The First People

People have lived in the Cuyahoga Valley for about 13,000 years, starting with Paleo-Indian hunters believed to have followed mastadons and other prey into the valley. As the last ice age ended, an oak, maple and elm forest filled the valley and the early tribes switched to hunting deer, wild turkeys, elk and bear, with entire villages moving from place to place in search of food. Eventually, more permanent structures were built, including the mysterious mounds associated with the Hopewell culture, which flourished in the valley about 2,100 years ago. Remnants of these geometric earthworks remain in places like Everett Village, where archaeologists have uncovered evidence of house posts and cooking hearths. Even at this early stage, the Cuyahoga Valley was a major center of commerce, with tribes trading raw materials from as far away as Mexico and Wyoming. In fact, the Cuyahoga (or "crooked") River was such an important transportation link that Native American tribes declared the valley neutral territory so that all could travel unmolested between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River. Tribes belonging the the Whittlesey culture were the last native inhabitants of the valley, and one of their communities has been found at South Park Village. These people, perhaps decimated by war or disease, vanished from the valley before the arrival of the first European settlers in the 17th century.