OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio Shawnee Indians [3]
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
February 11, 2002
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Historical Collections of Ohio
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
Ohio Shawnee Indians
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Ohio Shawnees -- Part 3.

The Shawnees in Relation to other Native American Tribes--

The Shawnees were and are Algonquian speakers. Their name comes from the
term " Shawun " meaning south or "Shawunogi" meaning southerner. The
French called the Shawnee "Chaouanons"
and the Iroquois, with whom the Shawnee historically maintained a
hostile relationship, called them " ontwaganha. " meaning those who
utter unintelligible speech. Other names: Ani-Sawanugi 
[ Cherokee ], Chaskpe [French], Santana
[ Iroquois ], Shawala [Lakota], Savannah or Savannuca [ South Carolina
colonists].
In fact there are some 150 different names an spellings that have been
used to refer to the Shawnee. However, the Shawnee prefer to call
themselves the 
Shawano.

Linguistically the Shawnee are identifiable with the group of Central
Algonquian speakers includng the Miami, Kickapoo,
Illiniwek, Sauk, and Fox, whose original home of the entire Algonquian
stock lay somewhere in the eastern subartic region of Canada. The
hunting and fishing practices of the Algonquian speaking groups have led
scholars to believe that the early Algonquans lived in the vicinity of
Lake Winnipeg. It is thought that the Shawnee were one of the earliest
groups to move south from this region. However, the precise route taken,
the length of time spent in migration, and even the approximate time of
departure are unknown. Thus it is difficult to separate fact from
fiction when dealing with tribal legend and tradition.

The migration legend of the Delaware called " The Walam Olum " somewhat
gives a clue about the time of the Shawnee migration to the south. The
tradition goes; " When Little Fog was chief, many of them [Delaware]
went away with the Nanticoke and Shawnee to the land of the South." The
date of this occurrence is estimated at about 1240 A.D. Later the
tradition states; " When White Horn was chief, they were in the region
of the Talega Mountains and there were the Illinois, the Shawnee, and
the Conoy." The very next verse mentions a landlocked lake, suggesting
that the region occupied was the area from the Alleghenies or upper Ohio
River to Lake Erie. The estimated time for this occupation is about
1500.

Some central Algonquians, particularly the Saux and Fox, have preserved
a tradition of migrating from the Atlantic down the Saint Lawrence to
the Great Lakes. So perhaps, they moved east first, then came back west
and south. The Saux and Fox also maintain, and linguistic evidence
supports this, that the Shawnee belong to the same stock as themselves.

The Kickapoo, located in the Great Lakes region, and the Shawnee also
were related, and the two tribes share a legend about their separation.
The split, it is said, was caused by a hunters' quarrel over the
division of some roasted bear paws. The only difference as told by the
two tribes is that each lays the blame for the incident on the other.
Major Morrell Manston, a commander of a frontier post in the 1820's
tells of a Shawnee chief who describes the same incident except that it
was Saux and not the Kickapoo from which the Shawnee separated.

The early location in the Great Lakes region is supported by the
anthopologist Erminie W. Voegelin, basing her analysis largely on burial
practices. She concludes that before the arrival of Europeans, the
various Shawnee divisions were locaed in the northeastern part of the
Great Lakes region, for their strongest cultural affiliations are with
the Huron, Senecca, Winnebago, Ojibwa, Delaware, and Nanticoke. From
here the Shawnee apparently continued in a southwesterly direction, for
the Ohio Valley yields the strongest archaeological evidence of late
prehistoric Shawnee occupation.

Ethnographers disagree over what areas the tribe occupied before the
mid-seventeenth century, but by the 1650's, they were living in southern
Ohio and northern Kentucky. Quarrels with neighboring tribes caused
their dispersal scattering bands of Shawnee from the Gulf Coast to the
Delaware valley in western New Jersey. Some went south, occupying parts
of Georgia and South Carolina, where they assisted the English in their
against the Westos. Others fled first to Illinois, then to Pennsylvania
and Maryland, settling near their "grandfathers". the Delawares. By
1725, most of the southern bands had rejoined their kinsmen in
Pennsylvania and Maryland, but pressure from the expading white frontier
and from the Iroquois slowly pushed the Shawnees westward, where then
they established new villages in the Wyoming and Susquehanna valleys.The
Ohio Shawnees settling near the Great Miami River.

Shawnee Traditions;

Shawnee cosmology asserted that they were a people chosen by the Master
of Life or " Good Spirit " to occupy the center of the earth [ the
Shawnee homeland ] and to bring harmony to the universe. To assist his
choosen people, the Good Spirit provided the Shawnees with Sacred
bundles, containing objects possessing a powerful medicine that could be
used for good. He also gave them a series of laws instructing them how
to live. If the tribe used the sacred bundles properly and followed the
precepts of Shawnee law, they would prosper and their world would be
orderly.

