WVfacts

1. The Battle of Point Pleasant was fought over the Shawnee's claim to western Virginia (now WV) (see link) http://www.wvculture.org/history/indland.html#pp

2. Evidence such as the petroglyphs in Salt Rock, Cabell County, WV are proof of Native American presence.

3. Adena and Hopewell burial mounds are found throughout the state. Huntington is the home to one mound found at Camden Park as well as other small mounds on private property. South Charleston, WV is the location of the Criel Mound which is the largest of more than fifty conical mounds which can be found in the surrounding area, and of course, Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, WV. There are also mounds in Hampshire, Harrison, Wood, Randolph,

Pleasants and Kanawha Counties. These mounds are between 250 and 150 BC.   Evidence also exists of long ago abandoned villiages. Ref: http://www.wvculture.org/history/mounds.html#moundsc

4.     3.2% of West Virginia's current population are registered on the Census Rolls as being American Indian and Alaskan Native persons. Ref: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/54000.html

5.     Long standing myths and legends also abound throughout the state that involve in some way the Native Americans in our history. One very popular tale is the "Mothman" actually being the manifestations of the "curse" of Chief Cornstalk. ref: http://www.prairieghosts.com/cornstalk.html

6.     Many publications and books include our state in Native American History. One such publication is The Story of The Cherokee People by Tom B. Underwood (Cherokee Publications 1961, Chapter V, pg.33.) "In less than a hundred years, the Cherokee had lost all of it's vast domain that included parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama."

West Virginia remains the home of thousands of Native American descendants who have grown up with these stories, who are deeply familiar with the landscape and abandoned ruins and markers of a different life. Thousands of descendants who remain proud of their ancestry and proud of the state in which they live.