The Peoples

The map below shows the approximate areas of Native American habitation of the geographical setting for Crossing Charry Ridge before the coming of European settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries. The main group of people was called the Yesan, sometimes better known as Tutelo.

The Databases for Indigenous Cultural Evolution at University of Missouri has produced a PDF data sheet on the Tutelo Indians.

A collaborative project at Virginia Tech has produced a new map depicting the social landscapes of Southwest Virginia prior to the arrival of Europeans. Virginia Tech also has an American Indian and Indigenous Community Center, which is a great resource for the study of the original Peoples of this region.

Here is an excellent page detailing and mapping contacts between native Americans and early European explorers.

The Persons

The Encyclopedia Virginia has an excellent article that summarizes what was known as the Backcountry of Virginia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Most of the European settlers were of English, Scots-Irish, or German ancestry. Grants of land encouraged the pioneers to move to areas west of the Blue Ridge. The Shenandoah Valley received the first settlers, with a rapid influx beginning in the 1730s.

The map below shows the general path of migration and settlement during the 18th century. Many of the immigrants landed in Philadelphia, and then spread westward to the Pennsylvania Dutch region of southeastern Pennsylvania. From there the path led in a southwesterly direction through the Shenandoah Valley along what was known as the Great Wagon Road.

That road divided around the current city of Roanoke: the eastern branch, known as the Carolina Road, went south into North and South Carolina. The main route continued through Southwest Virginia and out into Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap, in the far western corner of Virginia, and Tennessee.

The video above comes from the website of the Wilderness Road Committee, which is an excellent place to learn more about the early European settlement patterns in western Virginia.