Seal of the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians

The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, known as the Ridgetop Shawnee since 2013, descend from southeastern Kentucky's early multiracial settlers of 1790-1870. Their ancestors migrated to the central

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...

n region in the late 18th to mid 19th centuries, with origins likely in colonial Virginia, similar to other migrants on the frontier.Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians
Website The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians were recognized by name for their civic contributions by a resolution of the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in ...

. In June 2013 the Pine Mountain Indian Community, LLC, announced that the Ridgetop group would be renamed as the Ridgetop Shawnee, to serve as the heritage arm of this nonprofit organization. Within this new management structure, the Ridgetop Shawnee will concentrate on preservation and protection of the heritage of the region. The Pine Mountain Indian Community will take the lead with regard to economic development and community development in Southeastern Kentucky.

Historical claims

In the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, many multiracial families migrated to southwestern Virginia; extreme southeastern Kentucky, particularly Harlan County; and northeastern Tennessee. In the 1870 federal census for

Harlan County, Kentucky Harlan County is a county located in southeastern Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,831. Its county seat is Harlan. It is classified as a moist countya county in which alcohol sales are prohibited (a dry county), but conta ...

, for instance, numerous families were classified as Indian. Families with the surnames of Sizemore, Callahan, Eldridge, and

Cole Cole may refer to: Plants * Cole crops of the genus ''Brassica'', especially cabbage, kale, or rape (rapeseed). People * Cole (given name), people with the given name Cole * Cole (surname), people with the surname Cole Companies *Cole Motor ...

have had a tradition of Native American ancestry, as well as European and African. Often such families moved to the frontier for less expensive land, as well as to avoid racial caste discrimination in more settled areas of

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

states. Remnant members of tribes intermarried with their neighbors and a multiracial group of settlers formed. Beginning in 1913, the

Pine Mountain Settlement School The Pine Mountain Settlement School is a historic cultural and educational institution in rural Harlan County, Kentucky. Founded in 1913 as a settlement school near Bledsoe, it now focuses on classes related to the culture of Appalachia and env ...

educated some of the local children in Harlan County. For nearly 20 years it operated as a progressive boarding school for elementary age children in the Appalachian region; in the 1930s, it shifted to operate as a boarding high school.

Modern achievements

Since the late 20th century, the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe have worked to strengthen and preserve Native American traditions and culture. They contributed to passage of local ordinances that prohibit digging, or artifact hunting, on county and city lands. One such ordinance was passed by the

fiscal court in 2006. The only such ordinance in the

Commonwealth of Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, it has decreased illegal artifact hunting and helped preserve prehistoric sites. The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians were instrumental in the creation of the Harlan County Native American Site Protection Office. The group members work with state, city and county officials to protect Native American cultural resources in Eastern Kentucky. They gained agreement from the city of

Ashland, Kentucky Ashland is a home rule-class city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The largest city in Boyd County, Ashland is located upon a southern bank of the Ohio River at the state border with Ohio and near West Virginia. The population was 21,6 ...

, to put a protective fence around prehistoric

earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour *Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), mi ...

in a park; the site is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as the Indian Mounds in Central Park. In addition, the tribe has developed a database of persons documented as Native Americans in southeastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee, to make it easier for other persons to trace their ancestry. By December 2011, the Kentucky Native American Databank held basic genealogical data for more than 1,000 names; it is hosted on the free genealogy site, Rootsweb. The tribe is seeking to preserve the

Shawnee language The Shawnee language is a Central Algonquian language spoken in parts of central and northeastern Oklahoma by the Shawnee people. It was originally spoken by these people in a broad territory throughout the Eastern United States, mostly north of ...

, a Central Algonquian language that was traditional for many of its ancestors. Today it is spoken primarily by people of the Shawnee Nation in Oklahoma. In 2009 and 2010, the State House of the

recognized the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians by passing, unopposed, House Joint Resolutions 15 or HJR-15 in 2009 and HJR-16 in 2010. These acknowledged civic contributions of the group by this name: their long history in the state, their efforts to preserve Native American heritage, as well as to help its elderly and young people.

Membership

The Ridgetop Shawnee require that prospective members prove documented descent from multiracial settlers in the region from 1790–1870, and also have Y-DNA or MtDNA showing direct-line Native American ancestry. Y-DNA and or MtDNA may be used only to show descent from individuals who are documented as eligible for enrollment.Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians
Official Website In 2012 the Ridgetop Shawnee began the Express Enrollment program for descendants of several family lines of mixed-Native American heritage, who have been well-documented as migrating to Southeastern Kentucky, Northeastern Tennessee, and Southwestern Virginia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These families and lines are: Sizemore (KY);

Fields Fields may refer to: Music * Fields (band), an indie rock band formed in 2006 * Fields (progressive rock band), a progressive rock band formed in 1971 * ''Fields'' (album), an LP by Swedish-based indie rock band Junip (2010) * "Fields", a song b ...

(KY, VA); descendants of Hawkins Bowman (KY, VA); descendants of Ezekiel

Bennett Bennett may refer to: People *Bennett (name), including a list of people with the surname and given name Places Canada * Bennett, Alberta *Bennett, British Columbia *Bennett Lake, in the British Columbia and Yukon Territory ** Bennett Range ** Ben ...

(KY, TN); descendants of John

(KY, VA); and descendants of Porter

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

(KY, VA). In June 2012, the tribe limited new enrollment to individuals who qualified to use Express Enrollment.

Historical Shawnee people

Europeans reported encountering Shawnee over a widespread geographic area. The earliest mention of the Shawnee may be a 1614 Dutch map showing the ''Sawwanew'' just east of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before ...

. Later 17th-century Dutch sources also place them in this general location. Accounts by French

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

s in the same century usually located the Shawnee along the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

, where they encountered them on forays from Canada and the

Illinois Country The Illinois Country (french: Pays des Illinois ; , i.e. the Illinois people)—sometimes referred to as Upper Louisiana (french: Haute-Louisiane ; es, Alta Luisiana)—was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s in what is n ...

.Charles Augustus Hanna (1911) ''The Wilderness Trail'', esp. chap. IV, "The Shawnees", pp. 119–160.

References

External links