Smoke was their Ally by Rev. Carol A. Ingle (Raven)

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Smoke was their Ally

"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."

Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Nation

Shawnee Tribe History

Shawnee Location

Originally southern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. The Shawnee were driven from this area by the Iroquois sometime around the 1660s and then scattered in all directions to South Carolina, Tennessee's Cumberland Basin, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern Illinois. By 1730 most of the Shawnee had returned to their homeland only to be forced to leave once again - this time by American settlement. Moving first to Missouri and then Kansas, the main body finally settled in Oklahoma after the Civil War.

Population

Estimates of the original Shawnee population range from 3,000 to 50,000, but a reasonable guess is somewhere around 10,000. By 1700 they were still scattered, and accurate estimates were impossible ..perhaps 6,000. The first good count occurred in 1825 and gave

1,400 Shawnee in Missouri, 110 in Louisiana, and 800 in Ohio. There were also a couple hundred in Texas at this time, so the total should have been near 2,500. There was only a minor decline by the time of the 1910 census: Absentee Shawnee 481; Eastern Shawnee 107; and Shawnee (Cherokee Shawnee) with the Cherokee Nation 1,400. Currently, there are more than 14,000 Shawnee in the United States in four groups - three of which are in Oklahoma. The 2,000 Absentee Shawnee in the vicinity of Shawnee, Oklahoma organized in 1936 under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act and continue to be the most traditional of the Shawnee groups. The Eastern Shawnee in northeastern Oklahoma are descended from the mixed Seneca-Shawnee band which left Lewistown, Ohio and came to the Indian Territory in 1832. Recognized as a separate tribe in 1867, they organized as the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma during the 1930s and have 1,600 members.

The largest Shawnee group is the Loyal Shawnee, who constituted the main group of the Shawnee prior to the Civil War. Relocated to Oklahoma from Kansas, they purchased land and were incorporated into the Cherokee in 1869. A separate business council handles the affairs for 8,000 Shawnee, but the BIA still considers them as part of the Cherokee Nation. There is also the 600 member Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band (URB) which claims descent from Ohio Shawnee who somehow managed to avoid removal during the 1830s. Organized in 1971, they were recognized in 1980 by the state of Ohio and have since purchased 170 acres near Urbana and Chillicothe. However, they are neither federally recognized nor accepted by the three official groups of the Shawnee.

Names

Shawnee comes from the Algonquin word "shawun" (shawunogi) meaning "southerner." However, this referred to their original location in the Ohio Valley relative to other Great Lakes Algonquin rather than a homeland in the American southeast. Shawnee usually prefer to call themselves the Shawano - sometimes given as Shawanoe or Shawanese. South Carolina colonists knew them as the Savannah or Savannuca. Other names: Ani-Sawanugi (Cherokee), Chaouanons (Chauenon) (French), Chaskpe (Chaouesnon) (French), Chiouanon (Seneca), Cumberland Indians, Ontwagnnn (Iroquois "one who stutters"), Oshawanoag (Ottawa), Satana (Iroquois), Shawala (Lakota), and Touguenha (Iroquois).

Language

Algonquin. Southern Great Lakes (Wakashan) dialect closely related to Fox, Sauk, Mascouten, and Kickapoo.


Sub-Nations

Five total:

Chillicothe (Calaka, Chalaakaatha, Chalahgawtha), Hathawekela (Oawikila, Thaawikila, Thawegila), Kispoko (Kiscopocoke, Kispokotha, Spitotha), Mequachake (Maykujay, Mekoce, Mekoche), and Piqua (Pekowi, Pequa).

Villages

A number following a name means there was more than one village of the same name, while a tribal name indicates a mixed population.

