Paithuckoosaw and the Absentee Shawnee
The creation of the Shawnee reservation in 1825 opened a new age which Shawnee leaders like Paithuckoosaw resisted with all their might. Paithuckoosaw and his kinsmen lived further west than the Missouri Shawnees in semi-permanent villages along the Red River. His people were recruited to the territory by the Spanish government in the 1770s to protect their outposts from Osage attack. Paithuckoosaw rejected removal to the reservation in Kansa because, in his words, “there [was] now but little feeling of blood & friendship” between their village and the numerous other Shawnee villages in Ohio and Indiana. The river the Shawnees call the “Big Sepa” formed both a physical and symbolic divide between Shawnee groups east and west of the Mississippi. For leaders like Paithuckoosaw, “blood” relations designated small kin groups. Concern for other villages and the tribe as a whole was minimal. The United States government did not understand the village-based autonomy when it tried to unite the tribe geographically on the reservation.
Removal to the reservation threatened a time-honored way of life for the Red River Shawnees. Unlike the majority of their kinsmen, the Red River Shawnees combined hunting with agriculture and some food gathering. Because missionary influence was minimal, traditional relationships between men and women remained intact. Men continued the search for fame and furs, while women farmed. In the winter months, the Shawnees abandoned their summer towns and broke into smaller groups in search of fur-bearing animals.
This way of life was threatened by the possibility of removal to the reservation. Despite the large size of the reservation, continued reliance upon hunting would have led to starvation. Consequently, Paithuckoosaw led his people further south into Mexican Territory to avoid forced removal. For a brief period, his people played a similar role defending Euro-American settlements from Kiowa and Comanche raids in what is now Texas. Texas soon thereafter became a state, and they were no longer needed. Paithuckoosaw then lobbied for a second Shawnee reservation for the Missouri and western Shawnee bands, but his efforts were rejected. Just prior to removal to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, these “absentee” Shawnees finally succumbed and joined their tribesmen in Kansas.
--ALBUM vol. 10, no. 1 (winter 1997)