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Capt Mike

Talking to John today and he wanted me to pass this along to ya'll.
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O.K., here's the deal. "Why did Long Hunters only hunt in Kentucky and Middle Tennessee?" Very simple actually; its because KENTUCKY & TENNESSEE WERE BOTH BASICALLY UNINHABITED HUMAN VACCUUMS! No one lived there... red or white, and as a direct result, the hunting was incredible beyond discription. Not to mention, a white guy could go there and not get scalped or tied to a tree and roasted alive... Now how do you think it would have gone over with the Shawnee or the Deleware or the Miami or the Ottawa if we would have moseyed into Ohio or Indiana to hunt?!? (Can you say, "extended, creative torture"?) Whadaya think the Cherokee and the Creeks and the Chickasaws and the Catabwa would have thought if a company of professional hunters were to have slipped on into Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi and took their deer?!? You don't even want to know what they would have done to you.
PLUS... the daggone Indians had already hunted their own back yards out decades before the Long Hunting era had begun! No such thing as "good hunting" in Indian country. Even though they weren't living there, the INDIANS all went into Kentucky and Middle Tennessee too... that is, whenever they were serious about hunting. Now why on earth would we go to hunt for extended periods of time in an area where the hunting was terrible and we stood a really darned good chance of getting our genitals cut off and our rear ends roasted to a golden brown in the deal as well?!? Life was tough enough dodging red hunting parties in the dark and bloody ground! Kentucky was a golden opportunity and that's why the Long Hunters went there.

J. Curry
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As always, I would encourage ya'll to try to read Johns book. Best thing written on actual long hunters to date.

Capt Mike
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Luke MacGillie · Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:21 pm Post subject:

Sometimes I think yall cant see the forest for the trees Laughing

Within Anglo culture for some reason these folks who didnt want to hoe corn are reveared as demi-gods. Why? because they walked to the west and real sudden like turned south and ended up in Kaintuckey? Why is it that Anglo's who made summer hunting trips are put up on a pedastal? It was nice weather and all.....

Now Mohawks heading to the Ohio country to winter over, like Joseph Brant's family did, that to some, might be something special, especially given the death of his father, his mothers trek back to Canojahari in the dead of winter ect, but within Native reenacting, there is not a subset of folks who base their entire impression on folks doing a winter's hunt.........

Ever noticed how West Virginia is one great big conglomoration of miss spelled Seneca place names? These places didnt get their names only after 1779..........
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FFBB#1 Im a Short Hunter with a wee little knife who Annoy's the king of longhunters.

Michael Archer · Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:26 pm Post subject:

How d' ye!

And for those that either followed such things, or were worried about it...

Lands west and north of the Ohio River were considered to belong to the Iroquois Confederacy ("formalized" with the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. To its limited extent, there was even the 1764 Bouquet "expedition" that evicted squatters found across the 1763 northern Appalachian boundary line.)
Plus the growing hostility of some of the Shawnee, Mingo, and Delaware who had relocated to the eastern and southern Ohio country beginning in the 1740's.)

X
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Michael Archer (His Mark)
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I didn't like him anyways. He wasn't right... in the head.
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Ohio Rusty · Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:43 pm Post subject:

Luke Mc ... Wrote:
Sometimes I think yall cant see the forest for the trees

Within Anglo culture for some reason these folks who didnt want to hoe corn are reveared as demi-gods.

It's exactly the same today .... those who aren't forced to hoe corn and are rich beyond our wildest dreams are treated like demi-gods also in todays society ....
Bernie Madoff, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Lebron James, Paris Hilton, 50 Cent, Eminem, Snoop Dog, Jay-Z ....... and the list goes on and on and on ....

I can see both the forest and the trees just fine, thank you .....

Ohio Rusty
A blue collar corn hoer who sweats blood for a paycheck every two weeks ....

owl · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 465 Location: sierra foothills

Rusty, always enjoy your posts!

