Hocking Hills Native American Tribes
Before the first white people arrived in the area that would become Hocking County, there were three Indian tribes living here for many years. They left their mark on the land: one needs to spend only a few hours in the field to find some of their stone tools and their picture carvings are found on the walls of caves throughout the county.
The Indians who controlled territory here were the Delawares, the Shawnees, and the Wyandottes. They planted crops such as beans, corn and squash and harvested wild nuts and berries and maple syrup in the woods. They went to the Hocking River (Hock-hocking) to catch fish, turtles, clams, frogs and crayfish. These water creatures were all a part of the food supply of the Hocking County Indians.
The surrounding hills were home to many game animals. When the Indians needed meat and animal skins, they would go hunting for the deer, the raccoon, the squirrel, the rabbit and the bear. The many caves in the area made bear hunting very successful. The meadow lands provided grazing for the buffalo herds. The skins were made into clothes, blankets and tipis. The last wild buffalo in Hocking County was killed by a white man near present day South Bloomingville in 1799.
- The Tribes
- The Delawares
- The Wyandottes
- The Shawnees
The Delaware Indians
The Delaware Indians lived in the northern portion of Hocking County. They called themselves, “Lenne-lenape” which meant “The Real People." There were Delaware Indians living in other parts of Ohio, where they had migrated from their ancestral home near the east coast. They nearly became the fourteenth American State. The Delawares were the ones who named the Hocking River, from which Hocking County gets its name. Near the headwaters of the Hocking is a place where the river rushes down a narrow gorge and tumbles over a falls into a wide channel. This spot reminded the Delawares of the shape of a bottle. The Delaware Indian word “Hock-hocking” means “shaped like a bottle." Later, white people changed the name to “Hocking."
The Wyandotte Indians
When Lord Dunmore led his troops up the Hocking Valley in the late 1700’s, he found a deserted Wyandotte village near the eastern edge of present-day Logan. As a result, the early settlers in Logan referred to that place as “the old town." The small stream that meets the Hocking River at this point came to be known as "Old Town Creek." The Wyandotte Indians had once been a part of the powerful Huron Confederacy. They came to Ohio, after having been defeated by the Iroquois. They were active in the Indian wars in Ohio. Their principal chief was Tarhe, the Crane. He fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. After the Wyandotte Indians were defeated, he served as the top negotiator for the twelve Ohio tribes at the Treaty of Greenville.
The Shawnee Indians
The Shawnee Indians had migrated from the Carolinas into Ohio. They built a powerful empire in the valley of the Scioto River. At some early time, they saw deer hair floating on the river. Their word, “Scioto”, means “hairy water." The Shawnee Indians had several large towns in the Scioto Valley. In that valley, hunting was sometimes difficult. They had to travel a long way to find game. Their richest hunting ground was in southwestern Hocking County. Many bears lived in the area that is now Old Man’s Cave. The trail they used led down the valley, past present-day Laurelville, to their village near present-day Chillicothe. Chillicothe is the Shawnee word meaning “town." The Shawnee Indians traveled fifty miles, on foot, to bring food from the Hocking Hills to their towns along the Scioto River.
All three of the Indian tribes who were attracted to Hocking County went on to play important roles in the history of Ohio. All three tribes fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. They faced the might of the American Army, which was under the leadership of Mad Anthony Wayne. They were soundly defeated by Wayne. The Treaty of Greenville contained the terms of the Indians’ surrender.
Indians reservations, which took in nearly all the northern half of Ohio, were set aside for the defeated tribes. But successive treaties reduced the size of the reservations. By the middle of the 1800’s, all the Indian land had been lost, and the tribes had been removed. The descendants of the three tribes who once roamed the hills of Hocking County now live on reservations in Oklahoma.
From the book Hocking Hills and Hollers
Published by Hocking Hills Activities Association
Written by Leland Conner
