The Shawnee Tribe is a federally recognized Native American tribe headquartered in Miami, Oklahoma.

The Shawnee Tribe has approximately 1,800 enrolled members, and an estimated 12,000 eligible members. Approximately 900 Shawnee members currently live in Oklahoma.

Of the 37 federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma, the Shawnee Tribe is the only restored tribe without a land base.

There are two other tribes in Oklahoma with “Shawnee” in their names. While there are historical connections, neither is directly affiliated with today’s Shawnee Tribe.

• The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, based in Shawnee, Okla.
• The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, based in West Seneca, Okla.

The Shawnee Tribe originated in the Eastern Woodlands of North America.  Various factors forced the Shawnee westward in the 18th and 19th centuries, first to Ohio, then to Missouri and Kansas. The 1854 Maypenny Treaty greatly reduced the size of the Shawnee’s Kansas reservation, and by 1870, the federal government had sold nearly all of the Shawnee’s remaining Kansas land to white settlers or given it as compensation to white Civil War veterans.

The Shawnee were driven further west, to Oklahoma, after the Civil War. The Shawnee were promised land in Oklahoma, but when Congress did not provide it, the tribe signed an 1869 treaty that granted them citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.

The Shawnee Tribe was restored on Dec. 28, 2000, as a separate, federally recognized tribe.

The Shawnee language is part of the Central Algonquian family and is closely related to Mesquakie, Fox and Kickapoo.

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