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JUNE 12, 2000

To his descendants, Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket has always been a Shawnee. But a theory dating back to the late 1800s claims Blue Jacket was really a white man named Marmaduke Van Swearingen, adopted into the tribe as a young boy.

DNA tests being conducted on his descendants and those from the Swearingen family tend to back up his Indian descendants' beliefs and not the theory. Terry Barnhart, a history professor at Eastern Illinois University, says there is no evidence which shows Blue Jacket was anything but Indian.

The Shawnee originally inhabited southern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. After being driven from this area by the Iroquois around the 1660s, they scattered throughout the midwestern region, some to South Carolina. By 1730 most of the Shawnee had returned to their homeland but were eventually removed by the US government after the Civil War.

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DNA results raise questions about legend of war chief Blue Jacket (AP 6/12)