The Shawnee Tribes, historically known as the Loyal Shawnee and Absentee Shawnee, and formerly referred to as the Cherokee Shawnee, represent a complex and multifaceted Native American nation with a rich and often turbulent history. Originally an Eastern Woodland tribe inhabiting the fertile Ohio Valley, the Shawnee have dispersed across a wide geographical area, leading to the establishment of various distinct groups. Today, the legacy of the Shawnee continues through three federally recognized tribes, one state-recognized tribe, and numerous other self-identified groups who claim descent from this resilient people.
The term "Shawnee" itself is derived from various Algonquian words, including Shaawanwaki, Ša˙wano˙ki, and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, all pointing to their identity as an Algonquian-speaking ethnic group. In the era of European colonization, the Shawnee were characterized as a semi-migratory nation, with their primary territories concentrated within the Ohio Valley. Their sphere of influence stretched from present-day Ohio and Kentucky eastward to encompass West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Western Maryland. Southward, their presence extended to Alabama and South Carolina, while westward, they reached into Indiana and Illinois. This extensive territorial range speaks to the adaptability and mobility of the Shawnee people.
The origins of the Shawnee Tribes have been the subject of scholarly debate, with some researchers suggesting a connection to the pre-contact Fort Ancient culture of the Ohio region. The Fort Ancient culture flourished between 1000 and 1650 CE, with its people primarily residing along the Ohio River in areas that now constitute southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and western West Virginia. These people were notable mound builders, constructing earthen structures that served various ceremonial and possibly residential purposes. While initially considered an extension of the Mississippian culture, which thrived further south, contemporary scholarship leans towards the notion that the Fort Ancient culture developed independently, descending from the earlier Hopewell culture (100 BCE – 500 CE), another group of mound builders.
The fate of the Fort Ancient people remains shrouded in mystery. It is widely believed that their society, much like the Mississippian culture to the south, suffered significant disruption due to the introduction of new infectious diseases carried by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Archaeological evidence from sites like Madisonville suggests a decline in village size and a shift away from a horticulture-centered, sedentary lifestyle after 1525.
A notable gap exists in the archaeological record between the most recent Fort Ancient sites and the oldest known sites occupied by the Shawnee Tribes. However, scholars often point to similarities in material culture, artistic expression, mythology, and Shawnee oral traditions as evidence supporting a connection between the Fort Ancient society and the emergence of the historical Shawnee. This connection, while not universally accepted, provides a compelling narrative linking the ancient mound builders to the Algonquian-speaking people who would later shape the history of the Ohio Valley.
Adding another layer to their identity, the Shawnee traditionally regarded the Lenape (or Delaware) of the East Coast mid-Atlantic region as their "grandfathers." Both the Shawnee and Lenape spoke Algonquian languages, further strengthening their cultural and linguistic ties. Moreover, the Algonquian nations of present-day Canada considered the US Shawnee as their southernmost branch, highlighting the expansive reach of the Algonquian language family and the interconnectedness of its various tribes. Along the East Coast, Algonquian-speaking tribes primarily inhabited coastal areas, stretching from Quebec down to the Carolinas.
European accounts from the 17th century provide valuable insights into the early encounters between Europeans and the Shawnee. A Dutch map from 1614 depicts some Sawwanew located just east of the Delaware River, while later Dutch sources corroborate their presence in this general vicinity. French explorers, venturing from eastern Canada and the Illinois Country, typically located the Shawnee along the Ohio River.
One European legend recounts that some Shawnee descended from a group dispatched by Chief Opechancanough, the ruler of the Powhatan Confederacy from 1618 to 1644, to settle in the Shenandoah Valley. This party was supposedly led by Opechancanough’s son, Sheewa-a-nee. Edward Bland, an explorer accompanying Abraham Wood’s expedition in 1650, documented a falling-out between the Chawan chief and the weroance of the Powhatan, resulting in the latter’s murder of the former.
Driven from Kentucky in the 1670s by the Iroquois Confederacy of Pennsylvania and New York, who claimed the Ohio Valley as their hunting ground for the fur trade, the Shawnee Tribes faced further challenges. The explorers Batts and Fallam reported in 1671 that the Shawnee were actively contesting control of the Shenandoah Valley with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois), but were ultimately losing ground.
Before 1670, a group of Shawnee migrated to the Savannah River area, establishing contact with the English based in Charles Town, South Carolina, in 1674. This encounter led to a lasting alliance. The Savannah River Shawnee became known to the Carolina English as the "Savannah Indians." Around the same time, other Shawnee groups migrated to Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other regions south and east of the Ohio country.
In 1699, d’Iberville, a French explorer, described the Shawnee (spelled as Chaouenons) as "the single nation to fear, being spread out over Carolina and Virginia in the direction of the Mississipi." Historian Alan Gallay suggests that the Shawnee migrations of the middle to late 17th century were likely spurred by the Beaver Wars, which commenced in the 1640s.