Auglaize (OH), Black Bob's (MO), Blue Jacket's Town (3) (OH), Bulltown (WVA), Captain Johnny's (OH), Chartierstown (PA), Chillicothe (5) (OH), Conedogwinit, Cornstalk's Town (OH), Coshocton (Koshachkink) (Delaware-Munsee-Mingo), Girty's Town (OH), Grenadier Squaw's Town (OH), Hog Creek (OH), Kagoughsage (OH), Lewistown (Mingo) (OH), Lick Town (OH), Logstown (Delaware-Mingo) (PA), Long Tail's Town (KS), Lowertown (Lower Shawnee Town) (2) (OH), Maguck (OH), Macachack (Mequachake) (OH), Nutimy's Town (Delaware-Mahican) (PA), Olathe (KS), Old Shawnee Town (OH), Paxtang (Delaware) (PA), Peixtan (Nanticoke) (PA), Pigeon Town (OH), Piqua (Pequea) (5) (PA-OH), Sawanugi (AL), Sawcunk (Delaware-Mingo) (PA), Scoutash's Town (Mingo) (OH), Sewickley (Delaware-Mingo) (PA), Shamokin (Delaware-Iroquois-Tutelo) (PA), Shawnee Mission (KS), Shawneetown (IL), Snake's Town (OH), Sonnioto (Sonnontio) (Delaware-Mingo) (OH), Tippecanoe (Prophetstown) (IN), Sylacauga (AL), Venango (Delaware-Ottawa-Seneca-Wyandot) (PA), Wakatomica (Mingo) (OH), Wakatawicks (OH), Wapakoneta (Wapaughkonetta) (OH), Will's Town (2) (MD-PA), and Wyoming (Delaware-Iroquois-Mahican-Munsee-Nanticoke) (PA).
Culture

The Shawnee considered the Delaware as their "grandfathers" and the source of all Algonquin tribes. They also shared an oral tradition with the Kickapoo that they were once members of the same tribe. Identical language supports this oral history, and since the Kickapoo are known to have originally lived in northeast Ohio prior to contact, it can safely be presumed that the Shawnee name of "southerner" means they lived somewhere immediately south of the Kickapoo. However, the exact location is uncertain, since the Iroquois forced both tribes to abandon the area before contact. The loss of their homeland has given the Shawnee the reputation of being wanderers, but this was by necessity, not choice. The Shawnee have always maintained a strong sense of tribal identity, but this produced very little central political organization. During their dispersal, each of their five divisions functioned as an almost autonomous unit. This continued to plague them after they returned to Ohio, and few Shawnee could ever claim to the title of "head chief." Like the Delaware, Shawnee civil chiefships were hereditary and held for life. They differed from the Delaware in that, like most Great Lakes Algonquin, the Shawnee were patrilineal with descent traced through the father. War chiefs were selected on the basis of merit and skill.

During their stay in the southeast, the Shawnee acquired a some cultural characteristics from the Creek and Cherokee, but, for the most part, they were fairly typical Great Lakes Algonquin. During the summer the Shawnee gathered into large villages of bark-covered long houses, with each village usually having a large council house for meetings and religious ceremonies. In the fall they separated to small hunting camps of extended families. Men were warriors who did the hunting and fishing. Care of their corn fields was the responsibility of the women. Many important Shawnee ceremonies were tied to the agricultural cycle: the spring bread dance at planting time; the green corn dance when crops ripened; and the autumn bread dance to celebrate the harvest. Besides Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), famous Shawnee include: Cornstalk, Blackfish, Black Hoof, and Bluejacket.

Silk Baskets

Set of four baskets and one cornhusk bag, each made of braided and shaped silk and hand painted in authentic colors and designs. 1-1/2" - 2" tall each

Circa: Late 1900's

History

Little is known of the details of the Shawnee's expulsion from the Ohio Valley during the first part of the Beaver Wars (1630-1700). Blame is usually placed with the Iroquois, but the Shawnee may also have warred at some earlier period with the Erie and Neutrals. By 1656 the Iroquois had conquered and assimilated their Iroquian-speaking rivals except the Susquehannock and had started to clear the Algonquin tribes from the Ohio Valley and lower Michigan. Most of these enemies ended up as refugees in Wisconsin, but some of the Shawnee apparently were able to hold on for a few years as Susquehannock allies. In 1658 the western Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga) attacked the Susquehannackin what would be the final chapter of many years of warfare between them. It took the Iroquois until 1675 to defeat the Susquehannock, but the Shawnee lacked firearms and were forced to abandon most of the upper Ohio Valley during the late 1660s. Rather than retreat enmass to Wisconsin, they dispersed into four groups.

