Shawnee Tribe

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and other agency records.

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  29 South Hwy 69A / P.O. Box 189 Miami, OK 74355 Phone: 918-542-2441 Website

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 Shawnee

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

Brief Timeline

 * 1677: Early contact with Europeans, a French trader La Potherie
 * 1677: began to move from the Carolina's into Pennsylvania and Ohio, they became closely associated with the Delaware.
 * 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: A Factory was 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 Native Americans in the United States total of Shawnee 2,293 (not including Shawnee living in Texas)
 * 1828: Fish or Jackson band of Shawneee 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: The Shawnee supported the Union during the Civil War
 * 1867: Shawnee located on three reservations 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
The following list of agencies that have operated or now exist in Illinois has been compiled from Hill's Office of Indian Affairs..., Hill's Guide to Records in the National Archives Relating to American Indians , and others.

Shawnee Agency - Kansas, Shawnee Agency - Missouri, Piqua and Ohio Agency, Fort Leavenworth Agency, Kansas Agency, Union Agency, Neosho Agency, Quapaw Agency, Seneca Agency, Wichita 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, the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America , and other sources. There are no current federally-recognized reservations in Illinois.

Shawnee Reservation

Absentee Shawnee Reservation

Superintendencies
Records for Superintendencies exist in the National Archives and copies of many of them are also available in other research facilities.

Michigan Superintendency

St. Louis Superintendency

Central Superintendency

Southern Superintendency

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:


 * Allotment records
 * Annuity rolls
 * Census records
 * Correspondence
 * Health records
 * Reports
 * School census and records
 * Vital records

Removal / Census

 * 1842 Census of 887 Shawnee listed by age and gender naming 247 heads of household is in NARA M234, Roll 301, frames 1154-1161. vol. 12 no. 1
 * 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 in Kansas Territory, taken in conjunction with the treaty made with the tribe on May 10, 1854.
 * 1871 Shawnee Tribe who moved to the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory before June 10, www.accessgenealogy.com:List of 770 Shawnee Tribe who moved to Cherokee Nation. 9 June 1871. The Journal of American Indian Family Research Vol. 4 No. 2 pg 101 - 110. FHL 970.3 J825j

Church Records

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

Treaties
Click on year link to access online copy of the treaty.


 * 1786 January 31, on the Miami
 * 1795 August 3, at Greenville
 * 1803 June 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
 * 1832 December 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, *Shawnee Agency, M595, births and deaths 1910-1934,

Important Websites

 * The Shawnee Tribe Official Website
 * Shawnee Tribe Wikipedia
 * Constitution of the Shawnee Tribe