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