Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket Information
Gene Park, an elder in the Piqua Division of the Shawnee Tribe, http://aiac.alabama.gov/tribes_piquaShawnee.aspx was kind enough to send me a very interesting article about the great Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket.
The Ohio Journal of Science article that Gene sent me lays to rest the controversy over whether or not Chief Blue Jacket was a Shawnee or a Caucasian. I had read recently in a very good book The Shawnees and the War for America by Colin G. Calloway that Chief Blue Jacket was Shawnee and not an adopted white captive. Calloway presents a convincing argument and details the accomplishments of Chief Blue Jacket, often overlooked amidst Tecumseh’s fame.
I had also recently read a number of books, including children’s nonfiction, in which the legend that Marmaduke Swearingen was captured by the Shawnees and then raised up to become Chief Blue Jacket was relayed as the historically accurate story of the Chief’s life. That was what I thought was the truth. Even though, as I recently found out, the Shawnees have been trying to refute the legend since it began. I asked Gene what he thought of what I had been reading and he sent me the article.
Scientists studied DNA samples from descendants of Swearingen’s ancestor and from Chief Blue Jacket’s known Shawnee son, George. They were able to conclusively determine that Chief Blue Jacket was Shawnee. See Volume 106, September 2006, Number 4 of the Ohio Journal of Science http://www.shawnee-bluejacket.com/Bluejacket_Folders/BlueJacket.pdf
The Shawnees and the War for America is an excellent read. Calloway has chapters on Shawnee general history, Cornstalk, Blue Jacket, Black Hoof, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh, and Removals and Survival. There is also a lengthy bibliography if you are like me and searching for information on the Shawnees.
Gene has recommended two more books for me to read:
Shawnee by James Howard
Blue Jacket — Warrior of the Shawnees by John Sugden
Gene also sent me the link to the Blue Jacket Genealogy website http://www.shawnee-bluejacket.com/
Thank you, Gene!
Very good info!