The Shawnee (Shawano, Shawanese, Shawanoe, etc.) originally inhabited southern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. The Shawnee were driven from this area by the Iroquois League sometime in the 1660s. They settled in South Carolina, Tennessee’s Cumberland River Basin, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern Illinois.After Shawnee raids on the Cherokee, the Cherokee entered into an alliance with the Chickasaw about 1714, and together, they drove the Shawnee from the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins in Tennessee and Kentucky. The Shawnee had an inclination to settle on the lower Cumberland River. They were forced northward beyond the Ohio River. Afterward, if the Chickasaw found the Shawnee upon “Chickasaw land,” the Shawnee would be eliminated.

The removal of the Shawnee from Middle Tennessee would give both Cherokee and Chickasaw the right to claim that land as their own. There then would be a dual claim for the same land, based on the right of conquest.

By 1730, the Shawnee was no longer part of Tennessee’s direct history, however they were fierce warriors and they made the frontier settlers tremble, especially during the French and Indian War.