Native American tribe of the Algonquian language family and of the Eastern Woodlands culture area.

In about 1700 they lived in present-day Ohio but were driven out by the Iroquois. Some migrated to Florida and by 1800 reached Texas.

Most, however, went to what is now Georgia and South Carolina. Part of this group, known as the Eastern Shawnee, then moved to Pennsylvania with the Delaware tribe. The other part settled in Tennessee.

Both were pushed back to Ohio by other tribes in 1730-1750; American expansion forced some into Indiana by 1795.

The Shawnee first supported the French against the British and later the British against the Americans.

After 1805 the Shawnee leader Tecumseh organized a multitribal movement to resist white expansion.

In the 1830s, pressured by the Iroquois and the whites, they moved again. The Eastern Shawnee settled in Oklahoma. The other Ohio group moved first to a Kansas reservation and later to Oklahoma; where they live among the Cherokee.

The Texas group, known as the Absentee Shawnee, was pushed north into Oklahoma in the mid-19th century.

Today, people claiming Absentee Shawnee ancestry dwell mostly in central Oklahoma and have a separate tribal government from that of the Eastern and Cherokee Shawnee.

The early Shawnee had an Eastern Woodland culture. In summer, they lived in bark-covered houses in villages while the women farmed and the men hunted, and in winter they split into small hunting camps.

The Shawnee belonged to patrilineal clans and lineages.

Today they farm, ranch, and do various other work.

Some are Protestants, but many adhere to traditional religions.

In 1990, 750 people claimed to be of Eastern Shawnee descent; Cherokee Shawnee descendants numbered 947; Absentee Shawnee numbered 1279. The total number of people in 1990 who claimed to be of Shawnee descent was 6179.

"Shawnee (people)," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Shawnee

The Shawnee Indians were living in the Ohio Valley as early as A.D. 1660. But the Iroquois were not willing to share these rich hunting grounds and drove the Shawnees away. Some went to Illinois, others went to Pennsylvania, Maryland or Georgia. As the power of the Iroquois weakened, the Shawnee Indians moved back into Ohio from the south and the east. They settled in the lower Scioto River valley.

The Shawnees speak a form of the Algonquian Indian language and so are related to the Delaware, Miami, and Ottawa Indians. The Shawnees had a special friendship with the Wyandots. They referred to the Wyandot tribe as their "uncles." Other Indian tribes could be allies one day and enemies the next.

Political alliances were complicated and changed with the times. The Shawnees were allies of the French until British traders moved into the Ohio country around A.D. 1740. The French pushed the British out of Ohio and the Shawnees were forced to be allies of the French again until the British victory in the French and Indian War. As French trading posts turned into British forts the Ohio Indians banded together to fight the British. During the American Revolution, the Shawnee fought alongside the British against the Americans. After the war they continued to fight the Americans.

The Shawnees were fierce warriors. They were among the most feared and respected of Ohio's Indians. Tecumseh was their greatest chief.

General Anthony Wayne defeated the Shawnees and other Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The Shawnees surrendered most of their lands in Ohio with the signing of the Treaty of Greenville.

Many of the Shawnees moved into Indiana and continued to fight for their land and freedom. General William Henry Harrison defeated the Shawnees and their allies at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

Between 1831 and 1833 the United States forced the Shawnees to give up their last reservations in Ohio. They were sent off to reservations in Oklahoma and Kansas.

The Shawnees were divided into different clans. The main chief of the Shawnees could only come from one clan. The name of this clan was "Chillicothe." When a village was called Chillicothe it meant that it was home to the principal chief -- the "capitol city" of the Shawnees. Chillicothe was also the name of Ohio's first state capitol, but the modern city is not the site of a former Shawnee town.

from the Ohio Historical Society Site, for much more info, please visit their site!

Chillicothe

Chillicothe was the name of several historic towns in Ohio. The word is from the Shawnee language giving the name for one of their clans. The main chief of the Shawnees could only come from the "Chillicothe" clan. When a village was called Chillicothe it meant that it was home to the principal chief. It was the "capitol city" of the Shawnees until the death of that chief. Then the capitol would move to the home village of the next main chief. That village would then be called "Chillicothe."

One Chillicothe was a Shawnee town located on the site of the modern city of Piqua. Another was on the Scioto River south of Circleville at, or near, modern Westfall. A third Chillicothe was about three miles north of Xenia. When Simon Kenton was taken prisoner in 1778 the Shawnee brought him to this Shawnee town. A fourth Chillicothe was at Frankfort along Paint Creek in Ross County. A fifth Chillicothe was at Hopetown three miles north of the modern city of Chillicothe. Modern Chillicothe was Ohio's first state capitol, but it was never the site of a former Shawnee town.

from the Ohio Historical Society Site, for much more info, please visit their site!