The Great Indian Warpath (GIW)—also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail—was part of the network of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans which ran through the Great Appalachian Valley. The system of footpaths (the Warpath branched off in several places onto alternate routes and over time shifted westward in some regions) extended from what is now upper New York to deep within Alabama. Various Native peoples traded and made war along the trails, including the Catawba, numerous Algonquian tribes, the Cherokee, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The British traders' name for the route was derived from combining its name among the northeastern Algonquian tribes, Mishimayagat or "Great Trail", with that of the Shawnee and Lenape, Athawominee or "Path where they go armed".
History The age of the Great Indian Warpath is unknown. Many of the trails were first broken by animals traveling to the salt licks in the region, especially by the herds of buffalo in the Valley of Virginia. These animal trails were later used by Native Americans.Brown, Katharine L. and Nancy T. Sorrells. 2013. Into the Wilderness. Staunton, Virginia: Lot's Wife Publishing. Pages 1-2. The trails were used for commerce, trading and communication between tribes before the land was explored by Europeans. In Virginia during November 1728, William Byrd II commented while passing a branch of the Indian trail what would later be called the Great Wagon Road in what would eventually be Henry County, Virginia, that "The Indians, who have no way of traveling except on the Hoof, make nothing of going 25 miles a day, and carrying their little Necessities at their backs, and Sometimes a Stout Pack of Skins into the bargain."Byrd, William, and William K. Boyd. William Byrd's Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina. New York: Dover Publications, 1987. Page 266.
While archaeology shows that the Valley of Virginia was inhabited before the arrival of the Europeans, by the 18th century most of the region was abandoned. Only smaller villages and settlements of different tribes occupied the valley, which was used as a hunting ground, a travel route, and a warpath between the two great clusters of Eastern Indians in the 17th and 18th centuries.Brown, Katharine L. and Nancy T. Sorrells. 2013. Into the Wilderness. Staunton, Virginia: Lot's Wife Publishing. Pages 2-3.
European colonizers In the north, the line of the Seneca Trail formed the boundary of "the frontier" by the time of the French and Indian War (1756–63). When King George III issued a proclamation in 1763 forbidding further settlement beyond the mountains and demanding the return of settlers who had already crossed the Alleghenies, a line was designated roughly following the Seneca Trail.
Route
Alabama In the south, the GIW began at the Gulf of Mexico in the Mobile area and proceeded north by northeast, bisecting another trail known as the Upper Creek Path and crossing the Tennessee River near Guntersville. It then followed roughly the same route as the Tennessee upriver until reaching the vicinity of the modern Bridgeport. There it crossed the Tennessee once again at the Great Creek Crossing just below the foot of Long Island on the Tennessee, intersecting another path, the Cisca and St. Augustine Trail, which ran from the area of St. Augustine, Florida to that of Nashville, Tennessee.
Tennessee
Several miles upriver from Long Island, the GIW passed through the Nickajack area, so-called by the Cherokee (from Ani-Kusati) because it had once been inhabited by the Koasati.
After following the south bank of the Tennessee River, the path proceeded through Running Water Valley to Lookout/Will's Valley, where it met the Cumberland Trail. From present-day Gadsden, Alabama, this trail passed through the latter valley at a point along the Upper Creek Path, on its way to the Cumberland Gap, the Ohio Valley, and the Great Lakes region. Having met, both trails crossed the foot of Lookout Mountain; their route was later followed by the improved Old Wauhatchie Pike.
Once over the mountain, the path crossed lower Chattanooga Valley to what archaeologists refer to as the Citico site. For several hundred years this was the pre-eminent town in the early period of the Mississippian culture in East Tennessee (until around 1200). Past Citico, the path ran east (later followed by the late Shallowford Road) to Missionary Ridge, where it divided. The main branch headed northeast toward the Shallow Ford (which can still be seen) across the Chickamauga River (South Chickamauga Creek) and the other branch went directly east (a route now followed by Bird's Mill/Brainerd Road) to cross at another ford at the site of the later Brainerd Mission and Bird's Mill.
The east bank of that site is where Dragging Canoe and his Chickamauga Cherokee faction established their base after leaving the Overhill Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee River. From there, it proceeded north along the modern-day Chickamauga Road until reaching the main route again. Its path was later followed by the improved Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike. From the area of present-day Cleveland, Tennessee, the path has been followed by Lee Highway until reaching the Little Tennessee River.
From Old Chickamauga Town, a third branch of the path passed across Hickory Valley, where it intersected a path from the Cisca and St. Augustine Trail in North Georgia to the Tennessee River. This intersected the main route of the path before fording the stream at Harrison, Tennessee, to reach the Middle Mississippian town which archaeologists call the Dallas site. After crossing that valley, the branch from Chickamauga passed east to Parker's Gap through Whiteoak Mountain and turned northeast, eventually rejoining the main route.
