Shawnee (people), 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 (see Tippecanoe, Battle
of). 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.