The Shawnee Tribe

The Shawnee Tribe Did you know that the Shawnee Indian tribe is a fascinating tribe? I recently have learned that they are nomads. Nomads are people who travel instead of settling in one place. Southern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania were a couple of states they once lived in. Until around 1660 Iroquois drove out the tribe to southern Carolina, Tennessee’s Cumberland basin, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern Illinois. They had tried to return, but again they were forced to leave by American settlers. The settlers pushed them first to Missouri and then to Kansas, but the Shawnee people settled in Oklahoma after the Civil War. The Shawnee survived using various methods of hunting and gathering. Both men and women had responsibilities in providing food. They hunted many animals including deer, squirrel, turkey, raccoon, bear, muskrat, rabbit, and ducks/geese. They set traps for the animals, and they disguised themselves to blend in with their surroundings to get close enough to club or shoot them. People never wasted anything; they used all the different parts for different things. In January and February they hunted beaver for their pelts and meat to trade with the settlers. In the summer time they, and during fall, groups of men and women would leave the village and hunt. Small temporary lodges were used. Another way to get food was to plant or gather it. They planted beans, squash, corn, pumpkins, and melons but corn was their main food. They gathered wild berries, nuts, maple, roots, and wild honey. In the springtime women planted crops and summer through fall they gathered wild plants and fruits. Tapping maple trees for sap was another thing they did. Raiding beehives was also popular to get honey. The women were mostly responsible for planting, harvesting, and taking care of crops. Roles for people are very important because the people would know what their job was and what other’s jobs were. Men were very important because they mostly

Bibliography: Bial, Raymond. The Shawnee. Tarrytown, New York. Benchmark Books, 2004. Flanagan, Alice K. The Shawnee. Canada. Children’s Press, 1998. Mattern, Joanne. The Shawnee Indians. Manakato, Minnesota. Bridgestone Books, 2001. Yacowitz, Caryn. Shawnee Indians. Chicago, Illinois. Heinemann Library, 2003. Additional research includes many websites