Black Hoof

Indian Old Fields is one of the most his­toric places in Clark County.  Geographically sit­u­at­ed in the extreme east­ern end of the coun­ty, it is a 3,500-acre plain of fer­tile soils perched between Lulbegrud Creek and Upper Howard’s Creek.  The area can be reached from Winchester by Highway 15 or the Mountain Parkway.

Native Americans occu­pied this area for thou­sands of years.  Archaeologists have iden­ti­fied over 50 sig­nif­i­cant pre­his­toric and his­toric sites at Indian Old Fields includ­ing vil­lages, hunt­ing camps, mounds, earth­works (“sacred cir­cles”), and stone graves.  The Goff Village Site, rec­og­nized as an out­stand­ing exam­ple of a Fort Ancient cir­cu­lar vil­lage, is list­ed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eskippakithiki, the only Indian town in the inte­ri­or of Kentucky shown on Lewis Evans’ 1755 map, has long been thought to have been at Indian Old Fields.  Another map from about the same peri­od shows a “Shawna Town” in rough­ly the same loca­tion.  Both maps show the famed Warrior’s Path, which con­nect­ed the north­ern and south­ern tribes, pass­ing through the town.

By far the most impor­tant per­son asso­ci­at­ed with Indian Old Fields is Catahecassa, known to the whites as Black Hoof.  He was a prin­ci­pal chief of the Shawnee for over 50 years.  Black Hoof was a cel­e­brat­ed ora­tor, had a com­mand­ing pres­ence, and was one of their fiercest war­riors.  He was said to have fought in every impor­tant Shawnee bat­tle from Braddock’s War in 1755 to their defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  When he signed the peace treaty at Greenville (1795), he vowed nev­er to fight the whites again—a promise he faith­ful­ly kept.  Black Hoof argued against the con­fed­er­a­cy of Tecumseh and his broth­er Tenskwatawa and was able to keep many of the Shawnee out of an alliance with the British dur­ing the War of 1812.

An 1816 arti­cle in the Lexington Reporter stat­ed that “The cel­e­brat­ed chief Blackhoof, long dis­tin­guished by his attach­ment to our gov­ern­ment, and three oth­ers we under­stand are on a vis­it in Bourbon county.” 

Leaving Bourbon County with an inter­preter, Black Hoof then vis­it­ed Indian Old Fields.  A num­ber of local res­i­dents told of see­ing him.  According to Jesse Daniel, “In his speech, he told about the coun­try then.  Said that they had had a town there till one year before Braddock’s war, at the old fields.  My under­stand­ing is some­where in Mrs. Gough’s [Goff] farm that this old man had once lived there.  That then some tribe from the south—I think the Catawbas—proving too hard for them, they had been oblig­ed to remove.”

Joseph Ficklin described his valu­able con­ver­sa­tions with Black Hoof:  “When Black Hoof arrived in Kentucky in 1815, he sup­posed his age to be 109 and those who con­versed with him had the utmost con­fi­dence in his state­ments.  He could tell his age to be 50 when Gen. Braddock was defeat­ed and many points of History to con­firm his sto­ry.  Although he had not been at Lulbegrud for about 100 years he could describe the face of the Country & the Creek.  When approach­ing the spot with­in a few miles his rec­ol­lec­tion improved & he point­ed out the spot & coun­try around before he was in sight.  His activ­i­ty was equal to that of most men at 80.  He road well & could walk with­out a staff.”

Black Hoof coun­seled the Shawnee to adapt to the white men’s ways and seek legal titles to their Ohio lands.  He vis­it­ed Washington, D.C. on four occa­sions, once in 1802 to ask President Jefferson for help obtain­ing farm­ing imple­ments and livestock:

“Brother, We beg your assis­tance in get­ing all nec­es­sary Farming tools & those for build­ing hous­es that we may go to work as quick as pos­si­ble.  It is the wish of all our Brothers and like­wise to fur­nish us with some dome­stick Animals.  It is our desire to live like good Brothers & good neigh­bors, as long as the Grass grows & the water runs in the rivers.”

Black Hoof died in 1831 at Wapakoneta, Ohio.  In spite of all his efforts to hold onto the Shawnee lands in Ohio, almost imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing his death in 1831, President Andrew Jackson ordered the Shawnee to be removed to Kansas.

Black Hoof has been com­mem­o­rat­ed by mon­u­ments at numer­ous loca­tions.  Sadly, there are none to be found at Indian Old Fields.