Shawnee

Šaawano (singular), Šaawanooaki (plural)
The Shawnee Prophet, Tenskwatawa (1775–1836), c. 1820, portrait by Charles Bird King
Total population
7,584 enrolled[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (Oklahoma), formerly Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and surrounding states[2][1]
Languages
Shawnee, English
Religion
Indigenous religions
Related ethnic groups
Miami, Menominee, Cheyenne[3]

The Shawnee (/ʃɔːˈni/ shaw-NEE) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language.

The Shawnee precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio.^[2] In the 17th century, they dispersed throughout Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.^[4] In the early 18th century, they were primarily concentrated in eastern Pennsylvania but later that century dispersed again across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with a small group joining the Muscogee people in Alabama.^[2] In the 19th century, the U.S. federal government forcibly removed them under the 1830 Indian Removal Act to areas west of the Mississippi River; these lands would later become the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. They were subsequently removed to Indian Territory, which became the state of Oklahoma in the early 20th century.^[2]

Today, Shawnee people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, and Shawnee Tribe, all headquartered in Oklahoma.

Shawnee has also been written as Shaawana^[5] and Shawanese.^[6] Individuals and singular Shawnee tribes may be referred to as šaawanwa, while the collective Shawnee people may be referred to as šaawanwaki or šaawanooki.^[5]

Algonquian languages include words similar to the archaic shawano (now: shaawanwa), meaning "south". However, the stem šawa- does not mean "south" in Shawnee, but rather "moderate, warm (of weather)": See Charles F. Voegelin, "šawa (plus -ni, -te) Moderate, Warm. Cp. šawani 'it is moderating...".^[7] In one Shawnee tale, "Sawage" (šaawaki) is the deity of the south wind.^[8] Jeremiah Curtin translates Sawage as 'it thaws', referring to the warm weather of the south. In an account and a song collected by C. F. Voegelin, šaawaki is attested as the spirit of the South, or the South Wind.^[9][10]

The Shawnee language is known as saawanwaatoweewe.^[11] In 2002, the Shawnee language, a part of the Algonquian family, was in decline but was still spoken by approximately 200 people. These included more than 100 Absentee Shawnee and 12 Shawnee Tribe speakers. By 2017, Shawnee language advocates, including tribal member George Blanchard, estimated that there were fewer than 100 speakers. Most fluent Shawnee speakers are over the age of 50.^[12]

The language is written in the Latin script, but attempts to create a unified spelling system have been unsuccessful.^[13] The Shawnee language has a dictionary, and portions of the Bible have been translated into Shawnee.^[14]

Some scholars have proposed that the Shawnee descend from the precontact Fort Ancient culture of the Ohio region, although this interpretation is not universally accepted. Other scholars suggest that the Shawnee entered the region at a later period and subsequently occupied Fort Ancient sites.^[15][16][17]

Fort Ancient culture flourished from c. 1000 to c. 1650 CE among populations that predominantly inhabited lands along both sides of the Ohio River in areas corresponding to present-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and western West Virginia.^[18] Like contemporaneous Mississippian culture societies, Fort Ancient peoples constructed earthwork mounds as integral components of their religious, social, and political systems. Fort Ancient culture was once interpreted as a regional manifestation of Mississippian cultural influence; however, scholars now generally conclude that Fort Ancient culture (1000–1650 CE) developed primarily from the earlier Hopewell culture (100 BCE–500 CE).^[19][5][18] The Hopewell peoples likewise constructed mounds as central elements of their social, political, and religious organization. Among their most prominent monuments are large earthwork effigy mounds, including Serpent Mound in present-day Ohio.

The ultimate fate of the Fort Ancient peoples remains uncertain. It is widely thought that their society, like that of Mississippian cultures farther south, was profoundly disrupted by successive waves of epidemic disease introduced through early contact with Spanish explorers during the 16th century.^[20] Archaeological evidence from the period after 1525 at the Madisonville site, the type site, indicates that village house sizes became smaller and less numerous. Additional findings suggest a departure from a previously "horticulture-centered, sedentary way of life".^[20][21]

A gap exists in the archaeological record between the most recent Fort Ancient sites and the earliest sites associated with the historic Shawnee. The latter were documented by European (French and English) archaeologists as occupying the region at the time of sustained contact. Scholars generally accept that similarities in material culture, artistic traditions, mythology, and Shawnee oral histories linking them to Fort Ancient peoples support the possibility of a cultural and historical connection between Fort Ancient society and the historical Shawnee. At the same time, evidence and oral traditions also associate Siouan-speaking nations with the Ohio Valley, reflecting the region’s complex and multiethnic history.^[22]

The Shawnee regarded the Lenape (or Delaware) of the Mid-Atlantic region along the East Coast as their "grandfathers," reflecting a perceived ancestral relationship. Other Algonquian nations—particularly those in present-day Canada extending inland along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes—considered the Shawnee to represent their southernmost branch. Along the Atlantic seaboard, Algonquian-speaking tribes were historically concentrated primarily in coastal regions, extending from present-day Quebec southward to the Carolinas.

