It’s nearly everywhere you turn when reading about Native Americans in the Valley… inconsistency and/or one of a small number of standardized, mind-numbed, tracked approaches to the subject.
… and… oh yes, by the way…
…just how do we know that the word “Shenandoah” really means (loosely interpreted, or not) “Daughter of the Stars”?
For that matter, “Sherando”, “Senedo”, “Massanutten”, etc., etc., etc., and yes… even “Cenantua”…
…where did these words come from… and can they really be sourced back to people who actually encountered the Native Americans who were in the Shenandoah Valley… who actually had verbal exchanges with the same?
Granted, much with which we have to work is apocryphal or anecdotal, but, does that excuse us from being honest… with ourselves just as much as with others? Can the apocryphal or anecdotal really be certain, or is it nothing more than a range of historic possibilities?
I think it’s past time to take another look at it all, and more importantly, begin a more critical approach… critical, specifically, of the weakly sourced, or un-sourced stories/folklore/mythology about (yes, “about“, and not “of“, as most of what we “know” did not come from the Native Americans who were here) native peoples that seem to have permeated the post-native history of the Shenandoah Valley since the last Shawnee left the area in peace (and before returning in wars), over 266 years ago.
Not that one, or a series of blog posts will un-do what has been done. Rather, the objective will be to plant material, on the Web, that takes a non-traditional approach, shaking that mind-numbed consistency of romantic and inadequate history.
So, here and there, between most posts that will continue to focus on the Civil War era, I’ll be, as the title of the post implies… shaking things up a bit more, and on a broader scale, when it comes to the history of the place and the people.
More to follow; a little here… a little there.
Cenantua's Blog 
jgo
October 30, 2011
Figuring out when the Shawnee got to the valley AND when they left are both problematic. E.g. one account had them being led by a Frenchman from the Mississippi above current St. Louis to the Susquehanna valley in the late 1600s… another (Drake) had them driven up from the Carolinas in the 1670s. OTOH, they also seemed to move freely along all of the rivers from the Mississippi east, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Robert Moore
October 30, 2011
From my findings, I’ve concluded that the arrival is more problematic than the departure. Though he was removed, generationally, from the time in which Natives lived in the Valley, Samuel Kercheval pointed to 1754 as the departure. There is also a circuit Methodist minister, just a little older than Kercheval, who appears to indicate the same. I’ve come across other materials that hint at a possible invite made to the remaining Shawnee here, by Shawnee in the Ohio River Valley, to move in their direction. Of course, at that time, the Iroquois had laid claim to the area, though none were documented (by European settlers) as being here.
As for the arrival, I don’t think the Shawnee were the ones who cleared the Valley prior to European arrival, but do believe that they were here in limited numbers before the arrival of Europeans.
It’s a ball of tangled yarn to unravel, no doubt, and I think it’s more so because unraveling it just doesn’t matter much to most.
Craig Swain
October 30, 2011
Some of the Shawnee tribe resettled far west (at the time) around Cape Girardeau, Missouri during and just after the American Revolution. However a few decades later they again relocated further west (or some to the south into Louisiana). There are several stories mentioning the Shawnee (as well as Delawares who also moved west around the same time) associated with the New Madrid earthquake. Among the many placenames left behind were several mounds attributed to the Shawnee. In all reality, the mounds probably date back to earlier tribes, but lacking a proper frame of reference these became associated with the Shawnee.
And while we are at it…there is one interpretation of “Oh, Shenandoah” that fits in here!
Robert Moore
October 30, 2011
Yes, didn’t Pontiac use the earthquakes to recruit more for his efforts?
We’ve got mounds in this area as well, and I don’t know that they’ve made any positive connections to any particular people; just eastern woodland. On the other hand, they might prove to be the roots for the Eastern Siouan. But, I’m a true amateur when it comes to understanding the pre-Columbian stuff in this area.
Robert Moore
October 30, 2011
I mean Tecumseh…