Luke MacGillie · Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:59 pm Post subject:

Shawnee Mike · Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:45 pm Post subject:

Well Luke,
Perhaps when criminals and terrorists try to take over and cause havoc, we should send Tiger and Koby to stop 'em. Alot of the people in this Country will never learn.
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I wash my Hunting Shirt in the tears of my wasted life. RB

Many Klatch · Joined: 12 Aug 2008 Posts: 180 Location: Indiana

Much as I like and appreciate what John Curry has done for our little corner of the world I have to disagree about Kentucky and Tennessee being empty of Indians. I just finished reading Seedtime on the Cumberland which is a well written and researched history of early Tennessee and Kentucky along the Cumberland river. The Creeks, Chickasaw, and several other tribes lived in the area and fought the intruders for about 15 years.

I had always thought as John did that the area was empty of native peoples. With the exception of the area in Kentucky known as the Barrens it seems that there were many villages in the area that didn't appreciate the new neighbors.

Many Klatch
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Capt Mike · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 4:54 am Post subject:

John didn't mean there were -0 Indians in Kentucky and Tenn. but rather that it wasn't like waking right into a metropolis of natives to hunt.

You COULD get killed by Indians in Kentucky. IT happened to a lot of hunters. But ,say you went trespassing into northern Ohio to try the same thing,,you were CERTAIN to be killed .

Kentucky and Tenn were so sparsely occupied of Indians that the deer were still there in great numbers too.

There is a reason these lands were called the 'middle-grounds.'

Another thing we must not do,,is confuse 'setting' with 'long hunts.' Long Hunters wanted to sneak in, do their work and leave. It didn't always work that way, as they were 'robbed' over and over on occasions. But it did work a lot of the time and a number of these men made great money during that time.
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Luke MacGillie · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:28 am Post subject:

John should know that just when you think there are no NDN's in Kaintuckee, 2 bus loads of them will show up Laughing

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FFBB#1 Im a Short Hunter with a wee little knife who Annoy's the king of longhunters.

Pete McKee · Joined: 03 Dec 2003 Posts: 384 Location: Virginia

Antoine · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:03 am Post subject:

Why is it that the longhunters originally called the modern settlement of Nashville, Tennessee by the name French Lick? And how about that street Demonbruen in Nashville? Where did that come from?
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"All soldiers and militia are forbidden to fire their weapons on the pretext of emptying them. They must unload with a worm."
from translation of Bougainville's journal July 31, 1756.
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Real name: Marvin Woody

Michael Archer · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:42 am Post subject:

How d' ye!

"Why is it that the longhunters originally called the modern settlement of Nashville, Tennessee by the name French Lick? And how about that street Demonbruen in Nashville? Where did that come from?"

In brief and to over generalize...

The French were there "first."

As in western PA, and OH, French traders were there first- a combination of French policy of trying to "contain" the expanding British colonies as well as keep the Indian trade from being seduced by the British with their cheaper goods.

IIRC, by 1710, Jean du Charleville a trader from from New Orleans had made a deserted Shawnee "fort" at the French Lick into a warehouse/trading post.
When the first longhunters, settlers, and land speculators with James Robertson arrived to make claims in 1779, they found the cabin or post of
Illinois Country trader Timothy Demonbreun.

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Michael Archer (His Mark)
Spy
I didn't like him anyways. He wasn't right... in the head.
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc

Antoine · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:49 am Post subject:

Thanks for playing the straight man. Wink

_________________
"All soldiers and militia are forbidden to fire their weapons on the pretext of emptying them. They must unload with a worm."
from translation of Bougainville's journal July 31, 1756.
"MTV is to music as KFC is to chicken"
Real name: Marvin Woody

Luke MacGillie · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:48 pm Post subject:

Pete,

You misremembered it wrong, Cpt Curry felt he had enough White guys for that trip, and said he needed me to run with the NDN's. Thus I rode all the way up from Bragg with Gordon and the crew, knowing that there were eleventy billion guys who were not going to be at the rendevous point............

That scout is what derailed my Virginia cracker impression that I was putting together after comming back CONUS and sent me down the NDN, Loyalist and Frenchie path.........
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FFBB#1 Im a Short Hunter with a wee little knife who Annoy's the king of longhunters.