I made this "+ surrounding areas" since USA/state borders don't coincide with indigenous borders. And since my first post here isn't about Ohio.

 

This shows how closely today's streets parallel with indigenous trails. The same holds true in many Ohio cities and regions as well....

 

Map: Digitized Indigenous Trails in Detroit 1931

https://detroitography.com/2021/06/25/map-digitized-indigenous-trails-in-detroit-1931/amp/

 

That would probably be true on the west side of Cleveland - the trails and the first roads followed the ridges to stay out of the swampier areas.

 

This doesn't have the detail of the above map, but it does give a nice overview....

 

https://railsandtrails.com/Maps/OhioArch1914/trails.htm

I've done some similar work on the Toledo area - here too, lots of old roads and paths along moraines and beaches around the Great Black Swamp, up and down the Maumee. 

 

Here's a recent story from Indian Country Today about Shawnee returning to Serpent Mound, and the New Agers who abuse the site. I also saw a video from the Spring Solstice where reactionary Christians were desecrating that site, and local Indigenous people were counterprotesting; can't find that video atm. 

 

https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/shawnee-relcaim-great-serpent-mound 

Sacra Via Street in Marietta was built along a Native American earthworks:

 

There is a large archeological park comprised of an Indian village just south of Dayton:

 

And of course there are many traces of mound-builder culture that are now built into the urban fabric of southern Ohio:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 20213 yr by BigDipper 80

I do wish we had a better understanding of how Native Americans lived in and around Cuyahoga County. From my understanding, Moses Cleaveland was referred to the Cuyahoga by an NA tracker. 

The Warther's Museum in Dover has an extensive collection of Native America arrowheads mostly found in and around the Tuscarawas River:

 

https://thewarthermuseum.com/new-gallery

 

Judging by the map, Tuscarawas and Coshocton counties had high NA activity.

 

Some notable recorded history from the 1700s

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhutten_massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Laurens 

http://touringohio.com/northeast/tuscarawas/new-philadelphia/schoenbrunn.html

https://sites.google.com/a/westliberty.edu/nicodemus-history-files/home/the-coshocton-massacre

Definitely true on the east side of Cleveland as well. I remember learning while growing up in Maple Hts that Broadway was built along a native trail. When we moved out to Madison in Lake County, it was South Ridge Rd, and North Ridge Rd (Rt 20) were built along the trails that followed historical coastlines of the lake. I always thought Middle Ridge Rd was too, but apparently that was built later and people just weren't very creative with the name, as it's in between the other two but follows no ridge.

Here's this.  I'm curious if any of the native mounds or "fortifications" exist anymore.  I think maybe the ones along the Rocky River are part of Metroparks.

There's also this small private museum- http://newindianridgemuseum.org/. 

 

I'm not sure of the quality of scholarship, tbh, but there is at least some information there.

 

This is a topic that has interested me for some time, but there's little that I can find.  It seems that along the south Erie shore at least, the Native population was decimated before the arrival of white settlers in the 1800's.  Disease I'm sure, as it wiped out 80-90% of native populations throughout the Americas.  More specifically to NEO, the Beaver Wars resulted in the annihilation of the Erie people in the 1600's, with the survivors absorbed into surrounding nations, especially the Seneca.  Early accounts by the first white settlers of Cleveland do indicate that there were still some scattered groups of Native Americans living in the area, though not much detail is given.

I was shocked to find out that many of the projectile points my mom and aunt had found in Northeast Ohio date back 8,000 years.

 

http://www.projectilepoints.net/Search/Ohio_Search.html

 

 

18 hours ago, PoshSteve said:

Definitely true on the east side of Cleveland as well. I remember learning while growing up in Maple Hts that Broadway was built along a native trail. When we moved out to Madison in Lake County, it was South Ridge Rd, and North Ridge Rd (Rt 20) were built along the trails that followed historical coastlines of the lake. I always thought Middle Ridge Rd was too, but apparently that was built later and people just weren't very creative with the name, as it's in between the other two but follows no ridge.

That's an interesting story about Broadway. I've noticed the beginnings of a pattern of streets named Broadway being pre-Columbian trails/roads. It would make sense - heavily used paths would have followed the route of least resistance - dodging hills, swamps, multiple river crossings - so they would have already been the best ways to get from important river crossings, through mountain gaps, avoiding swamps, etc. 

 

New York City: Broadway was the Wickquasgeck trail;

Ann Arbor: Broadway crosses the Huron River and splits into the Pontiac Trail and Plymouth Rd/Ann Arbor Tr/Ann Arbor-Detroit path

Ft. Wayne: Broadway is the southerly route from Kekionga

Toledo: Broadway on the south end was the riverside trail on the north shore of the Maumee 

Edited June 26, 20213 yr by westerninterloper

15 hours ago, surfohio said:

I was shocked to find out that many of the projectile points my mom and aunt had found in Northeast Ohio date back 8,000 years.

 

http://www.projectilepoints.net/Search/Ohio_Search.html

 

 

I was also surprised to learn recently that NE Ohio has some of the oldest sites of human habitation in the Eastern part of North America, as you mentioned 8000 years+.  

1 hour ago, westerninterloper said:

I was also surprised to learn recently that NE Ohio has some of the oldest sites of human habitation in the Eastern part of North America, as you mentioned 8000 years+.  

 

Right? I've been going down the rabbit hole on youtube and it's just so interesting, and mysterious, in that there's so much we don't know. 

On 6/25/2021 at 9:14 PM, X said:

Here's this.  I'm curious if any of the native mounds or "fortifications" exist anymore.  I think maybe the ones along the Rocky River are part of Metroparks.

 

Climb the Fort Hill Steps at the Rocky River Science Center to the top of the hill. There are severely eroded fortifications there. I never saw a mound or any signs suggesting one.

