Shawnee, an Algonquian -speaking North American Indian people who lived in the central Ohio River valley. Closely related in language and culture to the Fox, Kickapoo, and Sauk, the Shawnee were also influenced by a long association with the Seneca and Delaware.

Historically, the Shawnee people lived in the central Ohio River Valley. They were members of the Algonquian-speaking nations of North America and shared close cultural relationships, language, and oral history with the Fox, Kickapoo, Suk, Seneca, and Delaware people.

The Shawnee language is a Central Algonquian language spoken in parts of central and northeastern Oklahoma by only around 200 Shawnee, making it very endangered.

As a complement to our Shawnee language information, here is our collection of indexed links about the Shawnee people and various aspects of their society. The emphasis of these pages is on American Indians as a living people with a present and a future as well as a past.

The Shawnee Tribe’s ancestral, pre-contact homeland is the greater middle Ohio River Valley region, which stretches through large portions of modern Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe who lived in the Ohio Valley when they were first encountered by Europeans.

The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking Native American people historically centered in the central Ohio River Valley. Their cultural, political, and spiritual life exhibits depth and adaptation across centuries.

The Shawnee are associated with Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa—formally Lalawethika, the Shawnee Prophet. The year before the expedition ended, the two brothers became rising stars among their people and eventually became popular icons of Native American courage and defiance.