Shinhandowi

Schinhandowi is one of the Indigenous names associated with the Shenandoah country, a long valley enclosed by the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian ridges to the west. One interpretation gives it the meaning “river through the spruces.” The valley was a shared hunting ground and a route for several peoples, including the Shawnee. Its old Indigenous road later became the Great Wagon Road, carrying settlers south from Pennsylvania into the Virginia backcountry during the eighteenth century.