Shawnee Indians

Shawnee Language and the Shawnee Indian Tribe (Shawano, Savannah, Sewanee, Shawnees)

Alternate Names and Spellings: Shawnee, Shawanoe, Shawanoese, Shawanee, Shawonee

Ancestral Homeland: near Cumberland River, Ohio and Tennessee River (Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio)

Federal Recognition

Leaders: Tecumseh

Tribal Headquarters

Shawnee Tribe
P.O. Box 189
Miami, OK 74355
Phone: 1.918.542.2441
Fax: 1.918.542.2922

The Shawnee Tribe Official Website

History =

Additional References to the History of the Tribe

Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Shawnee tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America.

Ohio History Central article on the [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=631Shawnee Indians

Flora Harvey Kittle. Shawnee Indians in Kansas, FHL Book 970.1 Al #89

Brief Timeline

1677: Early contact with non-Indians, a French trader La Potherie
1689-1763: French and Indian Wars, sided with the French
1754: Eskippakithiki, a Shawnee settlement abandoned
1763: Joined the Ottawa and other tribes in Pontiac's Rebellion against the British
1769: Shawnee warned Daniel Boone to leave "Kentucky"
1774: Fought Virginians in Lord Dunmore's War. (Lord Dunmore gave veterans of the French and Indian War who fought under him land that belonged to the Shawnee)
October 6, 1774: Point Pleasant, West Virginia- Treaty - ceded land
1775: Sided with the British during the Revolutionary War
1782: The Shawnee joined by the Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Mingo in a Confederacy to remove settlers from Kentucky and Ohio.
1794: General Anthony Wayne defeated the Shawnee at Fallen Timbers, Ohio
1794: land ceded
1795: Treaty of Fort Greenville; proposed factory system
1802: factory established at Fort Wayne
1812-1815: War of 1812, at the end of the War, the colonial government of Virginia gave bonuses to soldiers in the form of military tracts, in Kentucky
October 5, 1813: Battle of the Thames, Tecumseh killed
1815: many Shawnee residing near Cape Girardeau and on the Merrimack River near St. Louis. Delaware and Abesentee Shawnee moved into Arkansas and in 1820 moved to Texas.
1825: a census of Indians in the United States total of Shawnee 2,293 (not including Shawnee living in Texas)
1828: Fish or Jackson band of Shawneee Indians move to Kansas
1831: August 8, Treaty at Wapaghkonnetta and Hog creek in Ohio. Land ceded and removed to land west of Missouri.
1832: Black Hawk War
1832: Wapakoneta Shawnee left Ohio and removed west of the Missouri River, into Kansas
1833: Hog Creek Shawnee removed to Kansas
1835: Newspaper printed by Jotham Meeker
1861-65: supported the Union during the Civil War
1867: Shawnee located on three reservation in Indian Territory. Absentee Shawnee from Texas settled with the Potawatomi (Pottawatomie County); Kansas Shawnee to the Cherokee reservation in 1870 they were incorporated with the Cherokee Nation; Mixed band of Seneca and Shawnee settled in Ottawa County, Oklahoma.
1980: Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band is recognized by the state of Ohio

Migrations:

Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas

Agencies

Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value were created by these offices.

The following list of agencies that have operated or now exist in Illinois has been compiled from Hill's Office of Indian Affairs...^[1], Hill's Guide to Records in the National Archives Relating to American Indians^[2], and others.

Shawnee Agency - Kansas

Shawnee Agency - Missouri

Piqua and Ohio Agency

Fort Leavenworth Agency

Sac and Fox Agency - Iowa

Sac and Fox Agency - Oklahoma

Reservations

From the mid-1800s, the official policy of the United States government toward the American Indian was to confine each tribe to a specific parcel of land called a reservation. Agencies were established on or near each reservation. A government representative, usually called an agent (or superintendent) was assigned to each agency. Their duties included maintaining the peace, making payments to the Native Americans based on the stipulations of the treaties with each tribe, and providing a means of communication between the native population and the federal government.

Sometimes, a single agency had jurisdiction over more than one reservation. And sometimes, if the tribal population and land area required it, an agency may have included sub-agencies.

