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American Indian Heritage Month:

Commemoration vs. Exploitation

Shawnee

"Shawnee" is derived from Shawanwa, "southerner," their self-

designation. These people acted in many ways as agents of cultural change and adaptation between the Northeast Woodlands

and the Southeastern and Plains tribes. They were variouslyknown to non-Natives as Ouchaoua-nags, Chaouanons, Satanas,

and Shawanos. They were culturally related to the Sauks, Foxes,and Kickapoos.

The Shawnees migrated often, but their territory in the late

seventeenth century, when they may have numbered 50,000 or

more, may have ranged from the Illinois River east to theDelaware, Susquehannah, and Savannah Rivers. Some scholars place them on the

Cumberland River at or before that time. Shawnee villages have been located

throughout an enormous area, ranging from the present states of New York and Illinois

south to South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Their aboriginal home may have been

around the south shore of Lake Erie, and they lived in southern Ohio during the second

half of the eighteenth century. Shawnees spoke an Algonquin language.

A supreme deity, possibly female, controlled a large number of other deities, who inturn all had their places in Shawnee mythology. The people recognized twelve

fundamental laws with religious/mythological origins. The Piqua division of the tribe

was in charge of religious ceremonies. Each division was conceived of as rituallydiscrete, and each held a sacred pack.

Important communal ceremonies included the Bread Dance, held at planting and

harvest times and organized by women. The ceremony featured dancing and a feast of

meat hunted by twelve men and cooked by twelve women. The people also celebrated

the Green Corn Dance (a harvest/thanksgiving/renewal ceremony) and various other

sacred ceremonies.

The five Shawnee divisions were the Chillikothes, Kispokothas, Piquas, Hathawekelas,

and Spitothas. They were linked through specific responsibilities, such as politics,

ceremonialism, and war, and they were associated with specific territories and towns.

Division membership was inherited patrilineally.

Political functions fell under either the peace or war organization. Tribal, clan, and

division chiefs were hereditary (clan chiefs may have been associated more with ritual

than politics) prior to the nineteenth century, although the office of war chief also had a

merit component. There was also a tribal council made up of the chiefs as well as

elderly men. Town councils probably existed as well.



Women related to male leaders could be chiefs on the town level. Women were also

associated with peace and war organizations. Among their prerogatives were the rightto ask for the cancellation of a war party, the right to spare prisoners, and direction over

feasts and planting crops.

Another type of tribal division was geographical in nature. These groups were fluid in

number, size, and composition as the tribe shifted its territory. This system waseventually responsible for the three formal Shawnee divisions of the late nineteenthcentury.

Up to twelve patrilineal clans controlled names; certain qualities associated with

certain names also belonged to particular clans. Ritual and political appointments might

follow from these qualities and were thus associated with clans. Birth occurred in aspecial, secluded hut, where mother and child remained for ten days, after which a

naming ceremony was held. Marriage was probably arranged, at least in part, and wasassociated with gift giving. Only men buried Shawnee men, but both men and women

buried women. Corpses were buried in their best clothing and usually prone, with thehead facing west. Tobacco was sprinkled over the body. The mourning period of

twelve days was bracketed with two feasts (spouses mourned for up to a year). Diversedeath customs might include a condolence ceremony and, if a husband died, a

replacement ceremony, when the widow chose a new husband about a year after the

death.

The Shawnee created various house styles, depending on the period and location.

Typical summer dwellings were bark-covered extended lodges. Town organization by

division included ceremonial aspects as well, on the Southeast "town" model. Each

Shawnee town had a large, wooden council house used for a number of purposes,

including sacred and secular group functions and the ritual seclusion of warriors after

fighting. Towns varied in size according to time and location, but the largest consisted

of hundreds of houses and over one thousand people.

Women grew several varieties of corn. They also gathered a number of foods,

including berries, cherries, and persimmon, and they tapped maple trees for their sap.

Men hunted deer, bear, buffalo, and turkey. They also trapped a number of smaller

mammals. The people left their summer towns in the fall to establish winter camps.

From there, able-bodied men and women left on months-long hunting trips. There was

also a summer deer hunt. The Shawnee diet also included fish.

The people generally adopted the clothing of their neighbors, incorporating some styles

of their former environs as well. In general, they wore little clothing. Items included

buckskin breechclouts, aprons, and moccasins. Body painting and tattooing were

extensively practiced. Personal ornamentation varied according to location.

According to tradition, the Shawnee people were once united with the Lenápes and the

Nanti-cokes, perhaps in Labrador. They may have originated north of or in the Ohio

Valley. They were probably associated with the Fort Ancient cultural complex (1000± 1700), which was characterized by a mixed subsistence economy, including

agriculture, with fortified villages having central courtyards. Town populations mayhave ranged up to 1,000 people.



