Native American Tribes - Shawnee

The Shawnee (Shaawanwaki, Ša˙wano˙ki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki) are an Algonquian-speaking ethnic group indigenous to North America. In colonial times they were a semi-migratory Native American nation, primarily inhabiting areas of the Ohio Valley, extending from Ohio and Kentucky eastward to West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Western Maryland; south toAlabama and South Carolina; and westward to Indiana, and Illinois in the United States.

Pushed west by European-American pressure, the Shawnee migrated to Missouri and Kansas, with some removed to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s. Other Shawnee did not remove to Oklahoma until after the Civil War. Made up of different historical and kinship groups, today there are three federally recognized Shawnee tribes, all headquartered in Oklahoma: the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, andShawnee Tribe.