Mondo's NAT #507

Native American Tribe Series

Shawnee

An Algonquian tribe, the Shawnee were original inhabitants of modern-day Ohio, but were far-ranging people with villages located as far north as New York state and as far south as Georgia. Their name translates to "Southerners." During the French and Indian War, most Shawnee fought on the side of the French. During the Revolutionary War, the Shawnee fought on the side of the British. After the war, they fought in coalition with other tribes when the fledgling United States Army launched a major campaign against Little Turtle, Chief of the Miami. The result was the most crushing defeat ever suffered by the United States Army, which lost nearly two-thirds of its strength. Most Shawnee live in Oklahoma, but the Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band, what was left of the eastern Shawnee , have been officially recognized in the State of Ohio.

The Missouri Shawnee were the first Indians removed to Kansas Territory, which was then set apart for emigrant tribes by the treaties of June, 1825, with the Kanza and Osage. By a treaty made at St. Louis, Missouri on November 7, 1825, the United States granted "to the Shawnee tribe of Indians within the State of Missouri, for themselves, and for those of the same nation now residing in Ohio who may hereafter emigrate to the west of the Mississippi, a tract of land equal to fifty miles square, situated west of the State of Missouri, and within the purchase lately made from the Osage." The tract of fifty miles square was thus granted and afterward surveyed and conveyed to the tribe on May 11, 1844. The Shawnee had their ancient home in the basin of the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Their territory was invaded by the Iroquois about the year 1672, and the vanquished Shawnee, fleeing to the South, were scattered over various parts of the country -- settling in the Carolinas, at the head-waters of the Mobile River, in Florida, and are related to one tribe that went south to "New Spain."

After a short time, several of the tribes reunited and returned to the vicinity of their old hunting-grounds, forming settlements in the Ohio Valley, where Father Marquette related that they were "in such numbers that they seem as many as twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another, lying quite near each other." Several treaties of peace had been made previous to 1786, with the Shawnee but that of January 31, 1786, was the first concluded with them separately as a nation. By the provisions of this treaty, which was made at the mouth of the Great Miami River, on the northwest bank of the Ohio, the United States allotted to the Shawnee certain lands on the Miami River, contiguous to the reservations of the Wyandot and Delaware tribes.

From the time of the peace treaty which the Shawnee made with William Penn in 1682 (the first treaty with the whites to which they were a party), the Quakers took an intelligent and constant interest in their welfare. Thomas Chalkley, a minister of the London society of the denomination, who visited them as early as 1706, mentions among the peculiarities of the Shawnee its custom of admitting women to its councils. He said: "In the council was a woman who took a part in the deliberations of this council, as well as upon all important occasions. On the interpreter being questioned why they permitted a woman to take so responsible a part in their councils, he replied that some women were wiser than some men, and that they had not done anything for years without the council of this ancient, grave woman, who spoke much in this council."

Philanthropic and religious enterprises were necessarily suspended during the long-continued French, English and Indian wars, but after the close of the war of 1812, the Quakers again resumed their labors among the Shawnee, establishing a school, and building flour and saw mills at their village in Ohio. Under the prudent and energetic superintendence of Henry Harvey, the tribe made rapid advances in civilization, and in the year 1831, when their lands were bought by the Government, preparatory to the removal of the tribe to the West, the Ohio Shawnee were prosperous. The Delaware removed from the tract in 1815; the Shawnee removed from their first location near the cape, and again removed as white settlers encroached on their lands, until, by the treaty of November 7, 1825, they relinquished all title to their Missouri lands, and moved to their reservation in what is now the State of Kansas.

A large part of the tribe left Kansas about 1845 and settled on Canadian River in Oklahoma, where they became known as the Absentee Shawnee. In 1867 the Shawnee living with the Seneca also from Kansas to the Indian Territory and became known as the Eastern Shawnee. In 1869, by intertribal agreement, the main body became incorporated with the Cherokee Nation in the present-day Oklahoma. Though the Shawnee were integrated with the Cherokee, they maintained separate communities and cultural identities. Known as the Cherokee Shawnee, they would also later be called the Loyal Shawnee. Efforts began in the 1980s to separate the Shawnee Tribe from the Cherokee Nation, which finally culminated with the Shawnee Tribe Status Act of 2000, which restored the Shawnee Tribe to its position as a sovereign Indian nation. Today, the largest part of the Shawnee Nation continues to reside in Oklahoma.