Europeans reported encountering the Shawnee across a wide geographic area. One of the earliest possible references to the Shawnee appears on a 1614 Dutch map depicting a group identified as Sawwanew located just east of the Delaware River. Later 17th-century Dutch sources also place them in this general region. Accounts by French explorers from the same century more commonly situated the Shawnee along the Ohio River, where they were encountered during French expeditions originating from eastern Canada and the Illinois Country.^[23]

Based on historical accounts and later archaeological evidence, John E. Kleber describes Shawnee towns as follows:

"A Shawnee town might have from forty to one hundred bark-covered houses similar in construction to Iroquois longhouses. Each village usually had a meeting house or council house, perhaps sixty to ninety feet long, where public deliberations took place."^[24]

According to English colonial legend, some Shawnee were believed to descend from a party sent by Chief Opechancanough, ruler of the Powhatan Confederacy from 1618 to 1644, to settle in the Shenandoah Valley. This party was reportedly led by his son, Sheewa-a-nee.^[25] Edward Bland, an explorer who accompanied Abraham Wood's expedition in 1650, wrote that during Opechancanough’s lifetime there had been a conflict between a Chawan chief and a weroance of the Powhatan, who was also a relative of Opechancanough’s family. Bland stated that the latter had murdered the former.^[26] The Shawnee were later "driven from Kentucky in the 1670s by the Iroquois of Pennsylvania and New York, who claimed the Ohio valley as hunting ground to supply its fur trade.^[24] In 1671, the colonists Batts and Fallam reported that the Shawnee were contesting control of the Shenandoah Valley with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) and were losing that contest.

Sometime prior to 1670, a group of Shawnee migrated to the Savannah River region. These Shawnee made contact with English colonists based in Charles Town, South Carolina, in 1674, and the two groups formed a long-lasting alliance. The Savannah River Shawnee became known to the Carolina English as the "Savannah Indians." At roughly the same time, other Shawnee groups migrated to Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and additional regions south and east of the Ohio country. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, founder of New Orleans and the French colony of La Louisiane, wrote in his journal in 1699 that the Shawnee (whom he spelled Chaouenons) were "the single nation to fear, being spread out over Carolina and Virginia in the direction of the Mississippi."^[27]

Historian Alan Gallay has suggested that Shawnee migrations during the mid-to-late 17th century were likely driven by the Beaver Wars, which began in the 1640s. During this period, nations of the Iroquois Confederacy advanced westward to secure the Ohio Valley as hunting territory. The Shawnee became known for their extensive network of settlements, which stretched from Pennsylvania to Illinois and southward to Georgia. Among their documented villages were Eskippakithiki in Kentucky; Sonnionto (also known as Lower Shawneetown) in Ohio; Chalakagay near present-day Sylacauga, Alabama,^[28] Chalahgawtha at the site of modern Chillicothe, Ohio; Old Shawneetown, Illinois; and Suwanee, Georgia. Their language became a lingua franca for trade among numerous tribes, and the Shawnee emerged as influential leaders, initiating and sustaining intertribal resistance to European and Euro-American expansion.^[29]

Some Shawnee occupied areas of central Pennsylvania. Having long been without a recognized chief, they requested in 1714 that Carondawana, an Oneida war chief, represent them before the Pennsylvania provincial council. Around 1727, Carondawana and his wife, a prominent interpreter known as Madame Montour, settled at Otstonwakin, located on the west bank at the confluence of Loyalsock Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River.^[30]

By 1730, European American settlers had begun to arrive in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where the Shawnee predominated in the northern portion of the valley. They were claimed as tributaries by the Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations of the Iroquois, to the north. The Iroquois assisted some of the Tuscarora people from North Carolina—who were also Iroquoian speakers and distant relations—in resettling near what is now Martinsburg, West Virginia. Most of the Tuscarora migrated to New York and settled near the Oneida, becoming the sixth nation of the Iroquois Confederacy; they declared their migration complete in 1722.^{[citation needed]} During this same period, Seneca and Lenape war parties from the north frequently fought pitched battles with pursuing bands of Catawba from Virginia, who overtook them in Shawnee-inhabited regions of the valley.^{[citation needed]}

