Kentucky
Humans have lived in the area that is now Kentucky for over 12,000 years. Early peoples lived in small bands but populations became more dense and sedentary once the last ice age came to an end. They developed agriculture, breeding useful varieties of squash and traded with tribes around the shores of Lake Superior for copper as well as tribes in the Rocky Mountains for obsidian. The Ofo or Mosopelea lived in the upper Ohio River but moved south in the 17th century. The Shawnee (“southerner”) are an Algonquian speaking people descended from the Fort Ancient culture. The Wyandotte are an Iroquoian speaking people related to the Huron people but not actually part of their Confederacy. The name of the state is taken from an Iroquian word which means “meadow.”
