Shawnee Lands

There are currently three federally recognized Shawnee tribes in the United States: the Absentee Shawnee, the Eastern Shawnee, and the Shawnee (also known as the Loyal or Cherokee Shawnee). These three groups share a common cultural heritage, but due to differing relocation patterns were recognized by the federal government as separate tribes.

Early Shawnee lands included parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. This project is a collection of maps and information related to treaties and lands of the Shawnee. The project file is a PDF Portfolio that contains PDF versions of historical maps, as well as a timeline of Shawnee treaties and an overview of general movements of the Shawnee tribe. It was completed for LIBR 220: Maps, GIS and Map Librarianship at San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science in Fall 2008.

Don’t want all the details? Find the file link here!

Maps

Cession maps are from Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894. Not all areas on cession maps were Shawnee lands as treaties often included multiple tribes. Other maps are from the USGS Map Catalog and the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. A full list of maps and references is included in the file.

File Size

The map files are big! It may take a little time for some of them to render. The project file is also big, coming in at about 72 MB in size. However, the original total size of all the map files (before being converted to PDF) was over 800 MB! It is recommended that you save the file to your computer to view it (right click on the link and choose “Save Link As” or “Save Target As”).

Using the File

The file should be opened using Adobe Acrobat 8 or 9, or Adobe Reader 8 or 9. If you use version 9, you’ll be able to benefit from the geospatial tools. There are two main ways to explore the project: by timeline or by summary.

• Timeline
  When you first open the file, you’ll see the timeline. The timeline is based on Shawnee treaties in the Library of Congress online collection: Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894. Most entries have a document link which will take you to the text of the treaty or a website based on an event. Each entry also has at least one map, indicated by the compass icon. Clicking on that icon will take you to a map file related to the entry.
• Summary
  The summary is an overview of the general movements of the Shawnee tribe. Some of the text has a little arrow to the right of it. Clicking on the arrow will take you to a map file related to that information.

Navigating the File

• Returning to the Timeline or Summary
  Once you have clicked on a link from the timeline or summary which takes you to a map in the PDF Portfolio, you can navigate back to the timeline or summary by going back to the ‘cover sheet’. In Adobe Acrobat 9 or Adobe Reader 9, return to the cover sheet using the menu item: View > Portfolio > Cover Sheet. In Adobe Acrobat 8 or Adobe Reader 8, return to the cover sheet by clicking on the cover sheet button.
• Bookmarks
  Each cession map file has bookmarks that show the treaties associated with the map and which lands sections were ceded as part of that treaty. To see the bookmark list, you can: (1) click on the bookmark item on the left side of the window, or (2) use the menu item under view > navigation panels > Bookmarks. Once the list of bookmarks is available, select a bookmark to view and click it.
• Notes
  Some of the files have notes on them to indicate different areas. To see the comments, you can: (1) click on the comments item on the lower lefthand side of the window, or (2) use the menu item under view > navigation panels > comments. Once the list of comments is available, select a comment to view and click it.
• Reference List
  Each map reference in the reference list provides a link to the map in the file and the map URL for the original file. Each book reference links to the WorldCat entry so you can find the book at a library near you! Each website reference links to the website. The description of each file in the PDF Portfolio also has the reference to the file.

Geospatial Information

Files which have ‘Geo’ in the name have been geospatially referenced to the best of our ability using the Acrobat 9 Geospatial Registration Tool (thanks to my coworker John for helping me to identify map projections!). To use this information you must open the file in Acrobat 9 or Adobe Reader 9. When the file is being previewed in either Acrobat 9 or Adobe Reader 9 there is a button in the upper righthand corner which says ‘open’. Click this button and the file will open in a new window. Select Tools > Analysis > Geospatial Location Tool. As you hover over the map, you should see the latitude and longitude values.

• Location in a Web Map
  To view a current map of a location, right click and select “copy coordinates to clipboard”, which will copy the latitude and longitude. Navigate to your favorite Web Map application and paste those values into the search box to see that latitude/longitude on a present-day map.
• Search for a Location
  To try to find a particular latitude and longitude in the map you are viewing, right-click and select Find a Location. Type in the latitude and longitude of interest then hit the forward arrow. If it finds the location, it will be centered in the window and highlighted with a blue box.

Shawnee Lands File

Now that you know all the details, download the Shawnee Lands PDF Portfolio and try it out. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments. Thanks for taking a look!