PART 2:
As published in the Official Newsletter of the Piqua Shawnee (Fall 2018)
By Barbara Lehmann, Piqua Shawnee Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
Barbara’s History Corner:
On
De l’Isle’s map, also, we find the Savannah River called “R.des
Chouanons,” with the “Chaouanons” located upon bothbanks in its middle
course. As to Gallatin’s statement that the name of the Savannahs is
dropped after Lawson’s mention in 1701, we learn from numerous
references, from old records, in Logan’s Upper South Carolina, published
after Gallatin’s time, that all through the period of the French and
Indian war, 50 years after Lawson wrote, the “Savannahs” were constantly
making inroads on the Carolina frontier, even to the vicinity of
Charleston. They are described as “northern savages” and friends of the
Cherokee, and are undoubtedly the Shawnee. In
1749
Adair, while crossing the middle of Georgia, fell in with a strong party
of “the French Shawano,” who were on their way, under Cherokee
guidance, to attack the English traders near Augusta. After committing
some depredations they escaped to the Cherokee. In another place he
speaks of a party of “Shawano Indians,” who, at the instigation of the
French, had attacked a frontier settlement of Carolina, but had been
taken and imprisoned. Through a reference by Logan it is found that
these prisoners are called Savannahs in the records of that period. In
1791 Swan mentions the “Savannas” town among the Creeks, occupied by
“Shawanese refugees.” Having shown that the Savannah and the Shawnee are
the same tribe, it remains to be seen why and when they removed from
South Carolina to the north. The removal was probably owing to
dissatisfaction with the English setters, who seem to have favored the
Catawba at the expense of the Shawnee. Adair, speaking of the latter
tribe, says they had formerly lived on the Savannah River, “till by our
foolish measures they were forced to withdraw northward in defense of
their, freedom.” In another place he says, “by our own misconduct we
twice lost the Shawano Indians, who have since proved very hurtful to
our colonies in general.” The first loss referred to is probably the
withdrawal of
the Shawnee to the north, and the second
is evidently their alliance with the French in consequence of the
encroachments of the English in Pennsylvania.
Their
removal from South Carolina was gradual, beginning about 1677 and
continuing at intervals through a period of more than 30 years. The
ancient Shawnee villages formerly on the sites of Winchester, Virginia,
and Oldtown, near Cumberland, Maryland, were built and occupied probably
during this migration. It was due mainly to their losses at the hands
of the Catawba, the allies of the English, that they were forced to
abandon their country on the Savannah; but after the reunion of the
tribe in the north they pursued their old enemies with unrelenting
vengeance until the Catawba were almost exterminated. The hatred
cherished by the Shawnee toward the English is shown
by their boast in the Revolution that they had killed more of that nation than had any other tribe.
The
first Shawnee seem to have removed from South Carolina in 1677 or 1678,
when, according to Drake, about 70 families established themselves on
the Susquehanna adjoining the Conestoga in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, at the mouth of Pequea creek. Their village was called
Pequea, a form of Piqua. The Assiwikales (Hathawekela) were a part of
the later migration. This, together with the absence of the Shawnee
names Chillicothe and Mequachake east of the Alleghanies, would seem to
show that the Carolina portion of the tribe belonged to the first named
divisions. The chief of Pequea was Wapatha, or Opessah, who made a
treaty with Penn at Philadelphia in 1701, and more than 50 years
afterward the Shawnee, then in Ohio, still preserved a copy of this
treaty. There is no proof that they had a part in Penn’s first treaty in
1682.
In 1694, by invitation of the
Delawares and their allies, another large party came from the south
probably from Carolina and settled with the Munsee on the Delaware, the
main body fixing themselves at the mouth of Lehigh river, near the
present Easton, Pennsylvania, while some went as far down as the
Schuylkill. This party is said to have numbered about 700, and they were
several months on the journey. Permission to settle on the Delaware was
granted by the Colonial government on condition of their making peace
with the Iroquois, who then received them as “brothers,” while the
Delawares acknowledged them as their “second sons,” i. e. grandsons. The
Shawnee today refer to the Delawares as their grandfathers. From this
it is evident that the Shawnee were never conquered by the Iroquois,
and, in fact, we find the western band a few years previously assisting
the Miami against the latter. As the Iroquois, however, had conquered
the lands of the Conestoga and Delawares, on which the Shawnee settled,
the former still claimed the prior right of domain. Another large part
of the Shawnee probably left South Carolina about 1707, as appears from a
statement made by Evans in that year 5, which shows that they were then
hard pressed in the south. He says: “During our abode at Pequehan
[Pequea] several of the Shaonois Indians from ye southward came to
settle here, and were admitted so to do by Opessah, with the governor’s
consent, at the same time an Indian, from a Shaonois town near Carolina
came in and gave an account that four hundred and fifty of the flat
headed Indians [Catawba] had besieged them, and that in all probability
the same was taken.
To Be Continued
Piqua Shawnee Tribe
"Piqua Shawnee"
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