The Shawnee became known for their widespread settlements, spanning from Pennsylvania to Illinois and Georgia. Among their prominent villages were Eskippakithiki in Kentucky, Sonnionto (Lower Shawneetown) in Ohio, Chalakagay near present-day Sylacauga, Alabama, Chalahgawtha at the site of modern Chillicothe, Ohio, Old Shawneetown, Illinois, and Suwanee, Georgia.
Their language evolved into a lingua franca for trade among numerous tribes. They rose to prominence as leaders among the tribes, initiating and sustaining pan-Indian resistance to European and Euro-American expansion.
As European-American encroachment intensified in the late 18th century, one band of the Shawnee Tribes migrated to Missouri, eventually becoming the Absentee Shawnee. In 1817, the Treaty of Fort Meigs granted three reservations to the Shawnee in Ohio: Wapakoneta, Lewistown, and Hog Creek.
Following the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, another Shawnee band relocated to Indian Territory in July 1831. The final band, which would become the Shawnee Tribe, moved to Kansas in August 1831. Their Kansas lands were significantly reduced in 1854 and broken up into individual allotments in 1858.
During the Civil War, many members of the Shawnee Tribe fought for the Union, earning them the moniker "Loyal Shawnee." However, upon returning to their Kansas lands after the war, they found much of it occupied by non-Indian homesteaders. Settlers were granted 130,000 acres of Shawnee land, while only 70,000 acres remained for the tribe, with 20,000 acres allocated to the Absentee Shawnee.
In 1861, Kansas achieved statehood, and the non-Indian population demanded the removal of all Indian tribes from the state. The Loyal Shawnee reached an agreement with the Cherokee Nation in 1869, allowing 722 Shawnee to gain citizenship within the Cherokee tribe and receive allotments of Cherokee land.
These Shawnee primarily settled in what are now Craig and Rogers County, Oklahoma, becoming known as the "Cherokee Shawnee." They primarily resided in the areas of Bird Creek (now Sperry), Hudson Creek (now Fairland), and White Oak. The Shawnee Reservation in Kansas was never legally dissolved, and some Shawnee families still hold their allotment lands there.
Some Shawnee occupied areas in central Pennsylvania. In 1714, lacking a chief, they requested Carondawana, an Oneida war chief of the Iroquois, to represent them to the Pennsylvania provincial council, which accepted their choice. Around 1727, Carondawana and his wife, Madame Montour, a prominent interpreter, settled at Otstonwakin, at the confluence of Loyalsock Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River.
By the time European-American settlers arrived in the Shenandoah Valley (circa 1730) of Virginia, the Shawnee were the main residents of the northern part of the valley. They were claimed as tributaries by the Haudenosaunee or Six Nations of the Iroquois, who had assisted some of the Tuscarora people from North Carolina in resettling near present-day Martinsburg, West Virginia.
At this time, Seneca and Lenape war parties from the north often clashed with pursuing bands of Catawba from Virginia in the Shawnee-inhabited regions of the Valley.
By the late 1730s, increasing pressure from colonial expansion led to repeated conflicts. Shawnee communities were negatively impacted by the fur trade, with furs often exchanged for rum or brandy, resulting in social problems related to alcohol abuse. Several Shawnee communities in the Province of Pennsylvania, led by Peter Chartier, opposed the sale of alcohol, leading to a conflict with colonial Governor Patrick Gordon. As a result, in 1745, approximately 400 Shawnee migrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Illinois.
Before 1754, the Shawnee had a headquarters at Shawnee Springs at modern-day Cross Junction, Virginia, near Winchester. The father of Chief Cornstalk held his council there. Several other Shawnee villages were located in the northern Shenandoah Valley: at Moorefield, West Virginia, on the North River, and on the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland.
In 1753, the Shawnee on the Scioto River in the Ohio country sent messengers to those still in the Shenandoah Valley, urging them to leave Virginia and join them further west, which they did the following year. The community known as Shannoah (Lower Shawneetown) on the Ohio River reached a population of around 1,200 by 1750.
Ever since the Beaver Wars, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Five Nations) had claimed the Ohio Country as their hunting ground by right of conquest, treating the Shawnee and Lenape who resettled there as dependent tribes. Some independent Iroquois bands also migrated westward, becoming known in Ohio as the Mingo.
These three tribes—the Shawnee Tribes, the Delaware, and the Mingo—became closely associated with one another, despite their differing languages. The first two spoke Algonquian languages, while the third spoke an Iroquoian language.
After initially siding with the French in the French and Indian War (Braddock’s War), the Shawnee switched sides in 1758, making peace with the British colonies at the Treaty of Easton. This treaty recognized the Allegheny Ridge as their mutual border. However, this peace was short-lived, as Pontiac’s War erupted in 1763. The Crown issued the Proclamation of 1763, legally confirming the 1758 border as the limits of British colonization, reserving the land beyond for Native Americans. However, enforcing this boundary proved difficult, as European colonists continued to move westward.
