Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Shawnee

Note to readers: This post was edited after a reader corrected me on something (see comments if you want to know more about that).

The Shawnee nation seems to be different from other Native nations in that historically they didn't have a land base.

Although there is plenty of material out there about the brief careers of Tecumseh and/or his brother, the prophet, it is another thing to find something about the long history of the Shawnee tribe. Lee Sultzman's Shawnee page, for example, consists of little more than a quote form Tecumseh.

Nevertheless, here's a few items that can fill you in about Shawnee history:

"Shawnee Indians," an article from the Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History.

"The Culture of Ohio's Shawnee Indian Tribe" by Cindy Wright.

Henry Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians from the Year 1681 to 1854 Inclusive.This offering of Google Books was originally published in 1855. Of course you'll want to be careful reading anything by a white author from that era - keep your eyes open for biases.

If you're a seasoned scholar working on a serious project, you already know that you'll have to find information from sources outside of the internet. Randolph Noe's The Shawnee Indians: An Annotated Bibliography will lead you to over 2700 other relevant sources. Since it currently costs over $110 on Amazon, I encourage you to ask your local library if they can get you a copy.

On your left is a My Space photo of a woman who claims Shawnee ancestry.

5 comments :

Anonymous said...

The shawnees are recognized by the Fed. government. they are a sub-group of the oklahoma cherokee but maintain separate tribal status. The Shawnee are in no way extinct; you can visit the tribe's website online if you don't belive me.

Anonymous said...

The two other federally recognized Shawnee bands are the Eastern Shawnee in oklahoma as well as the Absentee Shawnee in oklahoma. Large groups of Shawnee started migrating and settle in Cape Giradeau and then went to oklahoma. I don't know where you got the idea they are an extinct group.
I like your blog,
Dan

Jeff Siemers said...

Dan,
Thanks for making the correction and thanks for your interest in the blog.

Although I don't make things up or jump to conclusions, there is a lot of misinformation out there and in this case I must have repeated something I got from an unreliable source.
JS

Anonymous said...

Jeff I didn't mean to be too critical, and you are right that ther is a ton of bogus info on Indians.

Jeff Siemers said...

Thanks again for your comment Dan.
I do want people to correct me, but I don't like to be wrong.