Two of these moved south towards the Cherokee in eastern Tennessee. Although relations between them had not always been friendly, the Cherokee were already beginning to have their own problems with the Iroquois and allowed one group of Shawnee (Chillicothe and Kispoko) to settle in the Cumberland Basin as a buffer against the Chickasaw (traditional Cherokee enemies). When the French began to explore the Ohio Valley in the 1670s, they first met the Shawnee on the Cumberland River, although they were told at the time the Shawnee had lived on Ohio. The Cherokee gave permission to the second Shawnee group (Hathawekela) to cross the Appalachians and settle on the Savannah River in South Carolina to provide protection from the Cherokee's Cataba enemies in the east. After the settlement of South Carolina in 1670, British traders first encountered Shawnee, who they called Savannah, on the upper Savannah River in 1674.

The other two Shawnee groups went in opposite directions. Following the Iroquois destruction of the Susquehannock, some of the Piqua moved east in 1677 and eventually found a refuge with the Delaware who allowed them to settle at the junction of Pequa Creek and the Susquehanna River in southern Pennsylvania. As part of their peace with the Susquehannock, the Iroquois apparently tolerated the presence of this small group of Shawnee, but there were confrontations between Shawnee and British colonists along Maryland's Gunpowder River. The last group of Shawnee retreated west towards the Illinois country, where they became known to the French as Chaskp (Chaouesnon). In 1683 there were almost 3,000 of this western group of Shawnee living in the vicinity of the French trading post at Fort St. Louis on the upper Illinois River. Allied with the Miami and Illinois, the Shawnee continued their war with the Iroquois, and in 1684 the Seneca attacked the Miami, because they had allowed some of these hostile Shawnee to settle near their villages in northwest Indiana.

For a period of 70 years following its conquest by the Iroquois during the 1660s, the Ohio Valley (Indiana, Lower Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania) was almost entirely uninhabited. The Iroquois never occupied the area but preferred to use it as a private hunting preserve. Freed from the pressure of its former human population, the Ohio Country quickly became a prime hunting territory. Although the Iroquois prevented permanent settlements, small groups of Shawnee returned frequently to the Ohio Valley to hunt, so during their many years of exile, the Shawnee never completely surrendered the claim to their homeland. Meanwhile, they were proving to be unwelcome guests in their new locations. Despite the common threat posed by the Iroquois at the time, the crowded conditions near the French trading posts in Illinois eventually provoked a violent confrontation between the Shawnee and Illinois Confederacy in 1689. The Shawnee soon left the area to join their relatives in Tennessee, but forever afterwards, they had a strong dislike for the Illinois and often returned to raid their villages.

Not all of the Shawnee from Illinois went south to the Cumberland in Tennessee. One band continued east until they reached eastern Maryland which is where a Munsee (Delaware) and Mahican hunting party found them in 1692. As the Algonquin "grandfathers," the Munsee were able to convince the Shawnee to accompany them back to northern Pennsylvania and settle in the Lehigh Valley. Although both the Mahican and Munsee had been Iroquois allies and members of the covenant chain since 1677, the Shawnee from Illinois were still on the Iroquois "hit list" as enemies. For obvious reasons, there were strong protests when they Munsee provided refuge, and the Iroquois were preparing to deal with the situation through force if necessary. The Mahican, however, intervened and still commanded enough respect in the League councils that the Shawnee were allowed to stay with the Munsee. After making peace with the Iroquois in 1694, the Shawnee in eastern Pennsylvania also joined the covenant chain.

After their first meeting in South Carolina, the Savannah quickly became an important part of the British trade pattern of deerskins and captured native women and children as slaves in exchange for trade goods (firearms and whiskey). Within a few years, the Carolina colonists became increasingly concerned by the Westo, an aggressive tribe which had only recently arrived in south Carolina which lived in a single fortified village very near the settlements. Probably either a band of Yuchi or Erie refugees, the small Cusabo tribes in South Carolina were afraid of them and warned the colonists the Westo were cannibals. In 1680 British traders armed the Savannah who attacked and destroyed the Westo fort. The Westo dropped from sight afterwards, and any Westo who survived were captured and disappeared into the slave system. Unfortunately, relations between the Savannah and the South Carolina colonists turned sour shortly afterwards.

