later fauna found imbedded in the salty
quagmire.

Man, like beast, sought both salt and water. Following the animal trails
came the mound builder. But when he vanished, leaving his earthen house
and the crude utensils that filled his simple needs--for the mound
builder was not a warrior--there was but little of his tradition from
which to reconstruct his life and customs.

A century passed before the Indian in his trek through the wilderness
followed the path of buffalo and deer. Came the Shawnee, Cherokee, and
Chickasaw to fight and hunt. To the Indian the Blue Ridge was a favorite
hunting ground with its forests and rolling plains, while the fertile
valleys with thick canebrakes offered bread in abundance. Sometimes
these primeval trails which they followed took their names from the
purpose they served. For instance, the Athiamiowee trail was, in the
Miami dialect, the Path of the Armed Ones or the Armed Path and became
known as the Warrior's Path. It was the most direct line of
communication between the Shawnees and the Cherokees, passing due south
across the eastern part of the Cuttawa country (Kentucky) from the mouth
of the Sciotha (Scioto) to the head of the Cherokee (Tennessee). Another
trail was called Old Buffalo Path, another Limestone because of the
soil. Then there was a Shawnee Trail named for the tribe that traversed
it.

The Indian was happy and content with his hunting ground and the fertile
fields. The streams he converted to his use for journeys by canoe. He
had his primitive stone plow to till the soil and his stone mill for
grinding grain. The fur of animals provided warm robes, the tanned hides
gave him moccasins. Tribal traditions were pursued unmolested, though at
times the tribes engaged in warfare. Each tribe buried its dead in its
own way and when a tribe wearied of one location it moved on. Unlike the
mound builders, the Indian had a picture language and he delighted to
record it in cuttings on rocks and trees. He would peel the bark from
the bole of a tree and with a sharp stone instrument carve deep into the
wood figures of feather-decked chieftains, of drums, arrows, wild
beasts. And having carved these symbols of the life about him, depicting
scenes of the hunt and battle and conflict, he covered the carving with
paint fashioned in his crude way from the colored earth on the mountain
side. The warrior like his picture language vanished in time from the
Blue Ridge. But not his trails.