By the late 1730s, increasing pressure from colonial expansion produced repeated conflicts. Shawnee communities were also affected by the expanding fur trade. While access to arms and European goods increased, the trade also introduced rum and brandy, contributing to serious social problems related to alcohol abuse. Several Shawnee communities in the Province of Pennsylvania, led by Peter Chartier, a Métis trader, opposed the sale of alcohol within their settlements. This opposition brought them into conflict with colonial governor Patrick Gordon, who faced pressure from traders to permit the sale of rum and brandy. Lacking effective protection, approximately 400 Shawnee migrated in 1745 from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Illinois in an effort to escape the traders’ influence.^[31]

Prior to 1754, the Shawnee maintained a headquarters at Shawnee Springs in present-day Cross Junction, Virginia. The father of the later chief Cornstalk held his council there. Several additional Shawnee villages were located throughout the northern Shenandoah Valley, including at Moorefield, West Virginia, along the North River, and on the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland. In 1753, Shawnee living along the Scioto River in the Ohio Country sent messengers to those remaining in the Shenandoah Valley, urging them to cross the Alleghenies and join their western communities; they did so the following year.^[32][33] The settlement known as Shannoah (Lower Shawneetown) on the Ohio River grew to approximately 1,200 inhabitants by 1750.^[34]

Since the Beaver Wars, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy claimed the Ohio Country as a hunting ground by right of conquest and treated the Shawnee and Lenape who resettled there as dependent tribes. Independent Iroquois bands from various nations also migrated westward and became known in Ohio as the Mingo. These three peoples—the Shawnee, the Delaware (Lenape), and the Mingo—developed close associations despite linguistic differences: the first two spoke Algonquian languages, while the third spoke an Iroquoian language.

After participating in the opening phase of the French and Indian War (also known as “Braddock’s War”) as allies of the French,^[36] the Shawnee shifted their alliance in 1758 and made formal peace with the British colonies at the Treaty of Easton. This treaty recognized the Allegheny Ridge (the Eastern Divide) as a mutual boundary. The peace proved short-lived. In 1763, following Britain’s defeat of France and assumption of its North American territories east of the Mississippi River, Pontiac's War erupted. Later that year, the Crown issued the Proclamation of 1763, legally reaffirming the 1758 boundary as the western limit of British settlement and reserving lands beyond it for Native Americans. The Crown, however, struggled to enforce the boundary as Anglo-European settlers continued to move westward.

The Treaty of Fort Stanwix extended the colonial boundary westward, granting British colonists claims to lands in what are now West Virginia and Kentucky. The Shawnee did not consent to this agreement, which had been negotiated between British officials and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who asserted sovereignty over the territory. Although the Shawnee and other Native American tribes predominated in the region, they also used it as shared hunting grounds. Following the Stanwix treaty, Anglo-American settlement in the Ohio River Valley accelerated, often by boat along the Ohio River. Rising violence between settlers and Native Americans culminated in Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. British diplomats succeeded in isolating the Shawnee during the conflict, as the Iroquois and Lenape remained neutral. The Shawnee confronted the Virginia colony with only limited support from Mingo allies. Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, launched a two-pronged invasion into the Ohio Country. Shawnee chief Cornstalk engaged one wing of the invasion and fought to a draw in the war’s only major battle, the Battle of Point Pleasant. Under the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which ended the war in 1774, Cornstalk and the Shawnee were compelled to recognize the Ohio River as their southern boundary, as previously established by the Fort Stanwix treaty. By this agreement, the Shawnee relinquished claims to hunting grounds in present-day West Virginia and Kentucky south of the Ohio River. Many Shawnee leaders, however, refused to recognize this boundary. Shawnee society, like that of many Native nations, was highly decentralized, and individual bands and towns typically made independent decisions regarding alliances.

