PART 1
As published in the Official Newsletter of the Piqua Shawnee (Summer 2018)
As published in the Official Newsletter of the Piqua Shawnee (Summer 2018)
By Barbara Lehmann, Piqua Shawnee Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
Barbara’s History Corner:
The history of the Shawnee begins in 1669-70. They were then living in two bodies at a
considerable
distance apart, and these two divisions were not fully united until
nearly a century later, when the tribe settled in Ohio. The attempt to
reconcile conflicting statements without a knowledge of this fact has
occasioned much of the confusion in regard to the Shawnee. The apparent
anomaly of a tribe living in two divisions at such a distance from each
other is explained when we remember that the intervening territory was
occupied by the Cherokee, who were at that time the friends of the
Shawnee. The evidence afforded by the mounds shows that the two tribes
lived together for a considerable period, both in South Carolina and in
Tennessee, and it is a matter of history that the Cherokee claimed the
country vacated by the Shawnee in both states after the removal of the
latter to the north. It is quite possible that the Cherokee invited the
Shawnee to settle upon their eastern frontier in order to serve as a
barrier against the attacks of the Catawba and other enemies in that
direction. No such necessity existed for protection on their
northwestern frontier.
The earliest
notices of the Carolina Shawnee represent them as a warlike tribe, the
enemies of the Catawba and others, who were also the enemies of the
Cherokee. In Ramsey’s Annals of Tennessee is the statement, made by a
Cherokee chief in 1772, that 100 years previously the Shawnee, by
permission of the Cherokee, removed from Savannah River to the
Cumberland, but were afterward driven out by the Cherokee, aided by the
Chickasaw, in consequence of a quarrel with the former tribe. While this
tradition does not agree with the chronological order of Shawnee
occupancy in the two regions, as borne out by historical evidence, it
furnishes additional proof that the Shawnee occupied territory upon both
rivers, and that this occupancy was by permission of the Cherokee.
 |
| De l’Isle’s map of 1700 |
De
l’Isle’s map of 1700 places the “Ontouagannha.” which here means the
Shawnee, on the headwaters of the Santee and Pedee rivers in South
Carolina, while the “Chiouonons” are located on the lower Tennessee
River. Senex’s map of 1710 locates a part of the “Chaouenons” on the
headwaters of a stream in South Carolina, but seems to place the main
body on the Tennessee. Moll’s map of 1720 has “Savannah Old Settlement”
at the mouth of the Cumberland, showing that the term Savannah was
sometimes applied to the Western as well as to the eastern band.
The
Shawnee of South Carolina, who included the Piqua and Hathawekela
divisions of the tribe, were known to the early settlers of that state
as Savannahs, that being nearly the form of the name in use among the
neighboring Muskhogean tribes. A good deal of confusion has arisen from
the fact that the Yuchi and Yamasee, in the same neighborhood, were
sometimes also spoken of as Savannah Indians. Bartram and Gallatin
particularly are confused upon this point, although, as is hardly
necessary to state, the tribes are entirely distinct. Their principal
village, known as Savannah Town, was on Savannah River, nearly opposite
the present Augusta, Ga. According to a writer of 1740 it was at New
Windsor, on the north bank of Savannah River, 7 miles below Augusta. It
was an important trading point, and Ft Moore was afterward built upon
the site. The Savannah river takes its name from this tribe, as appears
from the statement of Adair, who mentions the “Savannah river, so termed
on account of the Shawano Indians having formerly lived there,” plainly
showing that the two names are synonyms for the same tribe. Gallatin
says that the name of the river is of Spanish origin, by which he
probably means that it refers to “savanas,” or prairies, but as almost
all the large rivers of the Atlantic slope bore the Indian names of the
tribes upon their banks, it is not likely that this river is an
exception, or that a Spanish name would have been retained in an English
colony. In 1670, when South Carolina was first settled, the Savannah
were one of the principal tribes southward from Ashley River. About 10
years later they drove back the Westo, identified by Swanton as the
Yuchi, who had just previously nearly destroyed the infant settlements
in a short but bloody war. The Savannah seem to have remained at peace
with the whites, and in 1695, according to Gov. Archdale, were “good
friends and useful neighbors of the English.” By a comparison of
Gallatin’s paragraph with Lawson’s statements from which he quotes, it
will be seen that he has misinterpreted the earlier author, as well as
misquoted the tribal forms.
Lawson
traveled through Carolina in 1701, and in 1709 published his account,
which has passed through several reprints, the last being in 1860. He
mentions the “Savannas” twice, and it is to be noted that in each place
he calls them by the same name, which, however, is not the same as any
one of the three forms used by Gallatin in referring to the same
passages. Lawson first mentions them in connection with the Congaree as
the “Savannas, a famous, warlike, friendly nation of Indians, living to
the south end of Ashley River.” In another place he speaks of “the
Savanna Indians, who formerly lived on the banks of the Messiasippi, and
removed thence to the head of one of the rivers of South Carolina,
since which, for some dislike, most of them are removed to live in the
quarters of the Iroquois or Sinnagars [Seneca], which are on the heads
of the rivers that disgorge themselves into the bay of Chesapeak.” This
is a definite statement, plainly referring to one and the same tribe,
and agrees with what is known of the Shawnee.
(to be continued)
Piqua Shawnee Tribe
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