Back to Native people tribe

   Shawnee

   Originally Shawnee's location was southern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. The Shawnee were driven from this area by the Iroquois sometime around the 1660s and then scattered in all directions to South Carolina, Tennessee's Cumberland Basin, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern Illinois. By 1730 most of the Shawnee had returned to their homeland only to be forced to leave once again - this time by American settlement. Moving first to Missouri and then Kansas, the main body finally settled in Oklahoma after the Civil War.

Shawnee man

   Estimates of the original Shawnee population range from 3,000 to 50,000, but a reasonable guess is somewhere around 10,000. By 1700 they were still scattered, and accurate estimates were impossible ..perhaps 6,000. The first good count occurred in 1825 and gave 1,400 Shawnee in Missouri, 110 in Louisiana, and 800 in Ohio. There were also a couple hundred in Texas at this time, so the total should have been near 2,500. Currently, there are more than 14,000 Shawnee in the United States in four groups - three of which are in Oklahoma. The 2,000 Absentee Shawnee in the vicinity of Shawnee, Oklahoma organized in 1936 under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act and continue to be the most traditional of the Shawnee groups. The Eastern Shawnee in northeastern Oklahoma are descended from the mixed Seneca-Shawnee band which left Lewistown, Ohio and came to the Indian Territory in 1832. Recognized as a separate tribe in 1867, they organized as the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma during the 1930s and have 1,600 members.

   The largest Shawnee group is the Loyal Shawnee, who constituted the main group of the Shawnee prior to the Civil War. Relocated to Oklahoma from Kansas, they purchased land and were incorporated into the Cherokee in 1869. A separate business council handles the affairs for 8,000 Shawnee, but the BIA still considers them as part of the Cherokee Nation. There is also the 600 member Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band (URB) which claims descent from Ohio Shawnee who somehow managed to avoid removal during the 1830s. Organized in 1971, they were recognized in 1980 by the state of Ohio and have since purchased 170 acres near Urbana and Chillicothe. However, they are neither federally recognized nor accepted by the three official groups of the Shawnee.

Shawnee man

Shawnee man

   Shawnee comes from the Algonquin word "shawun" (shawunogi) meaning "southerner." However, this referred to their original location in the Ohio Valley relative to other Great Lakes Algonquin rather than a homeland in the American southeast. Shawnee usually prefer to call themselves the Shawano - sometimes given as Shawanoe or Shawanese. South Carolina colonists knew them as the Savannah or Savannuca.

   The Shawnee considered the Delaware as their "grandfathers" and the source of all Algonquin tribes. They also shared an oral tradition with the Kickapoo that they were once members of the same tribe. Identical language supports this oral history, and since the Kickapoo are known to have originally lived in northeast Ohio prior to contact, it can safely be presumed that the Shawnee name of "southerner" means they lived somewhere immediately south of the Kickapoo. However, the exact location is uncertain, since the Iroquois forced both tribes to abandon the area before contact. The loss of their homeland has given the Shawnee the reputation of being wanderers, but this was by necessity, not choice. The Shawnee have always maintained a strong sense of tribal identity, but this produced very little central political organization. During their dispersal, each of their five divisions functioned as an almost autonomous unit. This continued to plague them after they returned to Ohio, and few Shawnee could ever claimed the title of "head chief." Like the Delaware, Shawnee civil chiefships were hereditary and held for life. They differed from the Delaware in that, like most Great Lakes Algonquin, the Shawnee were patrilineal with descent traced through the father. War chiefs were selected on the basis of merit and skill.

Shawnee Council House

   During their stay in the southeast, the Shawnee acquired a some cultural characteristics from the Creek and Cherokee, but, for the most part, they were fairly typical Great Lakes Algonquin. During the summer the Shawnee gathered into large villages of bark-covered long houses, with each village usually having a large council house for meetings and religious ceremonies. In the fall they separated to small hunting camps of extended families. Men were warriors who did the hunting and fishing. Care of their corn fields was the responsibility of the women. Many important Shawnee ceremonies were tied to the agricultural cycle: the spring bread dance at planting time; the green corn dance when crops ripened; and the autumn bread dance to celebrate the harvest. Besides Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), famous Shawnee include: Cornstalk, Blackfish, Black Hoof, and Bluejacket.

Page 1 2

Back to Native people tribe

Back to Top