Lower Shawneetown

Historic Native American village on the Ohio River

Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th century Shawnee village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky. The population eventually occupied areas on both sides of the Ohio River, and along both sides of the Scioto River in what is now Scioto County, Ohio. populated mainly by Shawnee, Iroquois, and Delawares. By 1755, its population exceeded 1,200, making it one of the largest Native American communities in the Ohio Country, second only to Pickawillany. The size and diversity of the town's population attracted both French and British traders, leading to political competition between France and Britain to influence the community in the years preceding the French and Indian War. The town remained politically neutral in spite of frequent visits by French, British and Native American leaders. Several English captives, including Mary Draper Ingles and Samuel Stalnaker, were held captive in Lower Shawneetown in the 1750s. Lower Shawneetown was abandoned in 1758 to avoid colonial American raids during the French and Indian War, and was relocated further up the Scioto River to the Pickaway Plains.

Established in the mid 1730s at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, Lower Shawneetown was one of the earliest known Shawnee settlements on the Ohio River. The first reference to the town is found in a letter of 27 July 1734, written by François Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, describing an English trader's warehouse in "the home of the Shawnees on the Ohio River." The first reference to the Lower Shawneetown by that name was in a letter by William Trent on 20 October 1748, reporting a murder at Kuskusky, when a Virginia trader there was killed following an altercation over some liquor, "which he was tying up, in order to send to the Lower Shawna Town." The Shawnee name of the town is unknown, but evidence suggests that it may have been "Chillicothe," a Shawnee word meaning "principal place" and typically applied to villages of the Chalahgawtha division of the Shawnees, who dominated the town. (which may be a corruption of Scioto), "Sinhioto," "Sononito," "Sonnioto," "Scioto," "Sonyoto," and "Cenioteaux." Lower Shawneetown was downstream from the much smaller Upper Shawneetown, established about 1751 at the confluence of the Ohio River and the Kanawha River, near present day Point Pleasant, West Virginia and known to the Shawnees as Chinoudaista or Chinodahichetha.

Pressure from the growing European populations on the east coast of North America and in southern Canada had caused Native American populations to concentrate in the Ohio River Valley, and Lower Shawneetown was situated at a convenient point, accessible to many communities living on tributaries of the Ohio River. The area had Iroquois, Delaware, Wyandot, and Miami communities within a few days' journey. The town also lay near the Seneca Trail, which was used by Cherokees and Catawbas, and the opportunity to trade for furs and to broker political alliances attracted both British and French traders. The community was initially built on the south bank of the Ohio River opposite its confluence with the Scioto River, on floodplains and terraces, with later growth of a sub community on the north bank of the Ohio, along the east and west banks of the Scioto. The Ohio community on the east side of the Scioto, where the village council house was located, soon became significantly larger than the Kentucky community. According to historian Richard Warren, "It was a sprawling series of wickiups and longhouses French and British allied traders regarded Lower Shawneetown as one of two capitals of the Shawnee tribe." but by 1751, the town consisted of 40 houses on the Kentucky side located along bluffs above the floodplain, and 100 houses on the Ohio side atop a forty foot river bank lined with sycamores and willows. Including its 300 warriors, the town may have had a total population of between 1,200 In 1753, after a flood destroyed part of the town which had been on the Scioto River's west bank, some residents relocated to the east bank, and others moved to the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. According to A. Gwynn Henderson, eighteenth century homes in this community would have resembled those of the Fort Ancient inhabitants (a Native American culture that occupied the region from about 1000 1750 CE):

Long rectangular buildings with rounded corners constructed of frameworks of wooden posts set singly into the ground and covered with either thatch, bark, mats or skins. Trade blankets or skins provided "doors" at the ends of the houses. Interior partitions broke up the space within each house, and hearths were located in the center of earthen floors. Pits for storage lined the walls; trash was disposed in outdoor pits or on the ground in heaps behind the house. Bundles of dried food hung from the rafters. However, Europeans described some buildings as huts, cabins or houses structures with squared logs and covered with bark or clapboard. A few even had chimneys. The area around the town contained abundant resources: hardwood forests, grasslands, canebrakes, nut bearing trees, freshwater springs and some with brine. Wildlife included bear, deer, elk, and bison. Tools and pottery could be made from chert bearing bedrock and clay riverbanks. Residents of the town used Raven Rock, a 500 foot high sandstone rock formation on the Ohio side, as a lookout point to observe traffic on the Ohio River. Located about 5.5 miles southwest of the town center, the rock allowed lookouts to survey a 14 mile stretch of the river upstream and downstream. It is today part of Raven Rock State Nature Preserve.

The earliest eyewitness account is a report by Charles III Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil from July, 1739. A French military expedition made up of 123 French soldiers and 319 Native American warriors from Quebec, under the command of Longueuil, was on its way to help defend New Orleans from the Chickasaw, who were attacking the city on behalf of England. While on their journey down the Ohio River towards the Mississippi River, they met with local chiefs in a village on the banks of the Scioto, which was probably Lower Shawneetown, "where the Shawnees gave them a friendly reception and furnished reinforcements." Among Longueuil's officers was the young Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, who returned to Lower Shawneetown in 1749.

The Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky near South Portsmouth, is a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The site was listed for its information potential and includes the Lower Shawneetown village site, human burials, and five more contributing sites:

The Kentucky portion of the site was initially discovered in the 1920s during road construction. It was investigated at that time by a team from the University of Kentucky, however Fort Ancient materials recovered from the site were not analyzed until the 1960s. Sites on both sides of the Ohio River were excavated again between 1984 and 1987 and all have produced Late Fort Ancient Montour Phase (1550 to 1750) artifacts, including mid 18th century Euro American trade goods and human and animal remains.