Year of the Trail: Indian Trading Paths

Connecting the Docs: True Stories from the Old North State

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the NC Trails System Act, and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is celebrating with the Year of the Trail campaign, where all types of trails are being celebrated across the state. Join us as we continue our three-part series exploring the “sights, sounds, and people” of North Carolina’s trail system. In this episode, we take a look at the oldest trail system in our state – Indian Trading Paths. Long before Europeans arrived in the New World, American Indians utilized a network of trails and pathways across the Southeast for travel, hunting, recreation, communication, and general cultural exchange. As the area was settled by colonizers, these paths became essential in their daily life, as well. Listen in as we discuss the original main streets of North Carolina.

 

Primary Sources: 

Outer Banks History Center Monographs (Single Volumes), “A New Voyage to Carolina,” John Lawson, (1709) 1967, 33BOK-0-59, https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/menu.html, https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:759043

NC Maps, North Carolina Colony and State Maps, “An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina With Their Indian Frontiers, Shewing in a distinct manner all the Mountains, Rivers, Swamps, Marshes, Bays, Creeks, Harbours, Sandbanks and Soundings on the Coasts; with The Roads and Indian Paths; as well as The Boundary or Provincial Lines, The Several Townships and other divisions of the Land in Both Provinces; the whole from Actual Surveys by Henry Mouzon and Others (color facsimile),” (1775) 1967, MC.150.1775m.fac2 https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:155991

Secretary of State, Land Warrants, Plats of Survey and Related Land Grant Records, Granville County, File No. 910, Michael Synnott, 1752, ID: 12.14.66.905, SSLG 57J

https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:444272

Treasurer’s and Comptroller’s Papers, Indian Affairs and Lands, Cherokee Nation, “For burying Cherokee warrior Saloe on his return from Governor of Virginia,” 1770, Box 1, SR.204.18 https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:559906

British Records, Colonial Office: America and West Indies - Original Correspondence, Board of Trade and Secretary of State (CO 5/1-187), Secretary of State: Dispatches and Miscellaneous (CO 5/4), “Articles of Friendship and Commerce, proposed by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, to the Deputies of the Cherokee Nation . . .,” 7 Sep. 1730, ID: 21.20.3.11 https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr03-0067, https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov/solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:628689

British Records, Colonial Office: America and West Indies - Original Correspondence, Board of Trade and Secretary of State (CO 5/1-187), Secretary of State: Dispatches and Miscellaneous (CO 5/4), “Response of the Cherokee Chiefs to the Treaty Proposed by the Board of Trade,” 9 Sep. 1730, ID: 21.20.3.12 https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr03-0067, https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:628690

An Interview with Gregory Richardson (b. 1951), 2023-01-26. ID: OH.010.003.

American Indian Heritage Commission Oral History Project

https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov/solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:1165996

Secondary Sources:

NCPedia, “Indian Trading Paths,” Tom Magnuson, 2006, https://www.ncpedia.org/indian-trading-paths

“The Trading Path and North Carolina,” Rebecca Taft Fecher, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2008, UNC Greensboro – Journal of Backcountry Studies, https://libjournal.uncg.edu/index.php/jbc/article/viewFile/26/15

The American Indian in North Carolina, Douglas L. Rights, 1957, Publisher: University of Michigan – J. F. Blair

“Tracing the Trading Path,” Mark Chilton, 24 Feb. 2014, OrangePolitics.org, https://orangepolitics.org/2014/02/tracing-the-trading-path

“The Indian trading path and colonial settlement development in the North Carolina Piedmont,” Gladys Rebecca Dobbs, May 2007, UNC Chapel Hill – Carolina Digital Repository, https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/d791sh108?locale=en