The Shawnee Indians
From 20th Century History of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio by Hon. William A. Rockel
Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1908
But whatever we may say about Indian occupation of Clark County, we know that the Shawnees were the immediate predecessors of the white man, that it was with this tribe that the historic battle of Piqua was fought in 1780 by General Clark, and some historians say that this tribe or nation of Indians were the immediate followers of the mound builders, but this rests only on tradition.
The centennial of this battle of Piqua, which was held in 1880, brought forth a great many historical matters in reference to the Shawnee Indians, and a letter of particular importance which is found in Beer's history, from Prof. Royce of the Smithsonian Institute, gives more facts about this tribe than can be found elsewhere. He says, "the Shawnees were the Bedouins, and I may almost say the Ishmaelites of the North American Tribes. As wanderers they were without rival among their race, and as fomenters of discord and war between themselves, and their neighbors their genius was marked. Their original home is not, with any great measure of certainty, known. it is altogether improbable that it ever will be."
Of them Gen. Keifer in his welcome address at the centennial said:
"On these grounds, 100 years ago, were the then principal villages of the Shawnee Indian tribe. This tribe had occupied different portions of the now territory of the United States during nearly three hundred years of preceding history, and it was the most warlike of all the Indian tribes. It had rarely been at peace with the other tribes until it went to war with the whites. Their chiefs possessed more sagacity and more of the true spirit of warriors than the chiefs of other tribes. Their traditions were of war, extending back to a time when they, in search of conquest, 'crossed a sea' to this continent. In this tribe alone did the latter tradition prevail. Here the head chiefs made their home. On account of the abundance of game, the richness of soil, the pure water from the numberless perennial springs, the large quantities of fish which then abounded in the limpid waters of Mad river and its tributary streams, the facility for engaging in favorite sports upon the river and the then open prairies, these aboriginal people had become more than ordinarily attached to this place as a home. The acquisition of these lands may have been at the cost of many of their chiefs and braves. Here were the graves of their ancestors and those dear to them. they followed the natural instincts of mankind in defending this country against the aggressions of the white race."
There were probably several branches of the Shawnee tribe or nation. At the time that the white occupation of Ohio began they were no doubt in possession of Central Ohio, as a number of villages bear names evidencing that fact. From the time of 1780 we find them engaged more or less in wars between the Indians and the whites and as parties to treaties with the white people. In 1790 they suffered from the expedition of Gen. Harmar, but afterwards had a share with the Miamis in his final defeat. In 1791 they rejoiced over the defeat of St. Clair, and in 1794 they were made to feel the effect of General Wayne's victory. They were parties to a treaty of peace that was made in 1786 at the mouth of the Great Miami and in 1795, by the treaty of Greenville, they surrendered much of their territory, comprising about two-thirds of Ohio and a portion of Indiana. In 1805 they were again parties to a treaty wherein they ceded to the United states a large tract of country lying north and west of the Greenville treaty line, and east of the north and south of a line twenty miles west of the Pennsylvania, and in 1805 they with their tribes granted a right of way for two roads, one running from Meigs on the Maumee on the western reserve and one from Fremont south to the Greenville treaty line. With their chief, Tecumseh, they were defeated in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
In 1817 they were parties to a treaty and lost the entire Indian Territory within the present limits of Ohio. In return for what they gave they were granted certain reservations, one of which was a tract ten miles square near Wapakoneta, a tract adjoining of twenty-five miles on Hog Creek, as well as a tract of forty-eight square miles surrounding Lewistown. (There was an earlier Wapakoneta, which was located on Mad River near where a small stream enters, about two and one-half miles south of West Liberty.)
In the war with the Mingos and Shawnees, in 1818 there was added a tract, twenty miles square, to the reserve at Wapakoneta, and fourteen miles to the one at Lewistown. By the treaty of 1831, the Lewistown reserve was ceded to the United States, as well as those at Wapakoneta and Hog Creek, and this was the last of the lands over which the Shawnees claimed any title in Ohio, they agreeing to move west. For this purpose a tract of 60,000 acres of land was granted to the Lewistown band of Shawnees in the northeast corner of Indian Territory, which has been their most recent place of residence.
Such has been the fate of the Shawnees, who once occupied this valley. When first known to the whites, they were a numerous and warlike people of Georgia and South Carolina. They abandoned or were driven from that locality, and located in Pennsylvania and took part in the tragic scenes of the Wyoming Valley.
They fought on Braddock's field, at Point Pleasant, and along the whole line of the Western Frontier, and lastly, we find them on the Wabash at Tippecanoe. Their traditions, if carefully preserved, would have embraced a hundred battlefields in as many separate districts, which now embrace eight or nine sovereign states, with a population of from eight to ten millions of people. The last Indians removed from Ohio in 1841.