Boone and his party had been boiling salt for the Kentucky settlements when Shawnee warriors allied with the British surrounded them. Boone negotiated the surrender of his men to spare their lives, and he lived among the Shawnee for months, even being adopted by Chief Blackfish, before escaping to warn Boonesborough of an impending attack.
Salt was a wartime necessity on the frontier, essential for preserving meat through winter, and Boone had led about thirty men to the salt licks along the Licking River when a much larger Shawnee force, working with British agents from Detroit, surrounded the camp in freezing weather.
Rather than risk a hopeless fight, Boone convinced his men to surrender, reasoning that captivity offered better odds than a massacre. The Shawnee, impressed by Boone's calm and skill, adopted him into the tribe under the name Sheltowee, meaning 'Big Turtle,' and Chief Blackfish treated him almost as a son.
Boone bided his time for months, learning of British and Shawnee plans, before slipping away in June 1778 and racing 160 miles back to Boonesborough in four days to warn of a coming siege. His later court-martial for the surrender (he was acquitted and even promoted) only added to the legend that made him America's archetypal frontiersman.
Key people: Daniel Boone