Quadrule Indians

Most of us who are descendants of Southeastern Kentucky's multiracial settlers have heard the stories of the Quadrule Indians of Harlan County. I was born and raised in Harlan County, Kentucky and I too have heard these stories. The stories seem to originate to the early 19th century, but the first written account begins with former Harlan County Attorney Edmon Middleton who was murdered during the Harlan County Coal Wars in 1935. 

Mr. Middleton wrote of the beautiful Indian population that inhabited the Wallins Creek area of Harlan County. This coincides with stories recited by Brock family members routinely told to other historians of the time period. The most consistent of these stories with regard to the Quadrule told of two main Indian populations that inhabited modern day Harlan County Kentucky during the turn of the 19th century, one being Cherokee, the other being the Quadrule Indians. 

We must first mention that the Ridgetop Shawnee doesn't marvel at the region's legends, we don't in any way consider 90% of the regions' "legends" as fact. This has placed us at odds with the regions' "story tellers" but none the less, the truth is the truth and we operate on truth not fantasy. 

The Cherokee in Harlan?

The Cherokee Indians never held any lands located in Harlan County via borders established by any known treaty. However, it doesn't mean that they weren't there. 


Cherokee Treaty Map (Snip) 

If you refer to the Cherokee Treaty Map above one can clearly see that the Cherokee Nation at one time bordered the original and modern southwestern boundaries of Harlan County. According to the multitude of stories with regard to the Quadrule Indians the Cherokee were especially hostile while the Quadrule were the nice guys. But while at face value this only appears to be yet a simple dynamic of the story it follows a historical pattern of a group of hostile Natives competing with a group of hospitable Natives. These social dynamics were rooted in survival and was a conscious decision to be either hostile or hospitable to the European settlers. But in the case of Harlan County the majority of the settlers were of a mixed racial heritage. However, being of a mixed racial persuasion would not have appeased the Cherokee inhabitants one bit unless you swore allegiance to the dominant Western Confederacy which comprised partially of Chickamauga Cherokee, also known as the Lower Cherokee and the Shawnee. 

After the death of Dragging Canoe in 1792 the hostility in what would become Harlan County did not end. Chickamauga warrior, (or mad man, its according who you ask) Bob Benge continued to attack settlers in the area until his death in 1794. And thus this ends the documented Cherokee history in what would become Harlan County. After 1796 the Cumberland Gap was widened to accommodate larger horse drawn vehicles of the day and thus the wild lands of Kentucky experienced a population boom. After this time period the Native American history undoubtedly begins a new era, the era of mixed relations with the settlers. We do know by Census and Tax records that the majority of our First Families of the Ridgetop Shawnee migrated to the area of modern day Harlan and Clay Counties between 1800 and 1820. 


Who was Here and Who Was Not?

It has often been stated multiple times in history that a man by the name of Jesse Brock was the first settler in Wallins Creek, Kentucky. If this is fact or not we have no real way of knowing but it does give us a starting point. Jesse Brock was of mixed racial heritage, his descendants, as included in the Kentucky Native American Data Bank, are eligible for enrollment, when full enrollment opens up yet again. We do know that Jesse Brock received a land grant in the year 1800 in the Wallins Creek area. So the year 1800 is our starting point for the sake of this discussion. 

There is no doubt that there was a remnant Indian population residing in the area of Modern Harlan County in the year 1800. How big of a remnant is the great unknown. We estimate it was a very, very small remnant population.  Any Natives that would have lived closer to the Cumberland Gap in the years leading up to the 1796 expansion would have left or moved deeper into the interior of the mountains, ideally Harlan County. But we estimate that there was a very small remnant either way. 

The military might of the Western Confederacy began to seriously wain at the beginning of the turn of the 19th century. And was not an influence in the region at all by the year 1800. With the true story of the murder of Red Bird along the headwaters of the Kentucky River in 1797 we know that it was highly dangerous for any openly identifiable citizen of the Indian Nations in this vast secluded region. So the stories of a small band of hostile Cherokees certainly fits the mood of the period. 

But we have not answered the central and most important question of all; who were the Quadrule Indians. We begin by explaining, briefly, the stories of the mysterious Melungeons. In fact, and I hate to burst anyone's historical bubble, there was no such thing, at least in an ancient sense. Or at least there was no such thing before the year 1750 or so. There might have been very tiny remnants of a tri-race located in the Appalachians. There exists many credible historical accounts to suggest this may be the truth. In-fact the Quadrule may fit into this category at the end of the day. But considering the Etymology of the word, or phrase, Quadrule, leads us to one very obvious conclusion. The word Quadrule is directly associated with the phrase Quadroon that was used, mainly in Louisiana, to describe a person of 1/4 African American blood. However, just like the term Mulatto, it was most certainly used to describe persons of a tri-racial heritage as well.    

We have absolutely no way of knowing when the term Quadrule was first used but it safe to say where the term originated. 