When the United States declared independence from the British Crown in 1776, the Shawnee were divided in their response. They did not support the American rebel cause. Cornstalk led a minority faction that favored neutrality. Shawnee communities north of the Ohio River were particularly dissatisfied with American settlement in Kentucky. Historian Colin Calloway reports that most Shawnee ultimately allied with the British against the Americans, hoping to expel settlers from west of the Appalachian Mountains.^[37]

War leaders such as Blackfish and Blue Jacket joined forces with Dragging Canoe and a band of Cherokee along the lower Tennessee River and Chickamauga Creek in resistance to colonial expansion in that region. Some colonists referred to this Cherokee group as the Chickamauga, after the river along which they lived during what later became known as the Cherokee–American wars, fought during and after the American Revolution. However, they were not a separate tribe, as some contemporary and later accounts suggested.^[37]

Following the American Revolution and during the Northwest Indian War, the Shawnee collaborated with the Miami to form a powerful military alliance in the Ohio Valley. Together, they led a broader confederation of Native American warriors seeking to expel U.S. settlers from the region. After their defeat by U.S. forces at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, most Shawnee bands signed the Treaty of Greenville the following year. Under the terms of the treaty, they were compelled to cede large portions of their homeland to the United States. Other Shawnee groups rejected the agreement and migrated independently to Missouri west of the Mississippi River, where they established settlements along Apple Creek. The French referred to this community as Le Grand Village Sauvage.

In the early 19th century, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh gained prominence for organizing the intertribal alliance later known as Tecumseh’s confederacy in opposition to American expansion into Native American lands. The resulting conflict became known as Tecumseh's War. The two principal adversaries in the conflict—Tecumseh and General William Henry Harrison—had both previously participated as junior figures in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers. Tecumseh did not sign the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. Nevertheless, many Native American leaders in the region accepted the treaty’s terms, and for roughly the next decade organized intertribal resistance to American hegemony diminished.

In September 1809, Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, invited representatives of the Potawatomi, Lenape, Eel River people, and Miami to a council at Fort Wayne. During the negotiations, Harrison offered substantial subsidies in exchange for land cessions to the United States.^[38] After two weeks of discussion, Potawatomi leaders persuaded the Miami to accept the agreement as an act of reciprocity, noting that the Potawatomi had previously accepted treaties less favorable to themselves at the Miami’s request. The assembled tribes ultimately signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne on September 30, 1809, ceding more than 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km²) to the United States, primarily along the Wabash River north of Vincennes, Indiana.^[38]

Tecumseh strongly objected to the Treaty of Fort Wayne, arguing that Native American land was held collectively by all tribes, a principle previously articulated by the Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant.^[39] In response, Tecumseh expanded upon the religious and political teachings of his brother Tenskwatawa, a spiritual leader known as The Prophet, who called upon Native peoples to return to their ancestral traditions. Tecumseh increasingly linked these teachings to the formation of a broad intertribal alliance. He traveled extensively, urging warriors to reject accommodationist leaders and to join the resistance centered at Prophetstown.^[39] In August 1810, Tecumseh led approximately 400 armed warriors to confront Harrison at Vincennes. There, Tecumseh demanded that Harrison invalidate the Treaty of Fort Wayne, threatening violence against the chiefs who had signed it.^[40] Harrison refused, asserting that the Miami were the rightful owners of the land and therefore entitled to sell it if they chose.^[41] Tecumseh departed peacefully but warned Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British should the treaty remain in force.^[42]

In March, the Great Comet of 1811 appeared. Over the following year, tensions between American settlers and Native Americans increased rapidly. Four settlers were killed along the Missouri River, and in a separate incident, Native Americans seized a boatload of supplies from a group of traders. In response, Harrison summoned Tecumseh to Vincennes to explain the actions attributed to his allies.^[42] In August 1811, the two leaders met, during which Tecumseh assured Harrison that the Shawnee intended to remain at peace with the United States.

After this meeting, Tecumseh traveled to the Southeast in an effort to recruit allies against the United States among the "Five Civilized Tribes". His name, Tekoomsē, has been translated as meaning "Shooting Star" or "Panther Across the Sky".^[43]

Tecumseh told the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee, and many others that the comet of March 1811 had signaled his coming. He further stated that the people would soon witness additional signs confirming that the Great Spirit had sent him.

As Tecumseh continued his travels, both sides prepared for the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison assembled a force consisting of army regulars and militia to confront the Native confederacy.^[44] On November 6, 1811, Harrison led approximately 1,000 men toward Prophetstown, Indiana, intending to disperse Tecumseh’s confederacy.^[45] Early the following morning, forces led by The Prophet launched a premature attack on Harrison’s camp near the Tippecanoe River along the Wabash. Harrison repelled the assault, forcing the Native forces to withdraw and abandon Prophetstown. Harrison’s troops subsequently burned the village before returning home.^[46]

On December 11, 1811, the New Madrid earthquake shook Muscogee lands and much of the Midwestern United States. Although interpretations of the event varied among different tribes, many agreed that the powerful earthquake carried spiritual significance. The earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks contributed to the growth of the Tecumseh resistance movement, as the Muscogee and other Native American peoples viewed the event as a sign that the Shawnee cause should be supported and that Tecumseh had successfully foretold such a phenomenon.

