Mention of this pottery had been made long previously by J. M. Peck in his “Gazetteer of Illinois.” [Footnote:  1834, p. 52.]

He remarks that “about the Gallatin and Big Muddy Salines large fragments of earthenware are very frequently found under the surface of the earth.  They appear to have been portions of large kettles used, probably, by the natives for obtaining salt.”

The settlement of the Shawnees at Shawneetown, on the Ohio River, in Gallatin County, in comparatively modern times, is attested not only by history but by the name by which the town is still known.  There is evidence on record that there was an older Shawneetown located at the very point where this “salt-kettle” pottery and these stone graves were found.  This is mentioned in the American State Papers [Footnote:  Public Lands, Class VIII, vol.2, p. 103, Gales and Seaton ed.] in the report relating to the famous claim of the Illinois and Wabash Land Companies.  The deed presented was dated July 20, 1773, and recorded at Kaskaskia, September 2, 1773.  In this mention is made of the “ancient Shawnee town” on Saline Creek, the exact locality of the stone graves and suit-kettle pottery.  The modern Indian village at Shawneetown on the Ohio River had not then come into existence, and was but in its prime in 1806, when visited by Thomas Ashe. [Footnote:  Travels in America, 1808, p. 265.]

As proof that the people of this tribe were in the habit of making salt the following evidence is presented:  Collins, in his “History of Kentucky”, [Footnote:  Vol. 2, p. 55.] gives an account of the capture and adventures of Mrs. Mary Ingals, the first white woman known to have visited Kentucky.  In this narrative occurs the following statement: 

The first white woman in Kentucky was Mrs. Mary Ingals, nee Draper, who, in 1756 with her two little boys, her sister-in-law, Mrs. Draper, and others was taken prisoner by the Shawnee Indians, from her home on the top of the great Allegheny ridge, is now Montgomery County, W. Va.  The captives were taken down the Kanawha, to the salt region, and, after a few days spent in making salt, to the Indian village at the mouth of Scioto River.

By the treaty of Fort Wayne, June 7, 1803, between the Delawares, Shawnees, and other tribes and the United States, it was agreed that in consideration of the relinquishment of title to “the great salt spring upon the Saline Creek, which falls into the Ohio below the mouth of the Wabash, with a quantity of laud surrounding it, not exceeding 4 miles square,” the United States should deliver “yearly, and every year for the use of said Indians, a quantity of salt not exceeding 150 bushels.” [Footnote:  Treaties of United States with Indian tribes, p. 97.]

Another very significant fact in this connection is that the fragments of large earthen vessels similar in character to those found in Gallatin County, Ill., have also been found in connection with the stone graves of the Cumberland Valley, and, furthermore, the impressions made by the textile fabrics show the same stitches as do the former.  Another place where pottery of the same kind has been found is about the salt-lick near Saint Genevieve, Mo., a section inhabited for a time by Shawnees and Delawares. [Footnote:  C.C.  Royce in American Antiquarian, vol. 3, 1881, pp. 188, 189.]