The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking people, and at the time of European encounter, they had bands living in present-day Eastern United States and parts of the Southeastern United States.

During the American Revolutionary War, many Shawnee moved from the Northwest Territory to Cape Girardeau, Missouri; some later moved into Spanish Louisiana.
The bands were later joined by other Shawnee groups from Alabama; and some relocated southward into Arkansas Territory, Spanish Texas, and French Louisiana.
After the 1803 Louisiana Purchase by the United States.
Encroaching colonial settlement persuaded the Shawnee to negotiate an 1825 treaty, ceding their Missouri lands for reservation lands in Kansas.

However, prior to the treaty, a group of Shawnees (later known as the Big Jim band) had already left the region on a journey towards Texas Territory, then controlled by Spain.
Collectively, it would become known as Absentee Shawnee, as the band was deemed the 'absent Shawnees' in the provisional clause in an 1854 treaty regarding Kansas reservation lands.
Later, the Texas-Mexico War compelled numerous Absentee Shawnees to leave Texas Territory and to relocate into Indian Territory of Oklahoma.
However, it is believed that previous Shawnee bands from Kansas had already resettled in Oklahoma beginning around 1839.

In the late 1800s, an Indian Agent of the US government brought soldiers from Fort Reno, Oklahoma to force the traditionalist Big Jim band of Absentee Shawnees out of the Deep Fork River area, southward to Hog Creek and Little River area near present-day Lake Thunderbird, Norman.
Here, in a community, now called Little Axe, Oklahoma, and in Shawnee, the modern Absentee Shawnee people still continue to live.

In 1872, the US Congress gave the Absentee Shawnee title to shared lands occupied on the Citizen Potawatomi Nation-Absentee Shawnee Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area (OTSA).
In 1936, the tribe reorganized and gained federal recognition under the new Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, with the current constitution ratified on December 5, 1938.
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking people, and at the time of European encounter, they had bands living in present-day Eastern United States and parts of the Southeastern United States.
During the American Revolutionary War, many Shawnee moved from the Northwest Territory to Cape Girardeau, Missouri; some later moved into Spanish Louisiana. The bands were later joined by other Shawnee groups from Alabama; and some relocated southward into Arkansas Territory, Spanish Texas, and French Louisiana. After the 1803 Louisiana Purchase by the United States. Encroaching colonial settlement persuaded the Shawnee to negotiate an 1825 treaty, ceding their Missouri lands for reservation lands in Kansas.
However, prior to the treaty, a group of Shawnees (later known as the Big Jim band) had already left the region on a journey towards Texas Territory, then controlled by Spain. Collectively, it would become known as Absentee Shawnee, as the band was deemed the 'absent Shawnees' in the provisional clause in an 1854 treaty regarding Kansas reservation lands. Later, the Texas-Mexico War compelled numerous Absentee Shawnees to leave Texas Territory and to relocate into Indian Territory of Oklahoma. However, it is believed that previous Shawnee bands from Kansas had already resettled in Oklahoma beginning around 1839.
In the late 1800s, an Indian Agent of the US government brought soldiers from Fort Reno, Oklahoma to force the traditionalist Big Jim band of Absentee Shawnees out of the Deep Fork River area, southward to Hog Creek and Little River area near present-day Lake Thunderbird, Norman. Here, in a community, now called Little Axe, Oklahoma, and in Shawnee, the modern Absentee Shawnee people still continue to live.
In 1872, the US Congress gave the Absentee Shawnee title to shared lands occupied on the Citizen Potawatomi Nation-Absentee Shawnee Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area (OTSA). In 1936, the tribe reorganized and gained federal recognition under the new Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, with the current constitution ratified on December 5, 1938.
Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians