Great Leader: Blackfish of the Shawnee

Blackfish (c 1729-1779), a leader of the Chillicothe division of the Shawnee tribe, is known in history today primarily as the captor, foster father and adversary of Daniel Boone.  But there was more to his story than that.

Like many Native leaders of this time period, little is known of Blackfish's personal life.  He enters the record primarily where his story intersects with Boone.  He, along with Cornstalk, was one of the Shawnee leaders who agreed the Treaty of Camp Charlotte ending Lord Dunmore's War in 1774.  The treaty made the Ohio River the boundary for American settlement.  Notwithstanding, Settlers continued to come into lands claimed by the Shawnee as their hunting range.  Present-day Kentucky was prime game country utilized by many tribes and the Shawnee refused to allow trespassers on it.  Violence between Shawnee bands and Settlers escalated during the American Revolutionary War, with the tacit or implicit support of the British based at Fort Detroit.  Blackfish moved the village of Chillicothe from the Scioto to the Little Miami River, near present-day Xenia, Ohio, and used it as a base to raid American settlements. 

It was during a raid from the Little Miami location in February, 1778, that he captured Boone, along with several other Settlers.  Some of the men were adopted into the tribe after the traditional running of the gauntlet.  Among those was Boone, who was given the name Shaltowee (Big Turtle) and placed with Blackfish's family.  The Shawnee grudgingly respected Boone for his hunting and tracking skills.  Boone escaped in June and returned to Boonesborough, where in September, 1778, he led the Settlers in a successful defense against Blackfish's war party.  In 1779, Col. John Bowman led a counter-raid on Chillicothe in 1779.  Blackfish successfully fended off the invaders, but was shot in the leg and died as a result of infection.