tribes were a direct result of conflicting claims following the Beaver Wars, which depopulated the area, particularly between the Cherokee and other tribes like the Shawnee. The British recognized the Cherokee claims when they made deals with that tribe for access to the Ohio River Valley and adjacent lands, but the Shawnee and others were also hunting and living there. (Photos by Jeremy D. Wells, Carter County Times)