The Cherokee had allowed the Shawnee to settle in the area as protection from the Catawba, and they did this job almost too well. As fighting erupted between the Savannah and Catawba, the British did not remain entirely neutral. The Savannah were less cooperative and seemed hostile to further settlement. Meanwhile, they were attracting Iroquois war parties to the area which posed a danger to everyone, including whites. Under constant attack from the Catawba and Yamasee who were well-armed by the British, the Savannah began to leave the area in small groups between 1690 and 1710. After the main body had been weakened by constant defections, the remaining Savannah met a final defeat by the Catawba in 1707, the date which marks their final expulsion from South Carolina. Some of the Hathawekela went north to Pennsylvania in 1706 and joined the Shawnee who were already part of the Iroquois covenant chain. Others found refuge with the Creek in Alabama settling first on the Chattahoochee and later the Tallapoosa. The rest joined their relatives in Tennessee. The Savannah never forgave the Catawba, and the war between them continued for 60 years. Meanwhile, they had left the Catawba in a second war with the Iroquois. By 1763 the Catawba were almost extinct.

The Cherokee also had problems with the Shawnee drawing Iroquois raiders to Tennessee, but thousands of new Shawnee from Illinois in the Cumberland Basin during 1690 changed their status from buffer against the Chickasaw to dangerous rival. During the winter of 1692, the Shawnee made a slave raid on a Cherokee village while its warriors were absent on a hunting trip. The incident was covered over at the time, but even more Shawnee arrived in the area from South Carolina in 1707, some of whom settled with their Creek enemies. The Shawnee had also began to trade with the French and allowed a trader named Charleville to build a post at Nashville near their villages. British allies and trading partners, the Cherokee allied with the Chickasaw (traditional enemies but also British allies) and defeated the Shawnee in 1715. A few Cumberland Shawnee found refuge with the Savannah living among the Creek, but by 1729 most had moved north into Kentucky - the Dark and Bloody Ground - and towards their old homeland in southern Ohio.

Meanwhile, the other Shawnee were leaving eastern Pennsylvania, but for different reasons. In 1737 Pennsylvania cheated the Delaware out of their last lands in the Lehigh Valley. The loss forced the Shawnee to also leave the area. They settled for a time with the Munsee and other Delaware on Iroquois lands in the Wyoming and Susquehanna Valleys, but the crowded conditions soon had them looking at western Pennsylvania. Except for the Wyandot, who the Iroquois were trying to lure away from the French alliance, and a few groups of Mingo (Iroquois descended from Huron, Neutralls, and Erie adopted during the 1650s), no tribe had occupied the area since the onset of the Beaver Wars. Small hunting camps on the upper Ohio were soon followed by permanent Shawnee villages, and the Mingo not only did not object to this, but even settled with them in the same villages. Encouraged, the Shawnee invited the Delaware to join them, and during the 1740s, thousands of Delaware and Shawnee left Iroquois domination on the Susquehanna and moved to western Pennsylvania.

After nearly a century of separation, the different bands of Shawnee were finally coming back to their original homeland, but the moves toward their eventual reunion were not always smooth. One group of Pennsylvania Shawnee continued south and, after making peace with the Cherokee in 1746, resettled the Cumberland Basin. The peace, however, did not include the Chickasaw, and the Shawnee were attacked and driven from Tennessee after a battle near Nashville in 1756. Afterwards, they moved north to Ohio where most of the other Shawnee were living at the time. Meanwhile, a large group of Cumberland Shawnee had settled in 1745 at Shawneetown which was near a new French fort on the Ohio in southern Illinois. The location proved to be too exposed to attack by the Chickasaw, and after only two years, they left and moved to western Pennsylvania. By 1758 all of the Shawnee, except for the few still with the Creek in Alabama, were living along the north side of the Ohio between the Allegheny and Scioto Rivers.

In 1740 Ohio and western Pennsylvania were claimed by the Iroquois by right of conquest, the French by right of "discovery," and the British since the treaty ending the King William's War (1688-97) had placed the Iroquois under British "protection" - a favor for which the Iroquois had never asked. The results of these conflicting claims were conflicting self-interests. Although an important member of the French-inspired Algonquin alliance which had driven them from the western Great Lakes between 1687 and 1701, the Iroquois chose to treat the Wyandot as their viceroy in Ohio. Shortly after the Shawnee and Delaware began to relocate to western Pennsylvania, the Wyandot indicated their approval and invited them to settle even further west in Ohio. The Iroquois made no objection since this placed members of the covenant chain in Ohio which would prevent its occupation by French allies. The French were pleased because they had been trying since the 1720s to draw the Shawnee north for purposes of trade and alliance, and the British saw it as an excellent opportunity to open the Ohio Valley to their traders.

