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 Appalachian region in the late 18th to mid 19th centuries, with origins likely in colonial Virginia, similar to other migrants on the frontier.[1] The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians were recognized by name for their civic contributions by a resolution of the Kentucky General Assembly. 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. ## Contents * 1 Historical claims * 2 Modern achievements * 3 Membership * 4 Historical Shawnee people * 5 See also * 6 References * 7 External links ## Historical claims[edit] In the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, many multiracial families migrated to southwestern Virginia; extreme southeastern Kentucky, particularly Harlan County; and northeastern Tennessee.[citation needed] In the 1870 federal census for Harlan County, Kentucky, for instance, numerous families were classified as Indian. Families with the surnames of Sizemore, Callahan, Eldridge, and Cole have had a tradition of Native American ancestry, as well as European and African.[2] 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 states. Remnant members of tribes intermarried with their neighbors and a multiracial group of settlers formed. Beginning in 1913, the Pine Mountain Settlement School 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[edit] 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 Harlan County, Kentucky fiscal court in 2006. The only such ordinance in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 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.[citation needed] 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, to put a protective fence around prehistoric earthworks in a park; the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Indian Mounds in Central Park.[3] 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.[4] The tribe is seeking to preserve the Shawnee language, 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 Kentucky General Assembly recognized the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians by passing, unopposed, House Joint Resolutions 15 or HJR-15 in 2009 and HJR-16 in 2010.[5][6] 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[edit] 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.[7] 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 (KY, VA); descendants of Hawkins Bowman (KY, VA); descendants of Ezekiel Bennett (KY, TN); descendants of John Cole (KY, VA); and descendants of Porter Jackson (KY, VA).[7] In June 2012, the tribe limited new enrollment to individuals who qualified to use Express Enrollment. ## Historical Shawnee people[edit] 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. Later 17th-century Dutch sources also place them in this general location. Accounts by French explorers in the same century usually located the Shawnee along the Ohio River, where they encountered them on forays from Canada and the Illinois Country.[8] ## See also[edit] * Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma * Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma * Shawnee Tribe ## References[edit] 1. ^ Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians Website 2. ^ Holly Timm (3 June 1987). "Indian Blood Runs in Many Harlan County Families". Harlan Daily Enterprise. 3. ^ Carrie Stambaugh (4 July 2009). "Mounds will be fenced off from public". Daily Independent (Ashland, KY). Retrieved 15 January 2012. 4. ^ William Shackleford, "Kentucky Native American Databank", Rootsweb, accessed 15 January 2012 5. ^ "Kentucky General Assembly 2010 Regular Session HJR-16". kentucky.gov, updated 9-2-2010. 6. ^ "Kentucky General Assembly 2009 Regular Session HJR-15". kentucky.gov, updated 5-2-2009. 7. ^ a b Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, Official Website 8. ^ Charles Augustus Hanna (1911) The Wilderness Trail, esp. chap. IV, "The Shawnees", pp. 119–160. ## External links[edit] * Website for the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians * "Sizemore Surname DNA Project", Official Website * v * t * e Appalachia People of the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States Ethnic groups| * Black-Dutch * Carmel Indians * Cherokee (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) * Chestnut Ridge people * Melungeon * Scotch-Irish * formerly Kanawha Valley people, Koasati, Shawnee, and Yuchi Miners in Eskdale, West Virginia (1913) History| * Battle of Blair Mountain * Coal Creek War * Coal strike of 1902 * French–Eversole feud * Hatfield–McCoy feud (Battle of the Grapevine Creek) * Lincoln County feud * Hillbilly Highway (Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit) * Kentucky County, Virginia * Overmountain Men * Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 * Southwest Territory * Trans-Appalachia * Wilderness Road * West Virginia coal wars * 1920 Alabama coal strike Society| * Appalachia * Social and economic stratification in Appalachia * Appalachian Americans * Appalachian English * Childbirth in rural Appalachia * Settlement school In popular culture| * Appalachian stereotypes * The Beverly Hillbillies * Deliverance * Hillbilly * Moonshine in popular culture * Mountain white * Poor White * Redneck * Redneck joke * The Hatfields and the McCoys Traditional music| * Appalachian music * Appalachian dulcimer * Blackberry Blossom (tune) * Bluegrass fiddle * Bluegrass music * Clogging * Cripple Creek (folk song) * Cumberland Gap (folk song) * East Tennessee Blues * Hootenanny * In the Pines * Nottamun Town * Shady Grove (song) * Tom Dooley (song) Historical individuals| * Francis Asbury * Daniel Boone * Davy Crockett * John Gordon (militia captain) * Devil Anse Hatfield * Abraham Lincoln * Belle Starr Part of a series on hill people around the world *[v]: View this template *[t]: Discuss this template *[e]: Edit this template