The Shawnee are an American Indian tribe whose home during the 1700s was the central Ohio River valley.

The Shawnee spoke an Algonquian language and were related to the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indians.

Men were responsible for hunting and women were responsible for building the villages and planting crops. They built permanent structures for housing and ceremonies. Since building materials were abundant in the forests, they left the buildings behind when the moved. When they ran out of food, they moved to find better hunting grounds and to plant new crops. The men carried their weapons and their bedrolls; the women were responsible for moving everything else.

They came into conflict with white settlers for land along the Ohio River. They were against white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Led by their chief, Cornstalk, they attacked the colonial soldiers when those soldiers invaded the Ohio country. The Shawnee were defeated by colonial troops in 1774 and they moved farther west.

Several years later, Indians killed a settler; and Cornstalk and his son, who happened to be visiting at the time, were killed by a mob in retaliation. This led to years of warfare between white settlers and Indians in the Ohio Valley.