Indian Heritage

Neil Diamond Deb Ackley
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Shawnee and Cherokee

indian dancer

Our Indian Heritage

Several thousand years ago, the Wisconsin Glacier pushed through parts of Ross County leaving the northern part flat and the southern most section hilly .Due to the rich land and abundant wildlife. Indians settled here to live off its natural resources.

The Paleo Indians came as early as 11,000 years ago during the Prehistoric Stone Age. The more famous were the Adena and the Hopewell Indians,commomly called The Mound Builders.These two tribes were a highly advanced civilization well known for their ceremonial and burial earthworks.

The Mound Builders

The last and most famous of the Indian tribes to settle in this region was the Shawnee tribe who came in regular contact with the white settlers as they infiltrated the Indians land looking for a place to build homes.

cabin wagon

The Shawnee backed the British during the American Revolution hoping to put an end to American expansion into their homeland.

Shawnee comes from the Algonquin word "shawun" meaning "southern".This referred to their original location in the Ohio Valley.The Shawnee Tribe was divided into five septs or divisions, and each had their own responsibility to the tribe.Chalagawtha and Thawiliga Septs were the two divisions that dealt with the major political aspects of the tribe.

The Principle Chief of the Shawnee Nation had to come out of one of these two Septs or they could not become Principle Chief.

Kispokatha Sept was the war division of the tribe. The War Chief had to come from this Sept. The responsibilities of the Kispokatha was to prepare warriors. plan battles and attacks. One had to be born Kispokatha to become War Chief.
Maykujay was responsible for medicine and healing of the sick and the wounded.
Peckew was the Peace Sept. They planned peace with the enemies and pushed for political means to solve problems.

Some of the Shawnee Chiefs in the late 1700"s

Chief Cornstalk (Hokolesqua) was the Principle Chief through most of the 1760's and 1770's. He led the Shawnee through Lord Dunsmore's War in 1774. Hokolesqua was murdered on Oct. 10. 1777 at Fort Randolf.Hokolesque had gone there to talk peace, when Captain Arbuckle threw him in jail.Then Captain John Hall came into the cell with several men, they shot and killed Hokolesque.

Chief Black Fish (Chinugalla) took over as Principle Chief after Cornstalk's murder. He led an attack on Boonesbourgh, Ky. in 1778. He became the adopted father of Tecumseh after Tecumseh's father died in battle.

Tecumseh and his four brothers and one sister became wards of Black Fish. He died on Oct.15,1779,from wounds he suffered by the attack on their capital city Chalagawtha.

Chief Black Hoof (Catahecassa) became the next Principle Chief. He remained Principle Chief through the 1800's and the tribes demise. He led the Shawnee to many victories.

Chief Pucksinwah was the War Chief of the Shawnee while Cornstalk was the Principle Chief. Pucksinwah was the father of Tecumseh. Pucksinwah was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. He was a great War Chief and his son Tecumseh lived up to his fathers expectations as well.

Black Snake (Shemeneto) took over as War Chief after Pucksinwah. He led the Shawnee to victory in the Sandusky Campaign in 1782.

Bluejacket

Blue Jacket

Blue Jacket became War Chief after Black Snake.He was a white man who at the age of 16 was kidnapped by the Indians from his settler family while herding cattle. His white name was Marmaduke Van Sweringen. He was adopted by Chief Pucksinwah, War Chief of the Shawnee and the father of Tecumseh. This made Blue Jacket part of the Kispokotha Sept. That is how he was able to become War Chief. Blue Jacket led the great attack on the Army of Arthur St. Clair in 1792, and completely destroyed St. Clair's Army.
The above information came from the outdoor drama about Blue Jacket in Xenia,Ohio and also from the books of Allan W. Eckert.

The story of Marmaduke van Swearingen as Blue Jacket is familiar to many thousands of people reading Allan W. Eckert's books or visiting the Blue Jacket outdoor drama in Xenia, Ohio. However, this story is pure fiction.
It is true that Blue Jacket was a war chief of the Shawnee and, at one time,one of the most powerful men in the old Northwest Territory. But he wasn't Marmaduke van Swearingen or any other white man. The man who led the Shawnees in war against The White Man was, in fact, Shawnee born and bred, and not white.The story of Blue Jacket being Marmaduke van Swearingen or any other white man is pure fiction.This myth has been discredited by historians.
Peter Kinman brought this myth to my attention. I have provided references regarding this issue at the bottom of this page.

coyote

The Shawnee's support of the British during the Revolution gave many Americans the impression that the Indians had fortified their land.

Congress set up the Northwest Territory which included land in current states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.

The portion of this territory to become Ross County was part of a grant given to Virginia military veterans who served during the Revolutionary War.
They had to fight another battle, this time with local Indians over the frontier land.

Tecumseh

Tecumseh

Tecumseh was one of the greatest Indian leaders of all time. He was born as Pucksinwah's third of six children on March 9,1768. Since Pucksinwah died in 1774, Tecumseh was raised mostly by his brother, Chiksika, who taught him how to hunt,track,fight,and many other skills. He was the adopted son of Chief Black Fish after Chief Pucksinwah's death.

teepee

There were thousands of Shawnee lodges along the banks of the Scioto River which comprised the village of Chalahgawtha, from which the city of Chillicothe drew its name.

