Peace Pipe — Shawnee Chief Blackfish

Peace Pipe portrays the influential Shawnee leader Chief Blackfish, whose life became forever intertwined with that of frontier legend Daniel Boone.

During the Revolutionary War era, Blackfish emerged as an important Shawnee leader determined to defend his people and their homeland as settlement pushed farther into Kentucky. In 1778, his warriors captured Boone and a group of salt makers at the Blue Licks. Rather than remaining simply a prisoner, Boone was taken to Chillicothe and adopted into Blackfish’s family as his son.

Through his adoption, Boone became known by the Shawnee name Sheltowee, commonly translated as “Big Turtle.” The name remains connected with Boone today through Kentucky’s Sheltowee Trace.

The relationship between Blackfish and Boone was complex—two strong leaders standing on opposing sides of a rapidly changing frontier, yet bound for a time through Shawnee adoption and family. Boone eventually escaped and returned to Boonesborough, where Blackfish and his warriors later participated in the 1778 siege.

Doug Hall’s Peace Pipe remembers Blackfish not merely as a figure in Daniel Boone’s story, but as an important Shawnee leader in his own right—a man defending his people, their traditions, and their homeland during one of the most turbulent periods in American frontier history.