Quadrule the Quadroon 

There exists many tales of a mysterious race of settlers that inhabited the hills of Appalachia when the White Man first arrived. Many of the stories are just that, stories. DNA and historical analysis has directly shown no real mystery at all with regard to the so-called Melungeons. The people described as Melungeons are persons of tri-racial heritage. That begin: European, Native American and African American. Studying this history is extremely difficult. Using old Census records from the counties in question are 100% useless with regard to the study of racial heritage as everyone was White, even if they were or not. We have concrete evidence of Native Americans successfully claiming to be White. DNA is a very hard tool to utilize for determining a heritage percentage as these tests are haunted with a huge margin of error. And using Y or Mt DNA is only as good as your research to find the direct line to one's Native American ancestors. If you are lucky enough to track down a direct female or male from a family-line that originated 250 years ago then good for you, most cannot as the Y or Mt DNA direct from our Native ancestors was broken long ago. So we only have historical documentation and photographs to tell the real story of our racial heritage. Photographs do not lie. 

Yes, at the end of the day there is little doubt that the people who were described as Quadrule existed in Harlan County before 1800. We have to consider the entire history between the years 1750 and 1800. Most of that 50 year history was defined by war. We have to examine the dominate tribal presence of mainly the Pine Mountain region stretching from West Virginia to the Cumberland Gap as this would have been the dominate highway of the day. 

1750 to 1770 - We know there was a moderate Indian population in the areas East of the Cumberland Gap. Dr. Thomas Walker described this fact in the early 1750's. The areas of Harlan, Leslie and Clay would have been a perfect area for the largest concentration of this population to exist. We also know that the Shawnee were the chief inhabitants of the region as they were responsible for attacks on Daniel Boone's expedition in modern day Virginia. So the Shawnee had a wide range in the mid 1760's to the early 1770's, even though the fast majority had moved to Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. 

By 1774 the Shawnee were all but defeated as Lord Dunmore's war and practically depleted the struggling nation of Warriors. The remaining tribes in this immediate area were Shawnee, Chickamauga Cherokee and Mingo that formed roaming war bands and continued to attack settlers for the next 20 years. But the Shawnee and Mingo represented the majority presence in the area, not Cherokee. 

By 1794 large attacks by this Shawnee, Chickamauga Cherokee and Mingo confederacy had mostly ceased.  The Cherokee had established a foothold south of the Cumberland River, as represented in the treaties of the era. 

By 1800 large waves of settlers invaded the areas of Harlan and Clay but most were of a mixed racial heritage. We can explain this mass migration in multiple ways but the most practical is the fact that the secluded location was best for a peaceful existence. Another very obvious observation is the fact that by either request or not most of the land grants awarded to men of a multiracial background placed them in these areas. I tend to personally believe this was done on purpose. Another way of explaining the explosion of multiracial settlers to the region is the fact that a multiracial group already existed there and the government knew it. We know that any early government in Kentucky was very careful not to admit any ancient connection, or claim, to any Indian Nation of the day. Kentucky was a Cherokee hunting ground only and they sold it to us, case closed. Even though we know that is the biggest lie of the 18th century. 

Conclusion on the Quadrule Indians

So at the end of the day we do conclude that the Quadrule existed and that the entomology of the name derived from the word Quadroon, that was commonly used to described persons of 1/4 African American heritage. However, the early settlers obviously considered these Quadrule to be Native American not African American. But historically it can be safely claimed that these Quadrule were a tri-race. 

Using the history of the period as a guide we also conclude that the Quadrule would have had Shawnee, Cherokee and likely Mingo heritage as well. The mystery is; when did they arrive, or when did they form into a tribal group? It is doubtful that they originated in Harlan County entirely, they most likely migrated to the region between 1750 and 1800. We can also conclude it would have been extremely hard to exist among those Natives who supported the Western Confederacy as there was little compromise among the Shawnee, Chickamauga Cherokee and Mingo (just to name a few) who populated this group. Anyone group, Native, African or not would have been destroyed by the Confederacy if in fact this group did not support the Confederacy's effort to stop white expansion into Kentucky. That's why we reached the practical conclusion that this group, that the settlers called Quadrule, were racially a combination of tribes involved in the Shawnee, Chickamauga Cherokee and Mingo Confederacy. They almost certainly had to be to survive. And after the peace of 1794 a new group formed, or the politics changed. There is no way the Quadrule could have existed as a separate hospitable Tribe of Indian people before 1794.  They would have been destroyed by the Shawnee, Chickamauga Cherokee and Mingo Confederacy. So after 1794 the politics of the Quadrule changed to represent a more friendly attitude toward the settlers of strictly European Heritage while those who supported the old Confederacy, namely those who identified as Cherokee, kept their distance from the settlers and exhibited a more hostile attitude.

So the stories match what the real history would have been to a large degree. At the end of the day a true comprehensive DNA study of whatever remnant of the Quadrule will have be conducted. We would have to identify settlers who were not married when they arrived in what would become Harlan County between the years 1795-1805 and use this 10 year period to established a baseline of candidates. This would be extremely difficult as most of the records needed were destroyed. 

There is no supporting evidence that proves any removal event of the Quadrule to the Indian lands in the American West after the Civil War. This is a purely fictional element to story. We can safely conclude that this group may have lived as a group but we can also safely assume they blended in perfectly alongside their multiracial neighbors who migrated to the region.     

William H. Shackleford
Executive Tribal Manager