“Stand on the southern bank of the Ohio River at its confluence with the Scioto River in 1758 and watch the Shawnee women pulling weeds and tending crops for the last time. This is the northeastern most corner of Kentucky. Among the farmers strides a tall, powerful woman, giving instructions about the migration that will soon be undertaken. Across the river is a significant village: lower Shawnee Town, one of many multinational villages that arose in the 1730s and 1740s as the Shawnees returned to the Ohio River valley.”

Craig Thompson Friend’s text of a “tall, powerful woman” is a picture of a real Shawnee woman: Nonhelema Hokolesqua. This is her story.