Ohio History Journal

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THE INDIAN THOROUGHFARES OF OHIO

THE INDIAN THOROUGHFARES OF OHIO.*

BY ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT.

History tells of two Ohios—the old and the new. The old

Ohio was that portion of the American Hinterland drained by
the Ohio and Allegheny rivers which, together, formed la Belle
Riviere
of New France. It included the territory between the
Alleghenies, the Mississippi and the great lakes, save as we ex-
cept the country of Illinois, which early in history became a ter-
ritory distinct by itself, as the meadow lands of Kan-ta-kee be-
came distinct later. As late as the Revolutionary war an English
map printed "Ohio" south, as well as north, of the Ohio river.'

Of this old Ohio (including the Illinois country) only that

part which lay north of the Ohio river contained a resident In-
dian population. That portion south of the river was the Korea
of the central west–the "dark and bloody" battle ground of
surrounding nations half a century before the white man gave
it that name.

North of the Ohio river, in the valleys of the Alleghany,

Beaver, Muskingum, Scioto, Sandusky, Miami, Maumee, Wa-
bash and Illinois, more white men knew the redman intimately
than perhaps anywhere in the United States in the eighteenth
century. This knowledge of the Indian in his own home-land
resulted in giving to the world a mass of material respecting
his country, customs and character. Among other things this
knowledge of the northern division of the old Ohio during the
Indian regime made it possible to map it, and some of these
maps are essentially correct.

The dismemberment of the great old Ohio was rapid, and

in some instances spectacular. The extension of Virginian do-
minion by George Rogers Clark and the evolution 'of the state
of Kentucky, and especially the passage of the great Ordinance

*Copyrighted 1900, by Archer Butler Hulbert.

1 Map with Pownall's "Middle British Colonies in North America 1776,"

(London, 1776).

(264)

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