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Before we start on that journey, it is important to note that West Virginia was created out of Virginia and all of the treaties we will be referring to come from the Colonial era when the British ruled over the area. These treaties were the results of larger machinations going on in and around Virginia as well as the rest of the colonies. A lot of interplay between colonies and between Native groups were going on that would affect the area around what would become Charles Town. Also of note is that most, if not all, of the information here comes from the Western/European side of things, while the Indigenous perspective on these certain treaties does not appear to have made its way down through the ages. 

American Indian History of the Area 

The history of human habitation of the area is lengthy dating back to 11,000 BCE. Unfortunately, the prehistoric era is not well known. There have been relatively few archaeological projects dedicated to exploring the ancient indigenous populations in Jefferson County (where Charles Town sits and is the county seat). The majority of which have been conducted in relation to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park located 7 miles from Charles Town, both residing in Jefferson County, WV, and even with those the prehistoric findings were secondary to the more modern focus of the projects which sought to study the history of the town and its buildings.  

There is a decent prehistoric chronology, if providing vague date ranges, that can be applied to this region that follows along period divisions: Paleoindian, Archaic, and Woodlands (all of which having Early, Middle, and Late periods). Up until the late Woodlands period, due to the lack of records it is difficult to categorize diverse cultures that resided in the area. The earliest Paleoindian (11,000 BCE to 9,600  BCE) inhabitants were hunter-gathers who may have lived in band-like social structures in seasonal camps following game and the seasonal plants that they grazed on. Beginning in the Arachic period (9,600 BCE to 1,500 BCE) as the climate began to warm, the population in the region began to grow with food becoming more and more abundant. This led to increases in the size of settlements and distinct cultures beginning to form. 

During the Woodland period (1,500 BCE to 1600), earthworks and mounds started to be seen showing contact with the Adena culture (Moundbuilders) of the Ohio Valley. Maize began to be introduced leading to increase in food cultivation and storage. Larger and more complex settlements began to form in the area. Members of the Algonquian linguistic group migrated to the area and built fortified villages and interacted and fought with neighboring Iroquoian linguistic group. However around 1500, the Shenandoah Valley no longer housed any permanent settlements. Small tribes of Tuscarora and Shawnee lived in temporary villages with the region acting as a highway, hunting ground, and a place for raiding and trade.  

The Valley allowed Iroquis raiding parties to travel south to attack southern tribes such as the Catawbas and the Cherokees. It also saw conflict between the Catawba and Delaware tribes. By the time of European contact around 1600, the Five Nations Iroquis had removed all other indigenous groups from the area and it acted as a place to collect furs and raw materials to establish trading posts with Europeans. As more and more European settlers moved into the area, the already small number of Native Americans began to decline even further. Not only from the tensions of space and resources but also due to the intertribal wars, foreign disease, and loss of territories. So by the 18^th century there would be relatively few sightings or reports of Native Americans in the area.  

This loss of territories coming as a result of a series of treaties that pushed the Native populations further and further west out of the area around Charles Town.   

Treaties Between American Indians and Virginia 

Nearly from the beginning of European settlement in Virginia conflict arose between those settlers and the Indigenous population. The First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609-1614) began just a couple years after the establishment of the Jamestown settlement, and all but ended with the capture of Pocahontas and her marriage to John Rolfe. The Chickahominy peoples fearing attacks from the Powhatan chose to ally with the English agreeing to a treaty which would see them become subjects of the English settlers, supply them corn, avoid killing their livestock, and commit soldiers if there were to be an attack from the Spanish. For their part, the English provided materials to the Chickahominy, guaranteed them their sovereignty in their self-governance, and to offer protection against the Powhatan. This would be just the first of many treaties the English settlers would enter into with the various Native American groups inhabiting Virginia. 

The first to have any real bearing on the area around Charles Town, would be Lord Howard's Treaty (1684) or the 1684 Albany Agreement. Complicated intercolonial relations between the colonies of Virginia and New York as well as Quebec and the Iroquois Confederacy brought about this agreement. Virginia's main objective was to secure its western borders from raids by Native peoples. While New York wanted to keep their place as the primary negotiator with the Iroquois and to keep lucrative trade business flowing through Albany and not diverted south to Virginia or north to Quebec. The Iroquois looked to cement their control over Native American groups living west of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and in the Maryland and Virginia Piedmont, to increase their political power and population of the Five Nations, and to secure southern raiding routes to attack Cherokee and other groups living south of Virginia. To this end, the Iroquois reached an agreement with Virginia to block settlement at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains thus keeping the Shenandoah Valley open as a hunting ground and a thoroughfare. 

Come 1722 and the Virginia Governor, Alexander Spotswood, along with the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York were back in Albany, NY negotiating another treaty with the Iroquois Confederacy. For this treaty, Governor Spotswood secured an agreement from the Iroquois to stay west of the Blue Ridge ("the great Rid[g]e of Mountains which extend along your Frontiers") and not cross into the Piedmont south of the Potomac River. Which all seems well and good, however, Virginia soon would start to interpret the agreement to mean not the Blue Ridge Mountains which form the eastern barrier of the Shenandoah Valley but the Great Ridge or the western edge of the Valley (see map), thus granting them formal access and control over the Shenandoah Valley. This interpretation coupled with Lord Fairfax stepping in to start establishing his rights over his land claim, the Northern Neck Proprietary or Fairfax Grant (which a young George Washington would help to survey), meant a renewed influx of European settlers starting to pour into the Shenandoah Valley. An act which created friction with the Native Americans using that same land. A series of raids and reprisals took place from both sides increasing the tension in the area. 

This prompted additional negotiations in 1744 which resulted in the Treaty of Lancaster. Where the Native Americans came right out and called the Virginians on breaking the 1722 Treaty of Albany: 

You may remember, that about twenty Years ago you had a Treaty with us at Albany, when you took a Belt of Wampum, and made a Fence with it on the Middle of the Hill, and told us, that if any of the Warriors of the Six Nations came on your Side of the Middle of the Hill, you would hang them; and you gave us Liberty to do the same with any of your People who should be found on our Side of the Middle of the Hill. This is the Hill we mean, and we desire that Treaty may be now confirmed. After we left Albany, we brought our Road a great deal more to the West, that we might comply with your Proposal; but, tho' it was of your own making, your People never observed it, but came and lived on our Side of the Hill. 

In this treaty, the Iroquois sold their claim to land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Virginians thus officially putting down on paper the opening up the Shenandoah Valley to European settlement, even though it had been happening for a decade or more at that point. Virginia's western frontier effectively moved towards the Ohio River. The Iroquois were allowed right of passage on the "Great Road" that ran through the Shenandoah Valley (follows along the present day I-81 and Rt. 11 through Virginia) to reach North Carolina and continue their hostilities with southern Native populations mainly the Catawbas. 

The Treaty of Lancaster for the most part would be the last word on Native American inhabitation and ownership to the land around Charles Town. With the coming of the French and Indian War (1754-1763), raids by Native peoples did occur in the general area; however, there were never to be any more sustained settlements. The Treaty of Paris (1763) that officially brought an end to the war and the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade English settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, dealt with lands to the west that created a buffer zone in Western Virginia that would lead to additional conflict. But for life in and around the area of Charles Town there would be no more sizable Native American presence. Even to this day, there is no significant Native American population in the county. The 2020 census listed only 0.4% of the population of Jefferson County as claiming American Indian or Alaskan Native origin. 

While this is just a cursory look at the rise and decline of the Indigenous peoples of the area, hopefully it provides context to this important part of the region's history. 

A Note on Sources 

Much of the information concerning the history of American Indians in the area around Charles Town comes from a trio of studies and reports conducted by the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: 

An Ethnographic Overview and Assessment Study of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park by Megan Bailey with Erve Chambers and Paul Shackel as Principal Investigators 

Archeological Investigation of the Armory Street, Lower Armory Grouds, Harpers Ferry Armory by Darlene Hassler and Justin Ebersole 
 
Cultural Landscape Report: Halls Island: United States Rifle Factory and the Shenandoah Riverfront by Deana R. Poss and Saylor Moss 

Additional information came from Aler's History of Berkeley County by F. Vernon Aler, Otis K. Rice's The Allegheny Frontier: West Virginia Beginnings, 1730-1830, and A History of Jefferson County West Virginia, 1719-1940 by Millard Kessler Bushog. Information concerning treaties came from the great resource at Virginia Places, "Key Treaties Defining the Boundaries Separating English and Native American Territories in Virginia". The image was taken from "A general map of the middle British colonies, in America (1755)" made available by the Library of Congress.

Land Acknowledgement Statement 

APUS is headquartered in Charles Town, WV which lies in the heart of the Great Appalachian Valley, that runs from Alabama to Quebec. Here many indigenous communities still make their homes, and traditionally used the area as hunting grounds and a thoroughfare. The Trefry Library would like to acknowledge these communities, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations: the Adena, Hurons, the Six Nations (primarily the Tuscarora), and also the Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware and Catawba. Acknowledging them reminds us of our connection and commitment to the land and its people, and pays respect to these nations as the traditional stewards of the lands where the Trefry Library resides.