CHAPTER 1 GREAT RIVER Ohio is one of the country’s great places to watch sports It’s the state where professional football began It’s also home to three big cities with major league teams In addition several smaller towns and cities have proud high school college and minor league traditions Ohio also boasts a major university with a highly successful athletics department This sports culture reflects the state’s culture economy and geography Ohio fans have a lot to cheer for such as the successful Ohio State University football team 5
The first people to live in the area now called Ohio were American Indians They migrated to the area as early as 13,000 years ago By the 1600s the native people of Ohio were expert hunters and farmers That was around the time the first Europeans arrived in the area They depended on the native people to show them how to obtain animal furs which were very valuable Europeans established trading posts to sell these furs Over time some of the posts became permanent settlements The presence of Europeans was a disaster for the American Indians The settlers brought new diseases Having never experienced these diseases the native people got sick very easily and many died Tensions increased as more and more white settlers moved onto land that belonged to the native people Many American 6
7 Tribes such as the Shawnee lived in what is now Ohio prior to the arrival of white settlers Indians were killed or forced to leave in wars such as the French and Indian War 1754 1763 At the war's end Ohio belonged to Great Britain In 1775 the Revolutionary War broke out between the American colonists and the British After the American victory in 1783 Ohio became part of the United States It officially became a state in 1803 The name Ohio comes from an Iroquois word meaning Great River
