The Shawnees and Their Neighbors, 1795-1870 (review)

In this book Stephen Warren first offers an analysis of the Shawnees living interspersed with members of other tribes before their removal to west of the Mississippi and then focuses on how the Shawnees came to see themselves as members of a nation. "The object of this book," states Warren, "is to understand how and why this shift in the political consciousness of the Shawnees took place" (9). Consequently drawing on solid primary and secondary sources as well as his own knowledge of the Shawnees, Warren has constructed an in-depth, complex account of the changes brought to Shawnee life from 1795 to 1870.

Warren examines the various relationships working among the Shawnees. He points out that the Shawnees were broken into rather autonomous, multiethnic villages. A single tribal organization did not exist. Thus, when Tenskwatawa the Prophet called for moral reform and his brother Tecumseh pursued an intertribal confederacy, neither relied on kinship as a motivator for Shawnee unity.

With the end of the War of 1812, Shawnees in Ohio attempted to coexist with the United States. American government officials demanded that they end any multitribal political association. They were pressured to select only a few prominent chiefs so that diplomacy could be easier. Whites also wanted the Shawnees to adopt "American civilization" particularly as brought to them by missionaries. Eventually, though, the goal of white politicians was to induce the natives to remove to the West.

By the 1830s, Shawnees and other Indians, facing poverty and discrimination, acceded to removal and resided in present-day Kansas. There, the internal factors of Shawnee politics and culture became more agitated. The influence of missionaries, particularly conflicting Methodists and Baptists, led to quarrelling, not just religiously but also politically. Aspiring tribal leaders, especially prosperous mixed-lineage individuals, fostered reciprocal support from the contesting missionaries and caused disputes between the various village groups. The issue of either having a national tribal organization or independent villages arose. Also, the issue of slavery that split the missionary denominations played on the Shawnees as a few held slaves while most opposed it. Fueling the feuding between the religious bodies allowed traditionally minded Shawnees to retain their independence from a central tribal authority.

During the American Civil War, most Shawnees eventually sided with the Union. Following the war, some Shawnees accepted citizenship in Kansas, but more reluctantly moved into the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Many were placed in the Cherokee Nation as full Cherokee citizens. They became a recognized tribe in late 2000. The Black Bob Shawnees and the Absentee Shawnees purchased land from the Seminoles and received federal recognition in 1872.

After years of disputes with whites as well as among themselves, the Shawnees finally melded into a unified people. They had been buffeted toward that end, rather than politically evolving there on their own, and Stephen Warren credibly presents this story.