Appalachian Forest Wars

The first public building in the Walker Creek Nation was a fortified blockhouse constructed of black walnut logs in a clearing valley 300 yards above "Walker Creek".  Private forts were also built by most settlers for protection against the Indians.

The relationship between the settlers and the Indians was "we understand each other perfectly - we want the same land, we will not tolerate each other on said land, and one or the other of us will be displaced or eliminated".  Such was the climate in the Appalachians of the early 1800s and it wasn't long before it became a dangerous situation.

The Appalachians were the location of some of the most bitter and prolonged conflicts ever fought in the western worlds and by far the most deadly settler/Indian confrontations in North American. 

Compare 1500 American soldiers killed in ALL Indian Wars west of the Mississippi to the 700 that were killed in one 2 day battle in 1791 on the Maumee.  In 1849 and 1869 as wagon trains went West, 362 settlers were killed by Plains Indians, whereas 360 settlers were killed at Wyoming Valley, PA on July 4, 1178.  

A very conservative count of the fighting in the generations of settlers and Indians in the Appalachians would be 5000 white settlers and 5000 Indians died in the "forest wars".

Next time-Indians Attack Walker Valley