Ken-tah-ten was what the Iroquois said when they spoke of the “land of the future”. This is believed to be the origin of the name of the state of Kentucky. According to other assumptions, the name is said to have been derived from the Iroquoian word for “prairie” or “meadow” kenhtà-ke. The official designation of the name is The Commonwealth of Kentucky. The term Commonwealth is also part of the name of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The state has the nickname Bluegrass State from the blue-green flowering grass pastures. The grass itself has green leaves. When left uncut and growing to its natural height of a meter or so, it has blue-green seed heads. When settlers came to the country in the middle of the 18th century, they did not find any larger Indian settlements. It served as a hunting ground for the Shawnees and the Cherokee Indians. Large parts of present-day Kentucky were bought from the Indians (Treaties of Fort Stanwix, 1768 and Sycamore Shoals, 1775). Soon after, the area developed rapidly as the first settlements were established west of the Appalachian Mountains. Settlers from Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania came to this region. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky, originally part of Virginia, became the 15th state to join the Union. During the American Civil War, Kentucky was one of the so-called “Border States”, those slave states that bordered on a slave-free state. Officially, however, Kentucky remained neutral because many citizens of the state sympathized with the Union. Check topschoolsoflaw.com for brief history of the state of Kentucky.