The boundaries of reservations, over time, have changed. Usually, that means the reservations have been reduced in size. Sometimes, especially during the later policy of "termination," the official status of reservations was ended altogether.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America^[3], the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America^[4], and other sources. There are no current federally-recognized reservations in Illinois.

Shawnee Reservation

Absentee Shawnee Reservation

Records

The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:

Correspondence and Census

Tribe	Agency	Location of Original Records	Pre-1880 Correspondence M 234 RG 75 Roll 962 Roll Number	FHL Film Number	Post-1885 Census M595 RG 75 Roll 693 Roll Number	FHL Film Number
Shawnee, Indian Territory	Shawnee Agency, 1890-1952	Fort Wayne	-	-	-	FHL Films: 581865-581871
Shawnee, Ohio	Piqua and Ohio Agencies, 1831-43	Washington D.C.	Rolls 600-03	-	-	-
Shawnee, Kansas	Fort Leavenworth Agency,1824-51	Washington D.C.	Rolls 299-303	-	-	-
Shawnee, Kansas	Kansas Agency, 18521-55	Washington D.C.	Rolls 363-70	-	-	-
Shawnee, Kansas	Shawnee Agency, 1855-76	Washington D.C.	Rolls 808-23	-	-	-
Shawnee, Kansas-Indian Territory	Union Agency, 1875-80	Washington D.C.	Rolls 864-77	-	-	-
Shawnee, Eastern	Neosho Agency, 1867-71	Washington D.C.	Rolls 534-37	-	-	-
Shawnee, Eastern	Quapaw Agency 1885-1939	Washington D.C. and Fort Worth	-	-	Rolls 410-16	FHL Films:581405-581410
Shawnee, Eastern	Seneca Agency, 1901-7, 1910-21	Washington D.C.	-	-	Rolls 487-89	FHL Films:581498-581499
Shawnee, Absentee	Wichita Agency, 1859-67	Washington D.C.	Rolls 927-30	-	-	-
Shawnee, Absentee	Sac and Fox Agency, ca. 1869-80	Chicago	-	-	-	-
Shawnee, Absentee	Shawnee Agency, 1890-1952	Washington D.C. and Fort Worth	-	-	Rolls 490-96	FHL Films:581865-581871

Removal / Census

1857 Shawnee Census (M1813, roll 1) The census was take as part of the Kansas Territorial Censuses, 1855-1859. At the end of roll 1 of the 1857 census is a census of Shawnee Indians in Kansas Territory, taken in conjunction with the treaty made with the tribe on May 10, 1854.

1871 Shawnee Tribe who moved to Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory before June 10,www.accessgenealogy.com

Church Records

Martha Belle Caldwell. Annals of Shawnee Methodist Mission. Topeka, KS. Kansas Historical Society, 1939. FHL Book 970.3 Sh28c

Treaties The year link (date of the treaty) will connect to an online copy of the treaty.

1786 January 31, on the Miami
1795 August 3, at Greenville
1803June 7, at Fort Wayne with the Delaware
1805 July 4, at Fort Industry, with the Wyandot
1808 November 25, at Brownstown, with the Chippewa
1814 July 22, at Greenville, with the Wyandot
1815 September 8, at Spring Wells, with the Wyandot
1817 September 29, with the Wyandot
1818 September 17, at St. Mary's, with the Wyandot
1825 November 7, at St. Louis,
1831 July 20, at Lewistown, with the Seneca
1831 August 8, at Wapaghkonnetta
1832December 29, at Seneca Agency with the Seneca
1832 October 26, at Castor Hill, with Shawnee
1854 May 10, at Washington
1865 September 13, at Fort Smith - unratified- with the Cherokee and other Tribes in the Indian Territory
1867 February 23, at Washington, with Seneca, Mixed Seneca and Shawnee, Quapaw, Etc.,

Vital Records

Quapaw Agency, M595, birth and deaths 1924-1932, FHL Film: 581408
Shawnee Agency, M595, births and deaths 1910-1934, FHL Film: 581870

Important Web Sites

The Shawnee Tribe Official Website
Shawnee Tribe Wikipedia
Constitution of the United Tribe of Shawnee Indians