Sheewa-a-nee was left again in charge of the Hunting Grounds and from that day the Shawnees held the lovely Valley until the coming of the white settlers.
The settlers kept many of the Indian names for both mountains and streams. Opechancanough river was so called for the Great Chief. Legend and history tell us that in his later years he became blind and could no longer hunt in the lovely Shenandoah Valley.
There were many tribes of Indians in the country and though they did not all speak the same language, they did have a common tongue and could understand each other.
After 1710 all the lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains were spoken of as Indian Country. The different tribes evidently had understanding among themselves about certain boundary lines as individual tribes had certain domains. When one violated these rights, there was a war in which whole tribes sometimes would be completely wiped out.
The Shawnees, the most powerful and warlike of all, claimed all the hunting grounds west of the Blue Ridge and as far west across the Alleghany as the Mississippi. They had three large towns in the Valley. One was near where Winchester stands today, one on the North River in Shenandoah County, and one on the South Branch, near where Moorefield is situated. They did allow other tribes to visit them in the Valley on condition they pay them tribute in skins or loot.
The next tribe was the Tuscaroras, and they spent most of their time in what is now West Virginia.
Another tribe was an offshoot from the Sherandos and were called Senedos. They were completely wiped out by the fierce tribe of Cherokees from the South, in 1732.
The Catawbas were from South Carolina and had their towns along the river which still bears that name.
The Delawares came from Pennsylvania and their villages were along the Susquehanna River. The Susquenoughs were a large and friendly tribe on the Chesapeake Bay and they were good to the white settlers until their enemies, the Cenela tribes, drove them away from Tidewater Virginia. Then they went to the upper Potomac River. The Cenelas soon followed them to the same region. Another tribe, the Piscataway, lived along the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay.
The Cherokees had their villages on the Tennessee River down in the Carolinas and Georgia and Alabama. This tribe was made up of the nations of the South, the Muscogluges, the Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks. At certain times, all these Indians made forages into the Valley. Besides these there were those from New York—the Senecas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Cayugas. These were called the Five Nations and they too claimed the right to hunt in the Valley. These Indians believed, we are told, that the Great Spirit had given this Valley to all Indians and it is not surprising that they resented the coming of the white men who soon began to build homes, barns and fences and who claimed the right to shoot the Indians if they came on their property.
Then the French about this time began to build forts along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and on down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. The French made every effort to make friends with the Indians and told them the British had no right to take their lands. The French said they would protect their rights if the Indians would let them. Consequently, they became allies of the French and they began to move their villages and towns toward the French lines. They continued to keep a part of their homes and to send back bands of hunters to look after the hunting grounds beyond the mountains.
If the Indians had not been friendly to those pioneers who dared to build homes in the Valley, there would not have been any civilization there until a much later date. But as we have seen, many of them came from Pennsylvania where William Penn and his colonists had dealt so fairly with the Indians. Naturally then, the Indians thought all the settlers would be like those. Besides, there were so few of them, they did not at first realize that their hunting grounds were being taken from them. Consequently, the Delawares and Catawbas in hunting did no harm, though they were bitter enemies and the settlers often saw them with prisoners from the other tribes.
There were Indian villages on the Potomac and on both branches of the Shenandoah. Numerous Indian mounds and graves are still to be seen in certain sections of the Valley. Many of these have been opened and skeletons found to be in a wonderful state of preservation; utensils, pipes, axes, tomahawks, pots and hominy pestles have been found. Their pots and utensils were made of a mixture of clay and hard shells, very crude as to workmanship but very strong.
After twenty or more years of comparative peace, the Indians suddenly left the Valley. In 1753 messengers came from the Western Indians into the Valley and invited them to cross the Alleghany mountains. Historians claim this was done through the influence of the French and later consequences seem to establish the point.
Indian Tales
In the year 1774 the Indians began to give serious trouble to the settlers on New River. One day several children, those of the Lybrooks' and the Snydow's, were playing down by the river. They heard a dog barking and upon looking up, saw some Indians approaching. One of the boys ran along the edge of the stream trying to make his escape and warn the family. But one of the Indians ran ahead and cut off that means of escape. He also fired at two boys who were farther out in the stream, but fortunately missed them.
While the Indian was aiming at the boys, one of them ran up a rough path which had been made by the animals as they went back and forth to drink. The boy scrambled up this path and darted by the Indian who tried his best to catch him. The Indian gave pursuit and the boy ran until he came to a wide gulley about ten feet wide. This the boy easily jumped, but the Indian hesitated and threw a buffalo tug which struck his head and hurt his back. But he never stopped running until he reached his father's home and slipped into the fort where he told the parents of the attack.
In the meantime, five of the children who were playing in the river climbed into the canoe. The Indians waded out, then swimming to the side of it, pulled out the children, killed them, and took their scalps.
An older girl, about thirteen years old, turned over the canoe and swam downstream, then jumped to the opposite bank. One of the Indians pursued her and she screamed loudly for help. A faithful guard dog came to her rescue and as the Indian reached out to grab her, the dog jumped at the Indian, tearing the flesh in his thigh, and threw him down. This gave the girl time to make her escape.
The Indian struck the dog a blow with his club which finally made him let up on the man. The faithful dog went to the canoe and stood guard over the five scalped children until their people came to take them away for burial. Then the dog refused to leave the spot and began to howl in a most pitiful way. He ran into the woods and back again, keeping up his cries until one of the men followed him to see what was troubling him. There near a tree, he found a little boy of six years, bleeding to death from a scalp wound.
In 1760 two Indians were seen hiding around Mill Creek. Mr. Painter, his brother John and William Moore went in search of them. After some time they came to a newly fallen pine tree which had a very bushy top.
"We had better be careful," Mathias Painter said as they neared the fallen tree. "There may be Indians hidden in it." As he spoke, an Indian fired from the tree. His bullet grazed John's temple not injuring him. Then the other two white men fired at the Indians, striking one of them who fell to the ground. They supposed him to be dead, so they pursued the one who had fled, leaving his gun and loot behind him.
But the Indian was strong and he outran the two men. Imagine their surprise when they returned, and found the Indian gone whom they had supposed dead, taking the guns and pack of skins with him. The white men picked up his trail and followed him. He hid himself in a sink-hole and when the men came near he opened fire on them. He poured out his powder on the dry grass in front of him so he could reload his gun more quickly. He fired at least thirty times before the two men finally were able to kill him.
The Indian who had gotten away met a young woman of the neighborhood who was riding horseback. He tore her from the horse and forced her to go with him. This happened near where New Market stands today. They travelled about twenty miles or more. The Indian became impatient because she complained of being so tired.