Kispoko is the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people. The Kispoko were the smallest of the five septs or divisions during the 18th century. They lived among the Creek as early as 1650, having been driven from their Ohio country homeland by the Iroquois Confederacy during the Beaver Wars. They returned about 1759. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha,Mekoche,Pekowi, and Hathawekela. Together these divisions formed the loose confederacy that was the Shawnee tribe. The septs tended to serve different functions for the overall confederacy. Traditionally, the Shawnee had a patrilineal system, by which descent and inheritance went through paternal lines. The war chiefs were hereditary and descended from their paternal line in the Kispoko division. While historians have held that most of this sept relocated west of the Mississippi River in the 19th century, in the 20th and 21st centuries, two groups have organized and identified as Kispoko of the Shawnee; they are documented in Ohio and Indiana. Neither has any official recognition by respective state or federal governments.
Kispoko in Ohio
The Shawnee village of Peckuwe, which was located at 39° 54.5′ N, 83° 54.68′ W, near Springfield, Ohio was home to the Peckuwe and Kispoko divisions of the Shawnee Tribe until the Battle of Piqua when they were defeated by white settlers. The Piqua Sept of Ohio Shawnee Tribe have placed a traditional cedar pole in commemoration, located "on the southern edge of the George Rogers Clark Historical Park, in the lowlands in front of the park's 'Hertzler House.'" Another Shawnee settlement in Ohio was called "Kispoko Town."
"Kispoko Town" was situated on the east bank of the Scioto River| river, across from the Pickaway Plains about midway between present dayCircleville and Chillicothe. This town was peopled by the Chalahgawatha sept of the Shawnee tribe, one of five divisions making up the Shawnee Nation. The principal Chiefs of this area were the legendary Chief Cornstalk and his tall sister, Grenadier Squaw, who stood at six and a half feet tall.
21st-century Kispoko Shawnee
A Kispoko Sept of Ohio Shawnee was listed as residing in Cridersville, Ohio as of 2013, according to the 500 Nations website. But, an 1880 source states that the Shawnee, including those formerly living in the Hog Creek Reservation, were removed to eastern Kansas in 1832, receiving payment of $30,000 in fifteen annual installments for their lands, which had an estimated value of over $200,000 at that time. An 1832 census lists the names of individuals from the Hog Creek Band who moved to Kansas. The Upper Kispoko Band of the Shawnee Nation, an unrecognized tribe, was listed as being located in Kokomo, Indiana as of 2013.
