Bandera Pass

From Joe Luther (Kerrville Native):
My ancestor, Louis Lorimier, married into the Shawnee nation in Ohio and was the French-Canadian trader who led the Shawnees to Missouri. Lorimier was post commander in Cape Girardeau from 1787 to 1820. His son, Louis, Jr., was the first Native American graduate of West Point in 1806. Just before the Louisiana Purchase, Lorimier petitioned the Spanish Government to take the Shawnee to Texas. The following is a direct quote from the Handbook of Texas website http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/bms25.html

“Around 1790 a major Shawnee band migrated west of the Mississippi River to the area of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. By 1815 an estimated 1,200 Shawnees were settled there. They were joined by a large band of Delawares, and the two tribes became closely associated. In 1822 a band of the Missouri Shawnees,
numbering about 270 families, migrated south into Texas, which was then a part of Mexico.
They settled on the south bank of the Red River near Pecan Point.

“The Texas Shawnees petitioned the Mexican government for land, and in 1824 the governor of Coahuila and
Texas, Rafael Gonzales, authorized the legislature to grant the tribe one square mile of land per family
along the south bank of the Red River. The Shawnees became allies of the Cherokees and other
immigrant tribes living in Texas, and all enjoyed a generally peaceful relationship with Mexican
officials and a growing number of Anglo-American settlers.
The Shawnees even aided the Mexicans in their war with the Comanches.

“In 1832 a party of Shawnees, led by chief John Linney, defeated a band of Penateka Comanches at Bandera Pass, west of San Antonio. When Texas became a republic, officials of the new government, under the leadership of President Sam Houston, worked to maintain good relations with the immigrant Indians, including the
Shawnees. The tribe and their allies signed a treaty with Texas officials in February 1836.

”The agreement, however, which granted the Indians a designated tract of land, was never ratified by the Texas Senate. Houston's successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, saw the immigrant Indians as unauthorized intruders
and wanted them removed from Texas. In the summer of 1839, amid rumors of collusion between them
and the Mexicans, he provoked the Cherokee War, which ultimately affected all of the immigrant
Texas tribes. Lamar sent a message to Linney and the Shawnees asking them to remain
neutral in the conflict, and most of the tribe complied with the request.

“After the Cherokees were defeated, Shawnee leaders, including Chief Elanie, negotiated a treaty with Texas officials at Nacogdoches. According to its terms, the tribe promised to leave Texas peaceably if they
received payment for improvements on their land, deserted crops, and all property left behind.
The government agreed to provide transportation and supplies for the relocation. There is some evidence
that Texas officials honored those treaty commitments, and by early 1840 most of the Texas Shawnees had moved north of the Red River into Indian Territory. The tribe settled on the Canadian River near the mouth of the Little River and became the nucleus of the present Absentee band of Shawnees.

”In 1846 they were joined by a large segment of Shawnees who had been forced to leave Kansas. The few scattered Shawnees who remained in Texas after the Cherokee War were consolidated in 1857
with remnants of other tribes on the Brazos Indian Reservation, near the site of present Graham.
But the Texas reservation system was shortlived, and in 1859 the reserve Indians, including
the Shawnees, were moved to Indian Territory. Those Shawnees joined the
Absentee band on the Canadian River.

”Today many Shawnees still reside in eastern Oklahoma. The Loyal or Cherokee band is centered around White Oak in the northeastern corner of the state. The Absentee band is located in central Oklahoma between
Tecumseh and Norman, and the Eastern band lives near Miami. Unlike most tribes now resident in
Oklahoma, the Shawnees have managed to preserve to the present day their complete cycle
of ceremonial dances and other religious observances.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Allen Anderson, "The Delaware and Shawnee Indians and the Republic of Texas, 1820-1845," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 94 (October 1990). Jerry E. Clark, The Shawnee (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1977). James H. Howard, Shawnee: The Ceremonialism of a Native Indian Tribe and Its Cultural Background (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1981).
Carol A. Lipscomb

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