The Iroquois may have begun pushing scattered Shawnee bands south into Ohio as

early as the sixteenth century. Iroquois attacks on Shawnees in Ohio lasted until themid- to late eighteenth century, when the Iroquois forced the last Shawnees out of that

area. Shawnees pushed into Pennsylvania in the late seventeenth century, and a population center was established on the Savannah River by that time as well. In the

early eighteenth century, bands began a general westward movement again, settling on

the north bank of the Ohio River. By about 1750 most Shawnees had come to thatlocation, with Iroquois permission. Some groups also joined the Creek Nation inAlabama about that time.

Heavy involvement in the fur trade from the early eighteenth century on soon left manyShawnee in the clutches of alcohol and debt. Most Shawnee bands were pro-French in

the colonial wars, but some were steadfast British trade partners and military allies,especially the bands that came under the control of the Iroquois. Most Shawnees

participated in Pontiac's Rebellion of 1763±1764. Under Chief Cornstalk, they alsofought the British later in 1764 over the issue of land. Pressured by the colonies to cede

land, the Shawnees joined the British cause in the American Revolution, hoping thatthe country that promulgated the Proclamation Line of 1763 would defend their

interests against the rapacious colonials. The loss in that war and in Little Turtle's War (1794) led to further land cessions in Ohio and Indiana. In the 1790s, a group of

Shawnees and Lenápes moved to Missouri to occupy a Spanish land grant.

In the early nineteenth century, two Shawnees²twins by birth²achieved renown as

among the last great military defenders of Indian land in the entire region. The shaman

Tenskwatawa, or Shawnee Prophet, encouraged his people to return to their traditions

and eschew all non-Native elements, particularly Christianity and alcohol. He also

claimed to have special medicine that would help repulse the whites. His brother was

Tecumseh, a brilliant orator and military strategist. Envisioning an Indian country from

Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, he encouraged pan-Indian solidarity and resistance to

the domination of the United States. In particular, he believed that no single Native

American had the moral right to sell or cede any Indian land.

In 1812, Tenskwatawa foolishly moved against a non-Native military expedition beforethe alliance was complete. The Indian forces were defeated, and Tenskwatawa's power

proved to be ineffective. This action fatally disrupted the alliance before it had a chanceto coalesce. Tecumseh quickly joined the British cause in the War of 1812, hoping that

what remained of his alliance, in conjunction with British forces, could defeat theAmericans. Although as a general in the British Army he led many successful

campaigns, many Indians refused to join the war. Tecumseh was fatally shot in October 1813.

Their power broken, many Ohio tribes, including the Shawnees, became refugees,drifting in scattered bands throughout the present-day states Kansas, Missouri,

Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Meanwhile, the Missouri Shawnees living on Spanishland were slowly joined by other Shawnee groups. Resulting tensions forced the groups

apart once again. About 1845, groups of Shawnees gathered near Oklahoma's CanadianRiver and later became known as the Absentee Shawnees (this tribe was composed

mostly of the former divisions of Hathawekelas, Kispokothas, and Piquas). Mostmembers accepted allotments soon after the reservation was officially established in

1872, and by 1900 most had assimilated into the dominant society. Factionalism



between progressives and traditionals kept the two sides apart throughout the early

twentieth century.

In 1825 the United States established a reservation in Kansas for the Indians still livingon the Spanish land grant. Shawnees still in Ohio moved there in the early to mid-

1830s, although they were eventually forced into Oklahoma, where the groups split up.

One part joined the Cherokees (known thereafter as the Cherokee Shawnees or LoyalShawnees, from their Unionist stance during the Civil War), and the other joined theAbsentee Shawnees.

In 1831, a group of Shawnees and Senecas who had been living in Ohio settled in

Ottawa County, Oklahoma. When the groups separated in 1867, the Shawnees became

known as the Eastern Shawnees. They organized formally as the Eastern ShawneeTribe of Oklahoma in 1937, when they officially broke apart from the Senecas. Despite

their loyalty to the Union in the Civil War, most Shawnees were forced out of Kansasand into Oklahoma, where they merged with the Cherokees in 1869. During the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scattered Shawnee communities in Ohio andIndiana retained their Indian identity and some of their traditions. These communities

came together politically in 1971 as the United Remnant Band (URB).

The URB's main land holdings now serve as a ceremonial and cultural center, wherethe tribe conducts powwows, youth programs, and ceremonies. Most are well

integrated into the surrounding non-Native population. The Absentee Shawnees

maintain a police force, a tribal court system, and a clinic. Most of the people are

Christians, especially Baptists and Quakers. The Native language is still spoken. The

more traditional Big Jim band holds quasi traditional dances every year.

The facilities of the Eastern Shawnees include a tribal headquarters, a recreational park,and an eye clinic. The tribe also runs a nutrition clinic for the elderly, provides most of

its own health care, and publishes a newsletter. Few speak their Native language. TheLoyal Shawnees maintain a cultural center and several traditions, such as the Bread,

Green Corn, and Buffalo Dances. The Native language among these people is

practically defunct.

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