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Absentee Shawnee (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 17 December 2007

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Absentee Shawnee - Oklahoma

Located in central Oklahoma is the Historic Trust Area of the Absentee Shawnee, the westernmost outpost of their people. The term "Absentee" is applied to the Native peoples who accepted U.S. citizenship under the Citizenship Act of 1924 and gave up claims to reservation lands. "Shawnee" meant "southerners" in the language of the Algonquin, their original northern neighbors.

The Shawnee originated in the Midwest in areas now in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee; the modern Shawnee still live in their traditional homelands. In Ohio, they do not enjoy federal recognition as an official Nation, while in Oklahoma there are three federally recognized bands of the Shawnee Nation: the Eastern Shawnee are located in the northeast corner of the state; the Loyal Shawnee, which have merged with the Cherokee; and the larger Absentee Shawnee just outside Oklahoma City.

The Flag

In 1974 the Absentee Shawnee adopted a flag (Janet Hubbard-Brown, The Shawnee, Chelsea House Press, New York, 1995, 104). The flag, designed by tribal member Leroy White, honors the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh [see Eastern Shawnee]. The flag is red, its central white oval bears a stylized profile of Tecumseh in red and black, facing left. Behind Tecumseh a large pair of crossed eagle feathers extends beyond the oval. Surrounding the oval are the Tribe's name in Shawnee and in English in white: on top, "LI-SI-WI-NWI" and below, "ABSENTEE SHAWNEE". Two white stars separate the Shawnee and English names on either side of the oval.

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 17 December 2007