The history of American Indian settlements in Kentucky dates back to time immemorial. When Kentucky became the fifteenth state in 1792, more than twenty tribes held legal claims to the land. They included the Yuchi, the Mingo, and the Yamacraw. However, they did not have permanent settlements in the state. Regardless, their cultural influence is evident in the landscape of western Kentucky.
Some of the native American tribes living in Kentucky included the Cherokee, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Senecas. These peoples spread through alliances and reached deep into Kentucky. They left behind their pictographs, petroglyphs, mud glyphs, stone tools, and sculptures.
Filson's myths fueled arguments about whether American Indians lived in Kentucky. His historical accounts, for example, painted Kentucky as a land that was a middle ground between all the tribes and a scene of bloody disputes. Filson was a land speculator and an opportunist investor, and he shaped the state's history by creating myths about Native American settlements. That's one of the reasons why Kentucky's true Native American history is still somewhat of a mystery.