From Joe
Luther (Kerrville Native):
My
ancestor, Louis Lorimier, married into the
Shawnee nation in
Ohio
and was the French-Canadian trader who led
the Shawnees
to
Missouri. Lorimier
was post commander in
Cape Girardeau from
1787 to 1820. His son, Louis, Jr., was the
first Native American graduate of
West Point in 1806. Just
before the Louisiana Purchase, Lorimier
petitioned the Spanish Government to take
the Shawnee
to
Texas. The
following is a direct quote from the
Handbook of Texas website
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bms25
“Around 1790 a major
Shawnee
band migrated west of the Mississippi River
to the area of
Cape Girardeau,
Missouri. By 1815 an
estimated 1,200
Shawnees
were settled there. They were joined by a
large band of
Delawares, and the
two tribes became closely associated. In
1822 a band of the Missouri Shawnees,
numbering about 270 families, migrated south
into Texas,
which was then a part of
Mexico.
They settled on the south bank of the
Red River
near Pecan Point.
“The Texas Shawnees petitioned the Mexican
government for land, and in 1824 the
governor of Coahuila and
Texas,
Rafael Gonzales, authorized the legislature
to grant the tribe one square mile of land
per family along the south bank of the
Red River. The
Shawnees
became allies of the Cherokees and other
immigrant tribes living in
Texas, and all
enjoyed a generally peaceful relationship
with Mexican
officials and a growing number of
Anglo-American settlers. The
Shawnees
even aided the Mexicans in their war with
the Comanches.
“In 1832 a party of
Shawnees, led by chief John
Linney, defeated a band of Penateka
Comanches at
Bandera
Pass, west of
San Antonio.
When Texas
became a republic, officials of the new
government, under the leadership of
President Sam Houston, worked to maintain
good relations with the immigrant Indians,
including the
Shawnees.
The tribe and their allies signed a treaty
with
Texas
officials in February 1836.
”The agreement, however, which granted the
Indians a designated tract of land, was
never ratified by the Texas Senate.
Houston's successor, Mirabeau B.
Lamar, saw the immigrant Indians as
unauthorized intruders and wanted them
removed from
Texas. In the summer
of 1839, amid rumors of collusion between
them and the Mexicans, he provoked the
Cherokee War, which ultimately affected all
of the immigrant
Texas
tribes. Lamar sent a message to Linney and
the
Shawnees
asking them to remain neutral in the
conflict, and most of the tribe complied
with the request.
“After the Cherokees were defeated,
Shawnee
leaders, including Chief Elanie, negotiated
a treaty with Texas
officials at
Nacogdoches.
According to its terms, the tribe promised
to leave
Texas
peaceably if they received payment for
improvements on their land, deserted crops,
and all property left behind. The government
agreed to provide transportation and
supplies for the relocation. There is some
evidence that Texas
officials honored those treaty commitments,
and by early 1840 most of the Texas Shawnees
had moved north of the Red River into
Indian Territory. The tribe
settled on the Canadian River near the mouth
of the Little River and became the nucleus
of the present Absentee band of
Shawnees.
”In 1846 they were joined by a large segment
of Shawnees
who had been forced to leave
Kansas. The few
scattered Shawnees
who remained in
Texas
after the Cherokee War were consolidated in
1857 with remnants of other tribes on the
Brazos Indian Reservation, near the site of
present Graham. But the
Texas reservation system was
shortlived, and in 1859 the reserve Indians,
including the Shawnees,
were moved to Indian
Territory. Those
Shawnees
joined the Absentee band on the
Canadian River.
”Today many Shawnees
still reside in eastern
Oklahoma. The Loyal
or Cherokee band is centered around White
Oak in the northeastern corner of the state.
The Absentee band is located in central
Oklahoma
between Tecumseh and Norman, and the Eastern
band lives near
Miami. Unlike most
tribes now resident in
Oklahoma,
the
Shawnees
have managed to preserve to the present day
their complete cycle of ceremonial dances
and other religious observances.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Allen
Anderson, "The
Delaware and
Shawnee
Indians and the
Republic
of Texas,
1820-1845," Southwestern Historical
Quarterly 94 (October 1990). Jerry E.
Clark, The
Shawnee
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press,
1977). James H. Howard,
Shawnee: The
Ceremonialism of a Native Indian Tribe and
Its Cultural Background (Athens: Ohio
University Press, 1981).
Carol A. Lipscomb
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