ASHLAND — A group of Native Americans paddled past Ashland on Monday during the first leg of a five-week journey down the Ohio River along the Kentucky border.

Slipping into the Ohio River at its intersection with the Big Sandy at Virginia Point before dawn on the first day, the group plans to travel to Wickliffe in an effort to bring attention to Native American populations and issues in Kentucky.

Jerry Thornton, a member of the Ohio River Native American InterTribal Community and the Ohio Valley Native American Veteran Warrior Society, which is sponsoring the trip, plans to make the entire trip.

Thornton, who has Cherokee and Irish heritage, said he became interested in his own Native American heritage about 20 years ago. Since then he’s made numerous trips to North Carolina and Oklahoma searching for an ancestor’s name to prove once and for all what he already believes in his heart — that he is Native American.

Thornton said the trip is an effort to educate the public about the history of Native Americans in Kentucky and about the importance of protecting their burial grounds and other spiritual sites.

“We’re trying to gather support,” Thornton said from his home in Taylorsville last week. “It’s kind of a Native American awareness thing, about their presence in Kentucky. A lot of things are out there that aren’t really accurate or are being taught wrong about Native Americans.

“There are still people in Kentucky who do not believe that Native Americans actually lived here. They believe they hunted here, they passed through here but not that they lived here.”

In addition to awareness the group hopes to gain enough support to convince the Kentucky General Assembly to pass several pieces of legislation being pushed for by Native American groups including tribal recognition and better grave desecration laws.

Thornton said he also hopes to raise awareness about the struggles many Native Americans face in attempting to have traditional spiritual ceremonies.

“We have problems doing our ceremonies and worshiping The Creator in our way,” Thornton said. “There are ceremonies that we do that are private and there is an issue of the way the Native Americans handle feathers, have feathers,” he explained.

“Any time we do ceremonies that were passed down by the ancestors and they involve feathers we are at the will of the wildlife people because of laws regulating feathers, which we understand that. Nobody goes out and kills any animals for the feathers that Native Americans use. That is not the way the feathers are obtained but, at the same time, we have to go by the laws regulating these in the ceremonies,” Thornton said.

“It’s kind of a freedom to worship in the way we choose issue. I wouldn’t say that if our way of worship was harmful to anyone else. It’s a spirituality and not a religion. We want the freedom to do that,” he said.

Thornton said the trip is also being used to boost internal morale and support.

“Some of us are up in age; I’m 63. We’re trying to get our younger Native American people involved in things,” he said. “Kids are hesitant to step forward, so if us old fogies can do this, you can step forward and do this as well.”

The canoers will be stopping each night and camping along the Ohio River. Thornton said the group hope to speak to citizens and local and state officials along the way.

The group planned to spend its first night at Oliver Station in Greenup County just above the Greenup Locks and Dam. Stops over the next few days include Garrison, Concord and Dover.

The group plans to stop in Dayton, right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati on Saturday where a Veterans of Foreign Wars post plans to have a two-day event honoring the group and promoting the trip. Festivities include a Native American drum, Thornton said.

Other two-day stops include Louisville, Henderson and Paducah. The trip will conclude on Aug. 7 at the Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site, where there will be a special ceremony.

For more information about the trip, Native American presence in the Ohio Valley and how to help, visit: www.PeopleOfTheHuntingGround.com

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.