Discipline among the Shawnee tribe was one of the highest priorities.The
children were taught at an early age that good conduct would earn a
reward and evil would bring sorrow. A set of ethics that all Shawnee was
urged to obey was; " Do not kill or injure your neighbor, for it is not
him that you injure, you injure yourself. Do good to him, therefore add
to his happiness, as you would add to your own. Do not wrong or hate
your neigbor, for it is not him you wrong, you wrong yourself. But love
him, for Moneto [ God or good spirit ] loves him also as he loves you."
Shawnee people used this code mostly for their own tribe and certain
closely related tribes, but they never applied to the white man. Perhaps
the White man, did not use the same code for the Shawnee, as they were
in search for land and prosperity and did not take the time to
understand the Shawnee and his way of life.

Peculiar to the Shawnee was the tradition of women chiefs. These were
often chosen relatives of the principle chiefs and like them, they were
separated according to peace and war functions. Apparently, they were a
kind of auxiliary, but held a great deal of power and their decisions on
questions of peace and war carried equal weight with those of male
chiefs.

Law for the Shawnee tribe was largely a private matter. Most
infractions, from petty theft to murder, were normally handled by the
accused and the accuser or their families. Often wrong doings were
atoned by feasts and presents in proportion to the nature of the offense
and the rank and sex of the injured party. The worse infraction was the
killing of a woman. For this infraction, the Shawnee demanded double
atonement, since a woman bore children. 

Chiefs served as judges but usually only concerned themselves wth
offenses of a criminal nature, often appointing others to care for
lessor matters. The word of the Chief was law, and any refusal to obey
the Shawnee's unwritten code of honorable behavior was punishable by a
severe beating or death. Anyone who refused to accept the punishment for
a crime was ostracized, a punishment considered worse than death.
Shwnee's had more respect for fellow tribe members than for property.
For an example; deceitfulness or slanderous gossip among Shawnee tribe
members was considered a crime, but nonpayment of debts was not. If a
person did not pay his debt, the creditor was allowed to come in and
take whatever property would make up the debt. Theives were given three
chances to reform themselves, but if the person stole a fourth time, he
was tied to the post and whipped. If the thievery continued, the thief's
fate was put into the hands of those he stole from-- normally the victim
would ambush and shoot the thief.

Tecumseh, born in 1768 in the Ohio valley, is a good example of a war
chief. Very early in life he gained a reputation as a fighter and lead
many raids into Kentucky against white settlements. He was a an eloquent
speaker and often served as the spokesman for the Shawnee at councils
between white officials and the tribes of the Ohio Valley.
His white contemporaries, both British and American, described him in
glowing terms and when he died, historians have echoed their praises.
His attempts to unite the western tribes seemed both persceptive and
logical. He was a magnetic individual, a leader whose personal qualities
attracted large numbers of followers and enabled him to forge them into
a multitribal confederacy.

By Tecumseh's boycott of the treaty conference at Greenville, resulted
in a serious break with Black Fish's replacement as the principle chief
of the Shawnees, Catahecassa, or Black Hoof. Tecumseh and his follwers
went to Deer Creek in western Ohio and in 1795, founded a village made
up of native American warriors, linked by their militancy, not by their
tribal affilation.

Although Tecumseh is generally revered by Shawnee today, many of his
followers were not Shawnees, and many of the Shawnees at the time,
viewed him as a troublemaker and an upsurger of tribal authority. His
achievements sometimes blind students of Shawnee history to the fact
that at the time there were three main groups of Shawnees; the Shawnees
in Missouri, the Shawnees under Black Hoof in Ohio, and the relatively
small group of Shawnees that followed Tecumseh.

Black Hoof--

Little is known about the early years of Black Hoof. It is estimated he
was born in 1717 in northwest Ohio. Although it has not been confirmed,
historians believe he took part in St Clair's and Harmar's defeats. We
do know that Black Hoof took part in the fighting at the battle of
Fallen Timbers and represented the Shawnee at the signing of the Treaty
of Greenville.

Using his influence with the Shawnee, he encouraged the Shawnee to adopt
the way of living of the whites. By 1808, farms were established and a
Quaker visitor to Wapakoneta reported that over 200 acres were being
farmed, there were several head of cattle and hogs and other
improvements included the construction of a saw mill and a grist mill.

Black Hoof suppored peace with the Americans and encouraged the Shawnee
to do the same. He encouraged some education of the children and many
were taught to read and write. However, conflicts between the Shawnee
and the Americans continued. In 1826, Black Hoof organized the Shawnee
at an emigration camp set up at Wapakaneta. 250 Shawnee left for the
Kansas territory. The migration took over a year and one half and was a
difficult journey and a sad one.
At some point, Black Hoof returned to Wapokaneta and he died there in
1831.
He was buried along side his Shawnee friends and family.

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Continued in part 4.