In a message dated 1/7/99 11:18:03 PM Central Standard Time, ehoward@conknet.com writes: << that the Shawnee may take exception to who owns the land. In other words the deed was worthless and the Cherokee just pulled a fast one on the poor, dumb white man. <g> Boone fought the Shawnee for years over KY. Can anyone document the facts?? >> I cannot document any fact on who paid whom for Kentucky. But I can verify theater the Cherokee did not "own" Kentucky. It was soft of like the village green for many Indian ribs -- they all hunted there. There is a persistent explanation for this that crops up from time to time. That there was something that was "unhealthy" -- besides warring Indian s-- in Kentucky, the reason that the tribes for centuries had given up making their homes there. Some anthropologists claim to have found evidence in bones of prehistoric residents that led them to credit this story. Now I expect all modern-day Kentuckians to rise up and deny that -- but that is a story. My ancestors went over the mountains from Southwestern Virginia to find a home in Kentucky before eventually moving on to God's country - Texas. love joan