The Indian Warrior's Path Through the Big Lick
Near Roanoke, Virginia
Long before European settlers arrived in the Virginia backcountry, Native peoples had worn a network of trails through the Appalachian ridges and valleys. One of the most important was the Great Warrior's Path, also called the Indian Warrior's Trail, which ran roughly north to south through what is now western Virginia, connecting Cherokee and Catawba territories in the south to Iroquois and other nations to the north.
This marker traces a branch of that path from a Tutelo village at the confluence of the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek, passing through Buford's Gap and across the Big Lick, the salt lick that gave present-day Roanoke its original name. The trail then continued westward farther westward.
These paths were not merely footpaths. They were diplomatic corridors, trade routes, and war roads used by peoples across the Eastern Woodlands. When European settlers and then Virginia land speculators arrived in the seventeen hundreds, they followed these same trails. Many of Virginia's early roads were laid atop indigenous travel routes whose origins stretched back centuries before any colonial map was drawn.