The Indians were filled with great terror ... the trees and wigwams shook exceedingly; the ice which skirted the margin of the Arkansas river was broken into pieces; and most of the Indians thought that the Great Spirit, angry with the human race, was about to destroy the world.

The Muscogee who joined Tecumseh's confederation were known as the Red Sticks. They were the more conservative and traditional part of the people, as their communities in the Upper Towns were more isolated from European-American settlements. They did not want to assimilate. The Red Sticks rose in resisting the Lower Creek, and the bands became involved in civil war, known as the Creek War. This became part of the War of 1812 when open conflict broke out between American soldiers and the Red Sticks of the Creek.^[47]

Portraits of the Choctaw chief Pushmataha (left) and Tecumseh. These white Americans ... give us fair exchange, their cloth, their guns, their tools, implements, and other things which the Choctaws need but do not make ... They doctored our sick; they clothed our suffering; they fed our hungry ... So in marked contrast with the experience of the Shawnees, it will be seen that the whites and Indians in this section are living on friendly and mutually beneficial terms. —Pushmataha, 1811 – Sharing Choctaw History.[48] --------------------- Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pocanet and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun ... Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws ... Will not the bones of our dead be plowed up, and their graves turned into plowed fields? —Tecumseh, 1811[49][50]

After William Hull's surrender of Detroit to the British during the War of 1812, General William Henry Harrison was given command of the U.S. Army of the Northwest. He set out to retake the city, which was defended by British Colonel Henry Procter, together with Indigenous forces including the Shawnee. A large detachment of Harrison's army was defeated at Frenchtown along the River Raisin on January 22, 1813. Most of the prisoners were taken to Amherstburg in Upper Canada, but Procter left behind those too injured to travel with an inadequate guard. On January 23, 100-200 Native Americans murdered perhaps as many as 60 wounded Americans, many of whom were Kentucky militiamen. Although the Shawnee took part in the Battle of Frenchtown, it is unlikely that they participated in the massacre of wounded prisoners. The incident became known as the "River Raisin Massacre". The defeat at the Battle of Frenchtown ended Harrison's winter campaign against Detroit, and the phrase "Remember the River Raisin!" became a rallying cry for the Americans.^[51]

In May 1813, Procter and Tecumseh besieged Fort Meigs in northern Ohio. Indigenous forces defeated the American reinforcements arriving during the siege, but the garrison in the fort held out. The warriors eventually began to disperse, forcing Procter and Tecumseh to return to Canada. Their second offensive in July against Fort Meigs also failed. Procter and Tecumseh then attempted to storm Fort Stephenson, a small American post on the Sandusky River. After they were repulsed with serious losses, the British and Tecumseh ended their Ohio campaign.^[52]

On Lake Erie, Master commandant Oliver Hazard Perry fought the Battle of Lake Erie against a British squadron on September 10, 1813. His decisive victory ensured American control of the lake, improved American morale after a series of defeats, and compelled the British to retreat from Amherstburg and Detroit. Harrison launched an invasion of Upper Canada which culminated in the American victory at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813. Tecumseh was killed there, and his death effectively ended the Indigenous alliance with the British in the Detroit region. American control of Lake Erie meant the British could no longer provide essential military supplies to their Indigenous allies, who dropped out of the war. The Americans controlled the area during the remainder of the conflict.^[53]

The Shawnee in Missouri migrated from the United States south into Mexico, in the eastern part of Spanish Texas. They became known as the "Absentee Shawnee". They were joined in the migration by some Delaware (Lenape). Although they were closely allied with the Cherokee led by The Bowl, their chief John Linney remained neutral during the 1839 Cherokee War.^[54]

Texas achieved independence from Mexico under American leaders. It decided to force removal of the Shawnee from the new republic. But in appreciation of their earlier neutrality, Texan President Mirabeau Lamar fully compensated the Shawnee for their improvements and crops. They were forced out to Arkansas Territory.^[54] The Shawnee settled close to present-day Shawnee, Oklahoma. They were joined by Shawnee pushed out of Kansas (see below), who shared their traditionalist views and beliefs.

In 1817, the Ohio Shawnee had signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs, ceding their remaining lands in exchange for three reservations in Wapaughkonetta, Hog Creek (near Lima), and Lewistown, Ohio. They shared these lands with some Seneca people who had migrated west from New York.

