🔎 2. What do we know about the first groups to live here?

Mound Builders

Many large mounds of earth can be seen in parts of Ohio today. The mysterious mounds were created by ancient Native Americans about 1,500 to 2,500 years ago. The ancient Mound Builders were the earliest groups to settle in Ohio. Some Mound Builders lived on land that is now in Columbus. 

Mounds were created for many reasons. Burial mounds were used as graves. Other mounds were platforms for religious temples. Some mounds may have also been used as calendars.

The Adena and Hopewell Cultures were two of the Mound Builder groups in Ohio. The Adena Culture appears to be the first ancient people in Ohio to create burial mounds. The Adena hunted and farmed the land. The Hopewell Culture built mounds and earthworks as squares, circles, and other shapes.

Artifacts, such as copper figures, mica, shells, and pipes were buried in mounds. The Mound Builders either traveled great distances or traded with other traveling groups to get some of these resources. 

Mound Builders did not have horses. They walked over land and traveled by waterways such as the Scioto River and Ohio River to distant locations. 

When European explorers first came to Ohio in the 1700s, they asked the Native Americans about the purpose of the mounds. But they didn’t know. Mound Builder cultures were long gone. They disappeared from Ohio about 1,500 years ago. 

Native Americans on the Scioto

In the 1600s and 1700s, Native Americans in Ohio followed trails made by buffalo and deer. Native Americans farmed, fished, and hunted. 

When the first white settlers arrived in central Ohio in the late 1700s, some people of the Mingo, Wyandot, Delaware, and Shawnee cultures lived there near the Scioto River. 

In the late 1700s, there was both cooperation and conflict between white American settlers and Native Americans. Sometimes they traded goods. 

Other times there were conflicts and wars. In 1774, Mingo Native Americans were attacked and killed by soldiers from Virginia at Salt Lick Town, near the “forks of the Scioto River.” This is located in Columbus today. 

From 1785-1795, Native Americans and the United States fought for control of the Ohio territory. After the war, a treaty made land in central and southern Ohio open to white settlers. 

Conflicts continued as white settlement expanded. In 1830, the U.S. President signed a law forcing Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River. The Delaware left Ohio by 1831. The Shawnee left by 1832. The Wyandot were the last to leave in 1843. 

Questions for Review

1. Why were mounds built?  

2. What do we know about Mound Builder cultures? 

3. Which Native American groups were in Central Ohio? 

4. How did Native Americans and white settlers cooperate?

5. What conflicts happened between Native Americans and white settlers?