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 extended that line westward, granting the British colonists a claim to what is now West Virginia and Kentucky. The Shawnee did not agree to this treaty, as it was negotiated between British officials and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who claimed sovereignty over the land, despite the presence of Shawnee and other Native American tribes who also hunted there.
Following the Stanwix treaty, Anglo-Americans began settling in the Ohio River Valley. Violent incidents between settlers and Indians escalated into Dunmore’s War in 1774. British diplomats managed to isolate the Shawnee during the conflict, with the Iroquois and Lenape remaining neutral. The Shawnee faced the British colony of Virginia with only a few Mingo allies.
Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, launched a two-pronged invasion into the Ohio Country. Shawnee Chief Cornstalk attacked one wing but fought to a draw in the Battle of Point Pleasant, the only major battle of the war.
In the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, ending this war in 1774, Cornstalk and the Shawnee were compelled by the British to recognize the same Ohio River boundary as that established with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy by the 1768 Fort Stanwix treaty. The Shawnee ceded all claims to the hunting grounds of West Virginia and Kentucky. However, many other Shawnee leaders refused to acknowledge this boundary.
In 1775, a Shawnee party attacked Daniel Boone in Kentucky.
During the American Revolution, the Shawnee were divided. While they did not support the American rebel cause, Cornstalk led the minority who wished to remain neutral. The Shawnee north of the Ohio River were unhappy about the American settlement of Kentucky. Colin Calloway reports that most Shawnee allied with the British against the Americans.
War leaders such as Chief Blackfish and Blue Jacket joined Dragging Canoe and a band of Cherokee people against the colonists in the lower Tennessee and Chickamauga Creek area. These Cherokee were sometimes called Chickamauga.
The Shawnee later combined with the Miami into a formidable fighting force in the Ohio Valley during the Northwest Indian War between the United States and a confederation of Native American tribes. After being defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, most of the Shawnee bands signed the Treaty of Greenville the following year, ceding large portions of their homeland to the new United States.
Other Shawnee groups rejected this treaty, migrating independently to Missouri, settling near Cape Girardeau.
The Shawnee in Missouri became known as the Absentee Shawnee after migrating from the United States into Mexico, in the eastern part of Spanish Texas. They were joined by some Delaware. While they were closely allied with the Cherokee led by The Bowl, their chief John Linney remained neutral during the 1839 Cherokee War.
In the late 1840s, Texan president Mirabeau Lamar compensated the Shawnee for their improvements and crops when forcing their removal from Texas to Arkansas Territory. The Shawnee settled close to present-day Shawnee, Oklahoma, and were joined by Shawnee pushed out of Kansas, who shared their traditionalist views.
In 1817, the Ohio Shawnee signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs, ceding their remaining lands in exchange for three reservations in Wapaughkonetta, Hog Creek, and Lewistown, Ohio. They shared these lands with some Seneca who had migrated west from New York.
After the Treaty of St. Louis in 1825, the 1,400 Missouri Shawnee were forcibly relocated from Cape Girardeau to southeastern Kansas.
During 1833, Black Bob’s band of Shawnee resisted removal, settling in northeastern Kansas near Olathe and along the Kansas River in Monticello near Gum Springs. The Shawnee Methodist Mission was built nearby. About 200 of the Ohio Shawnee, followers of the prophet Tenskwatawa, joined their Kansas relatives in 1826.
The main body of Shawnee in Ohio followed Black Hoof, who resisted efforts to force the Shawnee to give up their homeland. After his death, the remaining 400 Ohio Shawnee in Wapaughkonetta and Hog Creek surrendered their land and moved to the Shawnee Reserve in Kansas. In 1831, the Lewistown group of Seneca–Shawnee left for the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
During the American Civil War, Black Bob’s band fled from Kansas and joined the Absentee Shawnee in Oklahoma. 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 (due to their allegiance with the Union during the war or because they were the last group to leave their Ohio homelands). The latter group was considered part of the Cherokee Nation, known as the Cherokee Shawnee, and settled on some of their land in Indian Territory.
Beginning in the 1980s, the Shawnee Tribes initiated an effort to regain their own tribal status, independent of the Cherokee Nation.
In 2000, the Loyal or Cherokee Shawnee received federal recognition independent of the Cherokee Nation. Congress passed the Shawnee Tribe Status Act of 2000, enabling the Shawnee Tribe to organize as an autonomous, federally recognized tribe, now known as the Shawnee Tribe. Today, most members of the three tribes of the Shawnee nation reside in Oklahoma.
Federally Recognized Shawnee Tribes:
The three federally recognized Shawnee tribes are all located in Oklahoma:
- Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
- Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
- Shawnee Tribe
State Recognized Shawnee Tribe:
The Piqua Shawnee Tribe is a state-recognized tribe in Alabama, recognized by the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission under the Davis-Strong Act. This tribe is also recognized in an honorary manner by Ohio and Kentucky through legislative resolutions.
Unrecognized Shawnee Tribes:
Numerous self-identified groups claim Shawnee descent.