Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

EASTERN
SHAWNEE TRIBE
OF OKLAHOMA
Top: The Social Services Building.
Above: Walter Bluejacket was elected the
first chief of the Eastern Shawnee.
Below: Four Feathers Recycling Center.
Bottom: Community Center AOA Building.
Founded on December 22, 1939,
the Eastern Shawnee Tribe provides
benefits and services to its members
and community including: library,
print shop, cultural preservation, tribal police,
children and family services, family violence
prevention, meth and suicide prevention, tribal
housing, wellness, environmental protection
agency, administration on aging, and education.
The Tribe also invests its energy in enterprises
generating revenue for the benefit of tribal
members with programs created through the
ingenuity of tribal administrative departments
and established successful ventures with business
partners. Other businesses include Eastern
Shawnee Tribal Enterprises, Native2Native HR
Solutions, People’s Bank of Seneca, Indigo Sky
Casino, Whispering Woods RV Park, Outpost
Casino, Eastern Shawnee Travel Center, Eastern
Shawnee Print Shop, Four Feathers Recycling
Center, and the George J. Captain Library.
Historically, the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of
Oklahoma is one of three federally-recognized
Shawnee Tribes—the Absentee Shawnee near
Shawnee; the Eastern Shawnee in Ottawa County
on the Oklahoma-Missouri border between
the small towns of Wyandotte, Oklahoma,
and Seneca, Missouri; and the Shawnee Tribe
in Miami. These three tribes were unified as
the Shawnee Nation and lived throughout the
region east of the Mississippi River.
In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed
and later declared illegal. It was followed by the
1831 Treaty with the Seneca, exchanging lands
in Ohio for a reservation in Indian Territory
in modern day Ottawa County, Oklahoma. In
September 1832 the United States Military
forced 258 Lewistown Shawnee and Seneca
Indians to leave Ohio. Herded like cattle, they
walked or rode on horseback for nearly 700
miles. Many died, leaving their bones, their
names, their stories. Those who lived arrived in
Indian Territory during a bitter cold December.
They remained the Mixed Band until 1867 when
the two groups separated and became known
as the Seneca Cayuga and the Eastern Shawnee.
The formation of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe
occurred sometime after May 21, 1937, and has
since been led by many devoted leaders and
visionary tribal members. Walter Bluejacket was
elected the first chief of the Eastern Shawnee
Tribe of Oklahoma in modern times. George F.
(Buck) Captain was chief (1978-1996) when
the Tribe constructed three new buildings on
the original 58.19 acres, began gaming in 1984,
and adopted a new constitution in 1994,
which made the role of chief a fulltime position.
Buck was quite active. In 1984 a third
building was constructed on 58.19 acres. The
first two, an administrative building and an
unfinished economic building, had been
constructed during Chief James Greenfeather’s
term, which preceded Buck. The third building
was the Nutrition Building (now known as
the Sandy Captain Cultural Building). The
empty and unfinished economic building
opened on December 7, 1984, as the Eastern
Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma’s
Bingo operation, catapulting
the Tribe into the gaming
world. As a result of bingo
profits, the Tribe made its first
land purchase—112 acres on
Highway 10C in 1986.
In 1990, Buck made an
unprecedented move. Knowing
that the three federally recognized
Shawnee Tribes in
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