Ridgetop Shawnee

The Ridgetop Shawnee are a group of descendants of Southeastern Kentucky’s earliest settlers many of whom were of Native American descent. [Citation
last = Shackleford
first = William
author-link =
title = Southeastern Kentucky Native American
newspaper =
year = 2006
date = 2006-aug-2006
url = http://www.ridgetopshawnee.com]

Southeastern Kentucky was inhabited mostly by the Cherokee and the Shawnee before European contact [Citation
last =
first =
author-link = John E. Kleber, Kentucky Bicentennial Commission, Thomas Dionysius
title = The Kentucky Encyclopedia
newspaper =
year = 1992
date = 1992
url = ] . Maps from the 17th century show that the Cumberland River was named Chaouanon - French for "Shawnee". The river was renamed during the expeditions of Dr. Thomas Walker who named the river after the Bloody Duke of Cumberland. Cumberland Mountain was known as Wasioto mountain, Wasioto is a Shawnee word for Valley of Many Deer. Wasioto Winds golf course in Bell County Kentucky bears the name today. The Kentucky-Tennessee border town Harrogate Tennessee is also known as Shawnee.

The Ridgetop Shawnee was created in 1998 by members of the Kentucky Native American Indian Council in response to the growing number of people exploring their genealogy due to the explosion of the internet and to assist those seeking information about their Native American heritage. The Ridgetop Shawnee created the Kentucky Native American Databank to document the genealogy of mixed heritage settlers and lists many of the families that have claimed Native American blood and is supported by official documentation or DNA analysis.

Modern Goals and Achievements

Today the Ridgetop Shawnee are organizing the multiracial descendants of Kentucky’s early settlers and hope to provide educational and job opportunities only offered to Native Americans in other parts of the United States.

Members of the Ridgetop Shawnee organized an effort in 2006 to create new local laws in Southeastern Kentucky protecting the region’s Native American cultural resources. In 2006 members of the Ridgetop Shawnee promoted an ordinance in Harlan County, Kentucky that was unanimously passed by the county expanding state law to protect county contracted lands that contain Native American sites of interest.

In 2008 the Harlan County Fiscal Court Judge Executive and members of the Ridgetop Shawnee created the Harlan County Native American Site Protection Office. [Citation
last = Shackleford
first = William
author-link =
title = Its Official; Harlan County Native American Site Protection Office Established
newspaper = The Rural Democrat
year = 2006
date = 2006-aug-2006
url = http://theruraldemocrat.typepad.com/the_rural_democrat/2008/09/its-official-harlan-county-native-american-site-protection-office-established.html] ,the first government office of its kind in Kentucky’s history.

DNA

The Ridgetop Shawnee was partially created to support those Southeastern Kentucky families who prove their Native American heritage through DNA analysis. The Sizemore family of Kentucky found via an extensive yDNA study, a male Native American ancestor. [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
title = SIZEMORE Y Chromosome and mtDNA Project
newspaper =
year = 2006
date = 2006-aug-2006
url = http://www.genpage.com/sizemoreDNA.html] . The Ridgetop Shawnee is working to complete an extensive yDNA and mtDNA study supported by modern genealogical techniques. A process exists in the Ridgetop Shawnee’s enrollment procedure that allows an applicant to enroll partially on a yDNA or mtDNA analysis that connects the applicant to a known documented Native American.

External Links

* [http://www.ridgetopshawnee.com Ridgetop Shawnee]
* [http://www.harlancountyusa.com/NASP.html Harlan County Native American Site Protection Office]
* [http://www.genpage.com/sizemoreDNA.html Sizemore yDNA Study]
* [http://www.marionkentucky.us/Marion-Kentucky-NativeAmericans.htm Marion County Kentucky History]
* [http://www.loc.gov/index.html Library of Congress]
* [http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=ridgetopshawnee Kentucky Native American Databank]
* [http://www.knaic.com Kentucky Native American Indian Council or KNAIC]

Notes and references