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by Jeff Bowen (Transcribed by)
The history of the Shawnee is fascinating. Naturally the most famous Shawnee known would be Tecumseh, born circa 1768. But this series contains the descendants of Tecumseh and many famous chiefs and warriors along with their families. It starts with some fascinating materials covering not just the Shawnee but the Sac and Fox Nations. The first volumes concern the estates of these tribal members along with a mixture of other tribes within the Sac and Fox Agencies jurisdiction: Tribes such as the Absentee Shawnee, the Potawatomie, Winnebago, Mexican Kickapoo, Iowa, Otoe, and Pawnee, to name a few. You will find long sought after questions answered through Births, Deaths, Adoptions, and Guardianships. There will also be other records with Wills, Cemetery Records, Vital Statistics, Marriage, and Divorces later within this series. These materials are carefully transcribed from original documents that were rescued from a loft with a leaky roof. They were close to being lost forever from water damage. These logbooks and documents were boxed and stored in an attic where they kept vegetables in a building owned by the Sac and Fox Indian Agency. These books cover a range of time from 1885-1924. This series won't be your average genealogical census or typed payroll records with miscellaneous tribal expenditures. The majority of Volume VI in this series consists of the transcriptions of estates containing family members involved, their legal representatives, and ancillary parties, covering the period 1911-1918. There are approximately 1,176 individuals documented. Sources will be found giving estate locations, property values, fees, divisions of property, (land, structures, furniture, personal belongings, monies, etc.). Anyone examining these documents will find numerous family names, ages, relationship, sometimes death dates, along with any number of circumstances surrounding the estate. In addition to the Sac & Fox and Shawnee Tribes, additional tribes mentioned in this Volume are the Iowa, Kickapoo, Mexican Pottawatomie, Otoe, Pawnee, Pottawatomie and Santee (Sioux) Tribes. Also provided is a list of deceased Sac & Fox and Iowa Indians and their heirs.
These volumes were transcribed from Oklahoma Historical Society film rolls SFSA-50 to 53.
