The tribe operates its own housing authority and issues tribal vehicle tags. Regardless of historical viewpoints, the bands cooperate for the future of the tribe. Today many of its families are based in the Shawnee area. The White Turkey Band historically had assimilated more, adopting cultural ways of the European-American majority. Descendants of the traditionalist Big Jim Band have kept cultural traditions and ceremonies they have their primary community in the Little Axe, or Norman area. Though it is not a formal division, there is a social separation between two major groups of the tribe, based on different histories of their ancestors.

Tribal membership is based on blood quantum criteria, with applicants required to have a minimum of one eighth (1/8) documented Absentee-Shawnee blood to be accepted as members, as established by the tribal constitution. Approximately 74% of members live in Oklahoma as of 2020. There are 4,576 enrolled Absentee Shawnee tribal members. The other federally recognized tribes are the Shawnee Tribe and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdiction area includes land in Oklahoma in both Cleveland and Pottawatomie counties. In contemporary times, the Absentee Shawnee Tribe reorganized their government in 1936 and became federally recognized their headquarters is in Shawnee, Oklahoma. In total, they occupied and traveled through lands ranging from Canada to Florida, and from the Mississippi River to the eastern continental coast.Īfter Indian Removal, most of the people settled in Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma). Historically residing in what became organized as the upper part of the Eastern United States, the original Shawnee lived in the large territory now made up of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and neighboring states.

The Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma (or Absentee Shawnee ) is one of three federally recognized tribes of Shawnee people. Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Shawnee Tribe, and Sac and Fox

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