In a series of treaties, including the Treaty of Lewistown of 1825, Shawnee and Seneca people agreed to exchange land in western Ohio with the United States for land west of the Mississippi River in what became Indian Territory.^[55] In July 1831, the Lewistown group of Seneca–Shawnee departed for the Indian Territory (in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma).

The main body of Shawnee in Ohio followed Black Hoof, who fought every effort to force his people to give up their homeland. After the death of Black Hoof, the remaining 400 Ohio Shawnee in Wapaughkonetta and Hog Creek surrendered their land and moved to the Shawnee Reserve in Kansas. This movement was largely under terms negotiated by Joseph Parks (1793–1859). He had been raised in the household of Lewis Cass and had been a leading interpreter for the Shawnee.^[56]

Missouri joined the Union in 1821. After the Treaty of St. Louis in 1825, the 1,400 Missouri Shawnee were forcibly relocated from Cape Girardeau, along the west bank of the Mississippi River, to southeastern Kansas, close to the Neosho River.

During 1833, only Black Bob's band of Shawnee resisted removal. They settled in northeastern Kansas near Olathe and along the Kansas (Kaw) River in Monticello near Gum Springs. The Shawnee Methodist Mission was built nearby to minister to the tribe. About 200 of the Ohio Shawnee followed the prophet Tenskwatawa and had joined their Kansas brothers and sisters here in 1826.

In the mid-1830s, two companies of Shawnee soldiers were recruited into United States service to fight in the Seminole War in Florida. One of these was led by Joseph Parks, who had earlier helped negotiate the cession treaty. He was commissioned as captain. Parks was a major landholder in both Westport, Missouri, and in Shawnee, Kansas. He was also a Freemason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In Shawnee, Kansas, a Shawnee cemetery was started in the 1830s and remained in use until the 1870s. Parks was among the most prominent men buried there.^[56]

In the 1853 Indian Appropriations Bill, Congress appropriated $64,366 for treaty obligations to the Shawnee, such as annuities, education, and other services. An additional $2,000 was appropriated for the Seneca and the Shawnee together.^[57]

During the American Civil War, Black Bob's band fled from Kansas and joined the "Absentee Shawnee" in Indian Territory to escape the war. After the Civil War, the Shawnee in Kansas were expelled and forced to move to northeastern Oklahoma. The Shawnee members of the former Lewistown group became known as the "Eastern Shawnee".

The former Kansas Shawnee became known as the "Loyal Shawnee" (some^{[according to whom?]} say this is because of their allegiance with the Union during the war; others say this is because they were the last group to leave their Ohio homelands). The latter group appeared to be regarded as part of the Cherokee Nation by the United States. They were also known as the "Cherokee Shawnee" and were settled on some of the Cherokee land in Indian Territory.

On June 7, 2024, on the site of the Shawnee town "Old Chillicothe" along U.S. 68 in Xenia Township, Greene County, Ohio, was opened the Great Council State Park with the help of the three federally recognized Shawnee tribes: the Shawnee Tribe, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.^[58]

In the late 20th century, the "Loyal" or "Cherokee" Shawnee began a movement to be federally recognized as a tribe independent of the Cherokee Nation.^[59] They received this action by a Congressional bill and are now known as the "Shawnee Tribe". Today, most members of the three federally recognized Shawnee tribes reside in Oklahoma.

The three federally recognized Shawnee tribes are:

• Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
• Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
• Shawnee Tribe

Before contact with Europeans, the Shawnee tribe had a patrilineal system, by which descent and inheritance went through paternal lines. This was different from many of the Native American tribes, who had matrilineal kinship systems. In that alternative, children were considered born to the mother's family and clan, and inheritance and property was passed through the female line.^{[60][better source needed]}

According to mid-19th century historian Henry Harvey, the Shawnee were ruled by kings, whom they called sachema [or sachems], who reigned by succession in the matrilineal line. For instance, the children of a king would not inherit the position. The sons of his brother, by the mother, or the sons of his sister (and after them, the sons of her daughter) would reign. Women did not inherit such a position directly. Harvey suggested that the Shawnee relied on this system of descent because a woman's sons would always be considered legitimate.^[61]

The five divisions, or septs, of the tribe were commonly known as:

