Shawnee Chief Cornstalk “appeared” at the Ohio County Public Library Tuesday, Oct. 7, to tell his side of history.

Dan Cutler from Milton, W.Va., portrayed Cornstalk in a West Virginia Humanities Council History Alive! program for the Wheeling library’s Lunch With Books session. His presentation was offered as part of the library’s Native American History series.

The series continues at noon Tuesday, Oct. 14, when Doug Wood will discuss the Shawnee and Cornstalk’s 1763 campaign against western Virginia and the War for the Middle Ground (often called “Pontiac’s War”). Wood will mark the 250th anniversary of the Treaty of Muskingum at the end of the war.

Clad authentically as Cornstalk, Cutler offered the audience a gift of wampum, a sign of goodwill given to “your true friends.” Speaking as the Native American chief, he said, “As a young man, I went to war many times. Each time I thought it was my last. But I come to you today in peace.”

He observed, “All warriors have a constant companion – the specter of death. Like a jealous wife, she pursues, always near. When smoke has cleared, she returns to a dark corner.”

Cornstalk fought in the French and Indian War and carried out raids in the Greenbrier Valley during Pontiac’s Rebellion. On Oct. 10, 1774, he led nearly 1,000 Shawnee warriors against an equal number of Virginians at the Battle of Point Pleasant in the major engagement of Dunmore’s War.

Foreshadowing those battles, he said the Shawnee met with chiefs of many Indian nations. “They told us of great hungry beasts called the English who ate the land,” he said.

He observed that the English hated wasps and killed all of the insects’ nests. “I knew then why the English were so feared and how I would make war on them,” he said.

The Shawnee had made a village near the Ohio country. “There we grew our own gardens in abundance in summer,” he said. In winter, the tribe went to Kentucky to hunt and trap animals. In spring, they returned to trade for necessities.

Cornstalk recalled seeing the French explorer Celeron de Blainville traveling down the Ohio River and placing leaden plaques at the head of streams to stop the English. “We would not need his help to fight the English. It was he who needed our help,” the chief said.

English Gen. Edward Braddock and his army traveled across the Allegheny Mountains to attack the French-built Fort Duquesne at present-day Pittsburgh. “Many warriors watched this great army ponderously crossing the mountains,” Cornstalk said.

Inspired by an elder’s dream, the warriors waited until the British troops crossed the river, then attacked them in a narrow spot. “We laughed at their foolishness and shot them down like pigeons,” Cornstalk said. They did notice that one white man, George Washington, appeared to be “protected by the great spirit.”

As the war continued, he said, “A tribe from the south and six nations from the north fought against us. The French made their peace with the English. We fought on. We had made no peace.”

Describing the Greenbrier Valley raids, he said Capt. Archibald Clendinen invited the Shawnee to visit the English and partake of an elk. The Shawnee warriors were hungry, but also saw an opportunity. After the elk and whiskey were consumed, fighting began. “We took 50 scalps and captives to the town,” he said.

After the Shawnee took nine of the 10 remaining British forts, peace was called and the Shawnee gave their hunting rights to Virginians, he said. Later, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore, went to Chillicothe, Ohio, where the Indians were living, and “asked for 80,000 acres of our land,” Cornstalk said. “I told him I could not give him what I did not own. Our creator gave the land for us all.”

Regarding interactions with other settlers, he said learned men asked the Shawnee to send their young men to schools, but they declined the offer. Moravians asked to make mission villages near Chillicothe. The Moravians shared creation stories, including an account of Adam and Eve’s encounter with the serpent, but dismissed the Shawnee’s creation stories as fables. Cornstalk said he told the Moravians, “I have learned from your words. I will never more eat apples.”

He explained that each tribe had its own dialect, but spoke in a common language in council. He noted that most of the council members were women. “The English wanted to remove all the women from council; they had no women in council,” he said.

Cornstalk, who was given that name by the English, was murdered in a gunfight with Virginians in 1777. A trial was held, but the suspects were found innocent, Cutler said. In 1778, “the Shawnee went to war in earnest,” he added.

In response to questions, Cutler said, “Scalping was common on both sides. There was a market for it … Taking souvenirs in battle went back to the Hebrews and Romans.”

Asked about the legend that the Shawnee cursed Point Pleasant (sparking “Mothman” tales), the guest speaker said, “The Shawnee did not curse the land. They would not curse their mother.”