The area in red shows the approximate borders of the land owned by the Eastern Shawnee Tribe near Lewistown, Ohio. Image from Google Maps

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma is making its return to Ohio, 182 years after being forced to leave its former reservation.

The tribe purchased 50 acres of its ancestral territory near Lewiston. The land was part of an allotment owned by the daughter of Chief Blue Jacket but it fell out of Indian ownership in the 1800s.

A local attorney has since uncovered a document that he says shows the tribe's rightful claim to the site. Jim Calim said it took 12 years to track down the information.

"I’m really proud of the fact that I found one for them,” Calim told Lima Ohio. He said the document shows the land should have reverted to the tribe after Blue Jacket's heirs died.

The tribe had a reservation in Ohio until being forced to leave in 1832. Lewiston had been set aside as Indian territory under the Treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817.

The tribe will be asking the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the land in restricted status, according to news reports

Get the Story:
‘Historian’ found claim to tribe’s land (Lima Ohio 10/28)
Indian tribe considering $150M investment in Logan County (The Dayton Daily News 10/27)

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