Shawnee
Shawnee was a Native American nation.
Contents
History
The Shawnee nation has Algonquin origins. They are believed to be a successor to the Fort Ancient culture.
The Shawnee nation settled along the Ohio but spread far to the east. In the 1600s they controlled the territory east of the Delaware River; began migrating into the Savannah River; and were contesting Haudenosaunee control of the Shenandoah Valley. The Haudenosaunee themselves were simultaneously pushing into the Ohio River basin.
The brothers Tecumtha and Tenskwatawa consolidated power and organized a multi-tribe confederacy. Harrison was charged with suppressing this threat to the United States. The war effectively ended when Tecumtha was killed in the Battle of the Thames. It spilled over nonetheless into the Creek nation and the Red Stick War.
Quitewepea (also known as John Lewis) sold the territory of the Shawnee to the United States for personal fortune. First, he signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817 that reserved only a small settlement for the Shawnee; Lewistown, named after Quitewepea. Then he signed the Treaty of Lewistown in 1831, voluntarily removing a faction of the Shawnee west. A larger faction remained.