204 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



beans, potatoes, hogs, horses, *&.c., so as to be enabled, if they could possess anywhere 

 on earth, a country which they could have a certainty of holding in perpetuity, as 

 their own, to plant and raise their own crops and necessaries of life from the ground. 

 The Government have effected with these people, as with most of the other dis- 

 persed tribes, an arrangement by which they are to remove west of the Mississippi, 

 to lands assigned them, on which they are solemnly promised a home forever, the 

 uncertain definition of which important word time and circumstances alone will de- 

 termine. — G. C. 



ALGONKIN— SHAWNEE . 



The Shawnees or Shawanoes are an. erratic tribe of Algonkin stock, supposed to 

 have been one primarily with the Kickapoos. Were first discovered in Wisconsin, 

 but moved eastwardly, and, coming in contact with the Iroquois south of Lake Erie, 

 were driven to the banks of the Cumberland. Some passed thence into South Car- 

 olina and Florida, and, by the early part of the eighteenth century, had spread into 

 Pennsylvania and New York. At the close of the Spanish and English war those in 

 Florida emigrated and joined the northern bands, and, again coming into contact with 

 the Iroquois, were driven westward into Ohio. Joined in Pontiac's uprising in 1763, 

 and rallied under the English flag during the Revolution. In 1795 the main body of 

 the tribe were on the Scioto, but some had already crossed the Mississippi and others 

 south. Those in Missouri ceded their lands to the Government in 1825, and those in 

 Ohio in 1831, for new homes in the Indian Territory. In 1854 the main body in the 

 Indian Territory disbanded their tribal organization and divided their lands in 

 severalty. 



The East&rn Shawnees are those who emigrated direct from Ohio to the Indian Ter- 

 ritory, where they now are. They number 97, and are successful agriculturists. 



The Absentee Shawnees are those who, thirty-five years since, seceded from the main 

 portion of the tribe in Kansas and located in the northern part of the Indian Terri- 

 tory, where they have received no aid from Government, but are now in a highly 

 prosperous condition. They number 563 at the present time. — W. H. Jackson, 1877. 



(See also "An Inquiry into the Identity and History of the Shawnee 

 Indians," 0. 0. Royce, Magazine of Western History, May. 1885.) 



PRESENT LOCATION AND NUJD3ER. 



Eastern Shawnees, at Quawpaw Agency, Indian Territory, in June, J 

 1884, 71; August, 1885, 69. Decreasing. Civilized. Farmers. 



Agent W. H. Robb writes, August 31, 1884 : 



These people are for the most part intelligent, well behaved, desiring to improve 

 and have their children grow up better than they themselves have been ; they are all 

 well advanced in civilization. 



Absentee Shawnees at Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory, in 

 August, 1884, 720; in August, 1885, 710. Decreasing. 

 Isaac A. Taylor, agent, writes, August 31, 1884: 



The Absentee Shawnees are living on the same reservation with the Pottawato- 

 mies, with the exception of those who left some years ago and settled on the reserva- 

 tions now occupied by the lowas and Mexican Kickapoos, where they have opened up 

 small farms and are doing moderately well. There are about 720 Absentee Shawnees 

 under the charge of this agency, who are entitled to homes on the 30-mile-square tract 

 of land, as described, upon which the Pottawatomies are now living. They take 

 their name from the fact of having separated from the Shawnee tribe of Indians long 