Unfortunately, no one remained pleased for very long. By 1744 the Ohio tribes (Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo) had become too large and important to be ignored. Located in a large arc stretching from Sandusky River to northeastern Ohio and down the Ohio River, their mixed villages had a combined population approaching 10,000 with 2,000 warriors. There was little actually fighting in Ohio during the King George's War (1744-48), but there was increasing competition for its trade. The French continued to court the Shawnee using a Mtis, Pierre Chartier (French father and Shawnee mother). Chartier's efforts succeeded in getting some Shawnee to attack British traders, and the British worried that the Ohio tribes were coming under French influence and urged the Iroquois to order the Shawnee and Delaware to return to the Susquehanna. The League was angry that the British had interpreted the Lancaster Treaty in 1744 as the cession of Ohio when the Iroquois had only intended to give them permission to build a trading post. The Iroquois finally agreed to the British request to relocate the Ohio tribes, only to find its orders were ignored. Threats followed, but no one left Ohio, and it was the Iroquois' turn to become alarmed.

The French were also having serious problems. A British blockade of Canada during the King George's War had stopped the flow of trade goods, and as a result, their alliance with the Great Lakes tribes was coming apart. Taking advantage of this, British traders were all over the Ohio Valley. The Wyandot were openly trading with them, and other loyal allies were conspiring to do the same. To keep the British out, the French needed to keep its old allies and bring the Shawnee and Delaware over to themselves. Although the British still regarded the Shawnee and Delaware as subordinate to the Iroquois, their refusal to return to the Susquehanna obviously meant something was very wrong. At the Treaty of Lancaster in 1748, they urged the League to restore the Ohio tribes to the covenant chain as a barrier against the French, and the Iroquois created a system of "half kings" - Iroquois authorized to represent the Shawnee and Delaware in League councils. The new arrangement satisfied the Ohio tribes, and when a French expedition tried to expel British traders and mark the Ohio boundary with lead plates in 1749, the Mingo demanded to know by what right the French were claiming Iroquois land.

In desperation, the French decided to use force, but the Detroit tribes were friendly with the Ohio tribes and reluctant to attack them. In June, 1752 the Mtis, Charles Langlade, recruited a war party of 250 Ojibwe and Ottawa from Michilimackinac which destroyed the Miami village and British trading post at Piqua, Ohio. Stunned, their allies quickly rejoined the alliance, and the French followed their success with an attempt to block British access to Ohio with a line of new forts across western Pennsylvania. The Shawnee and Delaware had no wish to be controlled by the French and asked the Iroquois League to stop this. The Iroquois turned to the British, and in 1752 signed the Logstown Treaty confirming their land cessions in 1744 and giving the British permission to build a blockhouse at the forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh). The French destroyed this before it was even completed and proceeded to build Fort Duquesne at the same location. Virginia sent Major George Washington to demand the French abandon their forts and stop building new ones. His first visit in 1753 met with a polite refusal from the French commander, but his second expedition in 1754 resulted in a fight with French soldiers and started the French and Indian War (1754-63).

Throughout the summer of 1754 the Shawnee, Delaware and Mingo stood ready to join the British against the French, but this changed in the fall when it was learned the Iroquois had ceded Ohio to the British during the Albany Conference in May. The Ohio tribes not only lost confidence in the Iroquois but decided the British were also enemies who wanted to take their land. However, they stopped well-short of allying with the French and refused to help them supply or defend their forts. The French were finally forced to assemble a force of 300 French Canadians and 600 allies from the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes tribes to defend Fort Duquesne against the British, but this would include only four Shawnee and no Delaware. The Shawnee and Delaware were angry but neutral while the British assembled an army to take Fort Duquesne. Unfortunately, they did not appear this way to the British. In 1753 The Pride, a Shawnee war chief, had been captured in South Carolina during a raid against the Catawba. After he died in a British prison, his grieving relatives retaliated in 1754 with raids against the North Carolina frontier.