 

On 6/25/2021 at 9:21 PM, X said:

There's also this small private museum- http://newindianridgemuseum.org/. 

 

I'm not sure of the quality of scholarship, tbh, but there is at least some information there.

 

This is a topic that has interested me for some time, but there's little that I can find.  It seems that along the south Erie shore at least, the Native population was decimated before the arrival of white settlers in the 1800's.  Disease I'm sure, as it wiped out 80-90% of native populations throughout the Americas.  More specifically to NEO, the Beaver Wars resulted in the annihilation of the Erie people in the 1600's, with the survivors absorbed into surrounding nations, especially the Seneca.  Early accounts by the first white settlers of Cleveland do indicate that there were still some scattered groups of Native Americans living in the area, though not much detail is given.

 

Two things reduced the population of the Great Lakes nations -- disease and war. In the late 1630s, waves of epidemics brought by French fur traders caused the natives' population to be halved. That was then followed by warfare which all but finished off the Erie people, in particular. Read about the horrific "ethnic cleansing" by the Iroquois of the Erie Nation in a 60-year-long series of battles called The Beaver Wars the culminated with a siege at the present-day city of Erie, PA in about 1656. French fur traders came upon the scene days after the siege and claimed more than 10,000 Erie people were slaughtered here. One account (which I can no longer find online) said the fur traders waded knee-deep through blood and guts. The Iroquois considered the Erie a lesser people and their fur trading with the French traitorous.

 

MORE:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_people

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Wars

 

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ER002

 

A terrific account:

http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html

 

Another keeper -- Part 1:

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2016/1/21/316430/Lost-Nation-of-the-Erie-Part-1.aspx

Part 2:

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2016/1/22/316562/Lost-Nation-of-the-Erie---Part-2.aspx

 

There were at least 19 Erie villages between Cleveland and Erie, PA before 1650 when the Iroquois destroyed them

https://www.goerie.com/news/20200117/early-history-legends-misinformation-about-presque-isle-old-time-erie-part-2

BTW, I encourage all of you to visit this place that was a shelter for hunters going back 19,000 years as the glaciers receded. This site was a cut-through for people taking a shortcut between the Ohio River at present-day Pittsburgh to just south of Steubenville, OH. It may be the oldest documented site of human habitation in North America. I visited it in 2013 and encourage others to visit it.....

 

https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/meadowcroft/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadowcroft_Rockshelter

20 hours ago, KJP said:

 

Climb the Fort Hill Steps at the Rocky River Science Center to the top of the hill. There are severely eroded fortifications there. I never saw a mound or any signs suggesting one.

 

 

Ironically enough, we were there today.  Young kids where misbehaving, so we only made it to the Rocky River Nature Center itself at the base of the steps.  Some info on indigenous Ohio inside the center (next time will climb the stairs...!)

 

Here are a few relevant photos from inside the Nature Center:

 

 

Edited June 28, 20213 yr by MuRrAy HiLL

14 hours ago, KJP said:

 

Climb the Fort Hill Steps at the Rocky River Science Center to the top of the hill. There are severely eroded fortifications there. I never saw a mound or any signs suggesting one.

 

 

Two things reduced the population of the Great Lakes nations -- disease and war. In the late 1630s, waves of epidemics brought by French fur traders caused the natives' population to be halved. That was then followed by warfare which all but finished off the Erie people, in particular. Read about the horrific "ethnic cleansing" by the Iroquois of the Erie Nation in a 60-year-long series of battles called The Beaver Wars the culminated with a siege at the present-day city of Erie, PA in about 1656. French fur traders came upon the scene days after the siege and claimed more than 10,000 Erie people were slaughtered here. One account (which I can no longer find online) said the fur traders waded knee-deep through blood and guts. The Iroquois considered the Erie a lesser people and their fur trading with the French traitorous.

 

MORE:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_people

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Wars

 

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ER002

 

A terrific account:

http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html

 

Another keeper -- Part 1:

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2016/1/21/316430/Lost-Nation-of-the-Erie-Part-1.aspx

Part 2:

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2016/1/22/316562/Lost-Nation-of-the-Erie---Part-2.aspx

 

There were at least 19 Erie villages between Cleveland and Erie, PA before 1650 when the Iroquois destroyed them

https://www.goerie.com/news/20200117/early-history-legends-misinformation-about-presque-isle-old-time-erie-part-2

 

Thanks, the write-up from "dickshovel" is the most in depth account of the Erie that I've seen by far.  I will have to get to the Fort Hill path sometime soon and check it out.  I also know that the French Creek Reservation of Lorain County Metroparks has a site somewhere as well, but I think they don't advertise where it is specifically.

I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to Lake County's own Indian Point, on the National Register and located just east of Painesville, a bit SW of Greater Metropolitan Perry. I admit I never investigated the indigneous origins of Indian Point while young. I guess there was some vague legend about an Indian connection, but mostly it was a place where high school students would hang out late at night and engage in who-knows-what (I was not a participant). The views from the top, overlooking the Grand River, are great, as is the area at the river level itself--well worth a trip. And nearby Indian Point is Paine Falls, hardly another Niagara but beautiful nonetheless. 

 

http://www.lakemetroparks.com/parks-trails/indian-point-park

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paine Falls

http://www.lakemetroparks.com/parks-trails/paine-falls-park

 

Edited June 28, 20213 yr by eastvillagedon

7 hours ago, eastvillagedon said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contrast from KJP's post above the gory details of the Beaver Wars from KJP's that decimated the Erie people with the historical marker from eastvillagedon about the same event: "The area became a neutral hunting ground for various tribes."

 

That's a great illustration of the extremes of historical writing about Indigenous peoples in North America. 

Edited June 29, 20213 yr by westerninterloper