• Chillicothe (Principal Place), Chalahgawtha, Chalaka, Chalakatha; The Principal division of "Tschillicothi", appointed by the 1st Lead Illini or man Kwikullay.
• Hathawekela, Thawikila;
• Kispoko, Kispokotha, Kishpoko, Kishpokotha; [from ishpoko as akin to the Ispogi, meaning swamps or marshy lands of the Muscogee, most specific to the Tukabatchi]
• Mekoche, Mequachake, Machachee, Maguck, Mackachack, etc.; Mackochee
• Pekowi, Pekuwe, Piqua, Pekowitha. [Pickywanni or pickquay]

The war chiefs were also hereditary. They descended from their maternal line in the Kispoko division.^[24]

A 1935 study noted that the Shawnee had five septs, and that they were also divided among six clans or subdivisions, according to kinship. Each clan represented spiritual values and had a recognized role in the overall confederacy.^[62] Each name group or clan is found among each of the five divisions, and each Shawnee belongs to a clan or name group.^[62]

The six group names are:

• Pellewomhsoomi (Turkey name group)—represents bird life
• Kkahkileewomhsoomi (Turtle name group)—represents aquatic life
• Petekoθiteewomhsoomi (Rounded-feet name group)—represents carnivorous animals such as the dog, wolf, or those with paws that are ball-shaped or "rounded"
• Mseewiwomhsoomi (Horse name group)—represents herbivorous animals such as the horse and deer
• θepatiiwomhsoomi (Raccoon name group)—represents animals having paws which can rip and tear, such as those of a raccoon and bear
• Petakineeθiiwomhsoomi (Rabbit name group)—represents a gentle and peaceful nature^[62]

Each sept or division had a primary village where the chief of the division lived. This village was usually named after the division. By tradition, each Shawnee division and clan had certain roles it performed on behalf of the entire tribe. By the time these kinship elements were recorded in writing by European Americans, these strong social traditions were fading. They are poorly understood. Because of the disruption and scattering of the Shawnee people from the 17th century through the 19th century, the roles of the divisions changed.

Today the United States government recognizes three Shawnee tribes, all of which are located in Oklahoma:

• The Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, consisting mainly of Hathawekela, Kispokotha, and Pekuwe divisions
• The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, mostly of the Mekoche division
• The Shawnee Tribe, formerly considered part of the Cherokee Nation, mostly of the Chaalakatha and Mekoche divisions. Petakineeθiiwomhsoomi (Rabbit name group) represents a gentle and peaceful nature, that stands alone as the Tail or last

As of 2008, there were 7,584 enrolled Shawnee, with most living in Oklahoma.^[63]

The state of Alabama recognizes an organization, the Piqua Shawnee Tribe, as a state-recognized tribe under the Davis-Strong Act.^[64][65] Ohio does not recognize any Shawnee tribes^[66] or any other state-recognized tribes.^[67] Kentucky also has no mechanism for state-recognizing tribes.^[68]

Dozens of unrecognized organizations self-identify as having Shawnee ancestry. These organizations are not federally recognized tribes^[69] nor state-recognized tribes.^[67]

The Absentee Shawnee Tribal Historic Preservation Office's Cultural Preservation Department wrote that "in our ancestral settlement areas including but not limited to Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, [and] Alabama. In these areas, there are a number of people who claim Shawnee ancestry, this is not so much the concern as the fact that some of these individuals or groups use this claim to exploit Shawnee culture as a means of gaining opportunities for themselves from a public that is largely unaware of the vast divide that separates our tribal community politically and culturally from those of alleged Shawnee ancestry."^[70]

Ben Barnes, chief of the Shawnee Tribe, has written: "Groups claiming to be tribal sovereigns has reached a new level of concern for the Shawnee Tribe and other tribal nations."^[71] He continues:

There are currently 36 unestablished Shawnee “tribes” operating as 501(c)(3) non-profits across the country. Their 501(c)(3) designations allow them to solicit donations and participate in grants meant for Tribal nations. They pose as spokespeople for our ancestors at historic sites, state historical societies, and university campuses causing significant harm to our identity, culture, and reputation. These groups are violating the sacred, ancient places of our ancestors. They perform their ideas of our ceremonies on top of our burial mounds and have stolen our language, customs, and ceremonies.^[71]

United Remnant Band of the Shawnee Nation of Bellefontaine Ohio:In 1979 and 1980, the Ohio state legislature held hearings about state recognition of the United Remnant Band.^[72] The band filed historical and genealogical documents with the state to support their claim of descent from the historical Shawnee. The Ohio General Assembly held hearings and heard testimony from numerous groups.^[73] In 1980, the 113th Ohio General Assembly passed a "Joint Resolution to recognize the Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band", as adopted by the Ohio Senate, 113th General Assembly, Regular Session, Am. Sub. H.J.R. No. 8, 1979–1980.^[74] This is a congratulatory resolution, and Ohio attorney general's office spokesperson Leo Jennings said: "The resolution has no force of law in the state Ohio.… It was basically a ceremonial resolution."^[74]

Shawnee people from the 20th and 21st centuries are listed under their specific tribes.

