Eskippakithiki

Eskippakithiki was a Shawnee village and the last known Native American settlement in the state of Kentucky.^[1] The name "Eskippakithiki" means "Blue Licks Town" in the Shawnee language.^[2] It was located approximately at Indian Old Fields, which was an unincorporated community in Clark County, Kentucky. It was established around 1718 by the Shawnee, which abandoned the settlement at the beginning of the French and Indian War (approximately 1754–55).^[3][4]

Eskippakithiki
Indigenous settlement
Eskippakithiki Location within the state of Kentucky Show map of Kentucky Eskippakithiki Eskippakithiki (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 37°56′22.4″N 83°59′51.1″W

Historical marker

A historical marker mentioning Eskippakithiki is located on Kentucky Route 974 at Indian Old Fields (Marker Number 1274). This inscription reads:^[5]

Site of Eskippakithiki, sometimes called "Kentake," located on the Warrior's Path. This meeting place for traders and Indian hunters was the last of the Kentucky Indian towns. Occupied by the Shawnees, ca. 1715-1754. John Finley had a store here and traded with the Indians, 1752. Daniel Boone viewed "the beautiful level of Kentucky" from this point on June 7, 1769.

Further reading

• Beckner, Lucien (1932). "Eskippakithiki: The Last Indian Town in Kentucky". The Filson Club History Quarterly. 6 (4): 355–382.
• Calloway, Colin G. (2007). The Shawnees and the War for America. Viking. pp. 45–47.
• Clark, Jerry E. (1993). "Chapter 2". The Shawnee. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 24–45.
• Friend, Craig Thompson (2010). "Chapter 1:The Indians' Frontiers". Kentucke's Frontiers. Indiana University Press. pp. 15–30.
• Harrison, Lowell H.; Klotter, James C. (1997). A New History of Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 23–25.
• Howard, James H. (1981). Shawnee!: The Ceremonialism of a Native Indian Tribe and Its Cultural Background. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. This work does not explore Eskippakithiki, but it very useful as a general cultural history of the Shawnee.
• Sugden, John (2000). Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 12–15.
• Warren, Stephen (2014). "Chapter 3: Nitarikyk's Slave". The Worlds the Shawnees Made: Migration and Violence in Early America. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 50–70.

See also

• History of Kentucky
• Paleontology in Kentucky