Chillicothe

Tecumseh did not want war. He tried to band all the Indian Tribes together in a confederacy to confront the 17 United States with equal power. He wanted the Shawnee land west of the Ohio River returned to his people. He felt the only way he could stem the rising tide of whites was to bargain from a position of strength,50,000 mounted warriors.

Tecumseh earned a huge name on the Ohio Frontier.He had boundless love for his God,Monet,his people,and his land.

Tecumseh

dancer

Tecumseh wanted only what was his, but his red brothers had more grandiose plans. Under the dire circumstances in which the Americans found themselves if 50,000 warriors had been unleashed on the western front, the whites could well have crumbled under the onslaught.

Troops led by General Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at the battle of Fallen Timbers.

After the defeat of the Shawnee by General Anthony Wayne. Tecumseh began planning for an Indian Alliance to drive the white man out.
With the help of his younger brother, The Prophet (Tenskwatawa) he began persuading tribe after tribe to join his alliance.

indianpipe

After over a decade of hard work, Tecumseh's dream was about to come true.His timing was excellent. The 17 states were embroiled with Great Britain in a bitter war.The Americans had been beaten to their knees.

Washington would burn and a young captive by the name of Francis Scott Key would stand on the deck of a British gunboat off Ft. McHenry and note by the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in the air that the star spangled banner was still waving over the fort.
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa gathered the tribes along the banks of the Tippecanoe River.

lanceline

William Henry Harrison,governor of the Indiana Territory,was the only white man in a position of authority who really understood the seriousness of the situation.

He watched the gathering of tribes along the Tippecanoe River and wondered what he could do. He was under direct orders of the President of the United States not to attack the Indians under any circumstances. But this was not to be.

fires

Tenskwatawa,Tecumseh's younger brother, went to battle without the permission of Tecumseh.The Indians attacked Harrison's army. There was vicious combat involving flintlocks, tomahawks,war clubs,knives and artillery pieces with shells exploding in the Shawnee village. This was the battle of Tippacanoe.

The Indians that were left were so discouraged they left the camp They dropped our of Tecumseh's alliance. His dream was ruined.

Tecumseh's Famous Words
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion,respect their view,and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life,protect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
No Tribe has the right to sell,even to each other,much less to strangers---
Sell a country! Why not sell the air,the great sea,as well as the earth?
Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
The way,the only way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land,as it was first,and should be now,for it was never divided.
We gave them forest-clad mountains and valleys full of game,and in return what did they give our warriors and our women? Rum,trinkets,and a grave.

Brothers-My people wish for peace;the red men all wish for peace;but where the white people are,there is no peace for them,except it be on the bosom of your mother.
Where today are the Pequot? Where today are the Narrangansett,the Mohican,the Pakanoket and many other powerful tribes of our people?
They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man,as snow before a summer sun.
Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames in 1813. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest Indian leaders of all time.

CHEROKEE PRAYER BLESSING
May the warm winds of heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your mocassins
Make happy tracks
In many snows,
And may the rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.
Fruit From The Light

~~ Author Frank Howell coyright ~~

Honesty,strength,kindness,caring,sharing with love and principle
My great-grandmother was a full blood Cherokee Indian.I Rustyjo am very proud of my Indian roots and of my great-grandmother.

Our city,Chillicothe,is very proud of Tecumseh and all the other brave Indians that lived in our area. The name of our city was the name of their principle village. We honor our Indian heritage each year with The Feast Of The Flowering Moon and also the outdoor drama of Tecumseh.
There is a movement to reclaim in the public eye an accurate history of the Shawnees and, in particular, their war chief Blue Jacket.
Shawnee and Blue Jacket descendents in Oklahoma are the leaders of this movement. Unfortunately, too many people have uncritically accepted the popular, fictional,account.

A special Thank you to Peter Kinman for providing me with the information about Blue Jacket.
Peter Kinman

References: Blue Jacket Myth Discredited:

John Sugden,
Blue Jacket: Warrier of the Shawnees,
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2000.
(A recent biography of Blue Jacket with some material on the Swearingen/Blue Jacket issue.)

Barbara Buhr Okerson,
Weyapiersenweh: Blue Jacket, War Chief of the Shawnees and the Contest for Possession of the Ohio River Valley, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 1996.
(The historic role played by Blue Jacket.)

Louise F. Johnson
"Testing Popular Lore: Marmaduke Swearingen
a.k.a. Chief Blue Jacket,"
National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 82, No. 3,
September 1994, pages 165-178.
(An examination of the origin of the claim that
Blue Jacket was Marmaduke van Swearingen.)

Site Map of Life in the Slow Lane

BLUEJACKETS,Members of the Shawnee Tribe
Blue Jacket Heritage In Dispute
Robert Clyde Van Trees
Tecumseh Outdoor Drama
Blue Jacket Outdoor Drama
Trail Of Tears Cherokee Outdoor Drama
Native American Games & Quizzes
HopewellCulture National Historical Park
Native American Music
Mecca Lynne Caron
Trace Your Roots
Sam Silverhawk
Jo's World
Zena's Clipart Collection
Destiny's Lady