The Shawnee Spirit

The Shawnee Spirit provides a wide-ranging study of Shawnee cosmogony over a period of more than two hundred years as they endeavored in the face of the relentless cross-cultural forces arrayed against them. The comparative and historical facets of of early Shawnee myth reveal the forces of change and continuity that display a combination of ideological transformations as a part of a process of retrenchment such that the Shawnee drew from the wealth of their own rich traditions to formulate a unique view of their origins and destiny. The Shawnee looked upon the European “other” and found it wanting and went on to cultivate their own vision of their God and their people. John Sugden: Here then is the most comprehensive review of Shawnee legends myths and thought worlds to date drawing upon material from the mid-eighteenth century to the 1970s. Noel Schutz creates an evolutionary portrait of the thought-world of the Shawnee demonstrating how it accommodated the great challenges of the nineteenth century….We walk in the footsteps of Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin and Noel Schutz. We may not always agree but this new presentation by a founding father is assuredly a major contribution to the growing literature of a fascinating people. — John Sugden is the author of Tecumseh: A Life and many other Shawnee works.