In the Overhill Cherokee country, the path ran from the north to the town of Chota on the Little Tennessee. Here, another important trail, the Warriors' Path, continued south to the town of Great Tellico (present-day Tellico Plains), following Ball Play Creek and the Tellico River. At Great Tellico, the Warrior's Path intersected the Trading Path (later called the "Unicoi Turnpike"), which ran east over the mountains. From Great Tellico, the Warrior's Path followed Conasauga Creek to its confluence with the Hiwassee River, where the town of Great Hiwassee stood.Duncan 2003:242-243
Virginia In Virginia, U.S. Route 11 (parallel to Interstate 81) was built along the GIW route. From the Cumberland Gap and Appalachian mountains at the Tennessee border, the fork called the Chesapeake Branch led northeast, passing west of what is now Bristol, then through the sites of present-day Abingdon, Glade Spring, Marion, Rural Retreat, Fort Chiswell (another possible westward gap route), Draper, Ingle's or Pepper's ferry, Salem, Roanoke and Amsterdam, then up the Shenandoah Valley through Buchanan, Lexington, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Winchester. From Winchester, most GIW routes briefly enter West Virginia, then continue northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Various forks led up (or down) rivers from Chesapeake Bay through the coastal plain and Piedmont. One Chesapeake branch cut off at present Ellett, Virginia, went up the North Fork of the Roanoke River, down Catawba Creek to Fincastle or Amsterdam. The Richmond fork of the Chesapeake branch led off from Salem, and continued southwest of Lynchburg, and thence northeast to the future site of Richmond.
Another branch turned south from Big Lick, near present-day Roanoke, and turned south toward the Catawba country in South Carolina. Later this trading path would be called part of the Great Wagon Road or the Carolina Road. William Byrd II mentioned it during his survey of the dividing line between North Carolina and Virginia in November 1728. "The Trading Path above mentioned receives its name from being the Route the Traders take with their caravans, when they go to traffick with the Catawbas and other Southern Indians... The Course from Roanoke to the Catawbas is laid down nearest Southwest, and lies through a fine country, that is watered by Several beautiful Rivers.Byrd, William, and William K. Boyd. William Byrd's Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina. New York: Dover Publications, 1987. Pages 166, 298-299.
The Ohio branch led up the Holston Valley to the north fork of the Holston River by what is now Saltville, Virginia, to the New River, and thence down the New and Kanawha rivers to Indian settlements in Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
West Virginia Most GIW branches cross West Virginia, although one more eastern route skips the state entirely, following U.S. Route 15 from Winchester to Frederick, Maryland. The Winchester Pike (now U.S. 11) passes through Berkeley County, West Virginia (including Martinsburg) before crossing the Potomac River near Hagerstown, Maryland.
Another more western Seneca Trail branch crossed West Virginia along routes that became U.S. Route 19, I-79 and U.S. Route 219. Entering a few miles west of Bluefield, what became Route 19 winds through the mountains until Beckley, then continues to Sutton and Morgantown before entering Pennsylvania and continuing to the Great Lakes at Erie via I-79.
Route 219 follows the Bluestone River to the New and Greenbrier rivers to the vicinity of White Sulphur Springs. It then follows Anthony Creek down to the Greenbrier River near the present Pocahontas – Greenbrier County line, then ascending toward Hillsboro and Droop Mountain. It crossed through present Pocahontas County by way of Marlinton, Indian Draft Run, and Edray. Passing into present Randolph County, it descended the Tygart Valley River from its headwaters and passed through the vicinity of present-day Elkins, after which it proceeded north by ascending Leading Creek. It left Randolph County after crossing Pheasant Mountain, and descended the Left Fork of Clover Run into present-day Tucker County. Crossing the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, it exited Tucker county and West Virginia by way of Horseshoe Run northeast of St. George, crossing the Potomac River near Oakland, Maryland.
Maryland From crossing the Potomac River at Hagerstown, Maryland, the Seneca Trail (U.S. Route 11) continued northward toward the Cumberland Valley and modern Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Since the terrain in Virginia and West Virginia was the most difficult to cross east to west (or vice versa), along the Appalachian mountain range, due to numerous north–south ridges, most hunters (and later settlers) crossed the mountains between the Ohio River watershed and Chesapeake Bay watershed either in Tennessee to the south of that region, or via what was once called Nemacolin's Trail through the Cumberland Narrows of Maryland and western Pennsylvania. Named after the Delaware chief Nemacolin, who assisted surveyor Thomas Cresap on behalf of the Ohio Company of Virginia, it was further improved by Washington and General Braddock. This route connected Cumberland, Maryland by way of the Youghiogheny and Allegheny rivers with Brownsville, Pennsylvania on the Ohio River. As the 19th century began, this east–west route became known as the Cumberland or National Road, later (U.S. Route 40).