• Big Hominy (Meshemethequater, 1690–1758), a respected warrior known for participating in peace conferences that prevented war between English settlers and the Shawnees
• Black Bob (Wawahchepaehai or Wawahchepaekar), 19th-century leader and war chief in Ohio
• Black Hoof (Catahecassa, 1740–1831), respected Shawnee chief who believed his people needed to adapt to European-American culture to survive
• Black Snake (Peteusha) and Big Snake (Shemanetoo), active in Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War, and the Northwest Indian War
• Blackfish (Chiungalla, 1729–1779), Shawnee chief of the Chillicothe division of the Shawnee tribe
• Blue Jacket (Waweyapiersenwaw, "Blue Jacket", 1743–1810), leader in the Northwest Indian War and important early supporter of Tecumseh
• Peter Chartier (Wacanackshina, "White One Who Reclines", 1690–1759), French-Canadian/Shawnee who opposed the sale of alcohol in Shawnee communities and fought on the side of the French in the French and Indian War
• Chiksika (Chiuxca, "Black Stump", 1760–1792), Kispoko war chief and older brother of Tecumseh
• Cornstalk (Hokolesqua, 1720–1777), led the Shawnee in Dunmore's War
• George Drouillard (1773–1810), French-Canadian/Shawnee who served as scout on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
• Kakowatcheky (d. ca. 1755), significant leader and Shawnee chief^{[75]: 500 [76][77]}
• Kekewepelethy ("Captain Johnny", d. c. 1808), principal civil chief of the Shawnees in the Ohio Country during the Northwest Indian War
• Captain Logan (Spemica Lawba, "High Horn", c. 1776–1812), noted scout and interpreter on American side during the War of 1812
• Neucheconeh (d. ca. 1748), chief of the western Pennsylvania Shawnee who campaigned against the unrestricted sale of alcohol in Shawnee communities
• Nonhelema (1720–1786), sister of Cornstalk, helped compile the dictionary for the Shawnee language
• Opessa Straight Tail (Wapatha, 1664–1750), chief of Pekowi band, signed several peace treaties with William Penn before leading his people to the Ohio River Valley in ca. 1727
• Tecumseh (c. 1768–1813), Shawnee leader, with his brother Tenskwatawa attempted to unite tribes west of the Appalachians against the expansion of European-American settlement
• Tenskwatawa ("The Open Door", 1775–1836), Shawnee prophet and younger brother of Tecumseh

• Battle of Tippecanoe Outdoor Drama

• Callender, Charles. "Shawnee", in Northeast: Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, ed. Bruce Trigger. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978: 622–35. ISBN 0-16-072300-0
• Clifton, James A. Star Woman and Other Shawnee Tales. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984. ISBN 0-8191-3712-X; ISBN 0-8191-3713-8 (pbk.)
• Edmunds, R. David. The Shawnee Prophet. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8032-1850-8.
• Edmunds, R. David. Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership. Originally published 1984. 2nd edition, New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. ISBN 0-321-04371-5
• Edmunds, R. David. "Forgotten Allies: The Loyal Shawnees and the War of 1812" in David Curtis Skaggs and Larry L. Nelson, eds., The Sixty Years' War for the Great Lakes, 1754–1814, pp. 337–51. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-87013-569-4.
• Langguth, A. J. (2006). Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-2618-6.
• Howard, James H. Shawnee!: The Ceremonialism of a Native Indian Tribe and its Cultural Background. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-8214-0417-2; ISBN 0-8214-0614-0 (pbk.)
• Lakomäki, Sami. Gathering Together: The Shawnee People through Diaspora and Nationhood, 1600–1870. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
• O'Donnell, James H. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8214-1525-5 (paperback), ISBN 0-8214-1524-7 (hardcover).
• Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York: Holt, 1997. ISBN 0-8050-4138-9 (hardcover); ISBN 0-8050-6121-5 (1999 paperback).
• Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8032-4288-3.

• "Shawnee" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). 1911.

• Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, official website
• Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, official website
• Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, official website

• Shawnee History Archived January 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• Shawnee Indian Mission
• "Shawnee Indian Tribe", Access Genealogy
• Treaty of Fort Meigs, 1817, Central Michigan State University
• BlueJacket