Welcome to the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians

The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, also known as the Ridgetop Band of Shawnee, are a local group of people of Native American heritage who descend from Southeastern Kentucky's earliest mix-raced settlers. Many people of mixed heritage (White, Native American and African American) settled the rugged mountains of Southeastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virgina and Northeastern Tennessee in the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries.

We formed in 2003, officially, with the goal of exploring our Native American heritage and to assist our youth and elderly. Our main goal is to teach our children of our Father and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians show support for H.R. 2758 Lumbee Recognition Act.

Tribal Council Decision 3-13-2022 -  YES

Support for H.R. 2758 Lumbee Recognition Act; 

The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians show support for H.R. 2758 Lumbee Recognition Act. 

"This bill extends federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and makes its members eligible for the services and benefits provided to members of federally recognized tribes."

We encourage members to write to our United States Senators, Mitch McConnell R-KY and Rand Paul R-KY and encourage them to show support for this legislation when it is introduced into the United States Senate. 

Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians Position on Formal State Recognition in Kentucky

The decision to support or not support Formal State Recognition in Kentucky was a simple one among the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribal Council, no to formal state tribal recognition in Kentucky. It may surprise many who may read this that a state tribe would be against formal state recognition. The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians ARE NOT a "formal" state recognized tribe. We are "recognized" by the Kentucky State House of the Kentucky General Assembly. That's good enough for us, it gave us what we desired, true historical credibility.  

Formal State Recognition is a very technical term that must be satisfied by certain criteria such as:

• Legislatively created criteria for state recognition
• A FUNDED governing body that would supervise the process and govern approved state tribes
• And legislation creating a formal recognition procedure (i.e. a vote by the Kentucky General Assembly)  

Sadly, none of these line items exist in Kentucky and there's only, maybe, two tribal organizations in all of the Commonwealth of Kentucky that could achieve this status, the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians being one of the two. 

So at this time: The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, nor any of her delegates, will support, and or lobby for, any type of legislation that would create formal state tribal recognition UNLESS it met the criteria outlined above, which is likely NEVER to happen in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 

Furthermore: The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians will never support a streamlined process where the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission would serve as the approval mechanism and or the governing body of this process. This was not and will never be the intended legislative purview of the KNAHC. 

The Executive Tribal Manager has notified Senate President Robert Stivers of our position and at this time the our position is solid and our decision made.     

Enrollment Update

**************************ATTENTION**************************

NOTICE 2-25-2022
The Administration of the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians is exploring the possibility of opening enrollment into the Tribe. This will take some months to see if this is viable. Please check here for more updates.

William Shackleford Executive Tribal Manager

AND THE TRIBAL COUNCIL IS LOCKED AT 5 MEMBERS. WE WILL PROVIDE UPDATES AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE. 

**************************************************************

NEWS

Tribal Management is currently seeking to fill the following volunteer positions:

Tribal Secretary
Tribal Webmaster
Tribal Genealogist
Tribal Historian

If interested in any of these positions please contact us at rtshawnee@gmail.com
**************************************************************
The website is currently under construction please excuse the mess

Countering FAKE INDIANS Website

You can never have peace in the Tribal community, always a fight, somewhere, usually by people you don't even know. Anyone who does their own research know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Ridgetop Shawnee have a wonderful, and TRUE, history. We don't have to fake anything, we are real. 

There are a couple of web rangers out there who wish to tarnish our name, (SAM.. who is one such individual, who really doesn't want anyone to know his or her last name) well let them spew hatred and ignorance. The Ridgetop Shawnee will fight back, the right way, with truth. And as always the wannabes and other power hungry individuals will continue to act like this is some kind of Indian play or movie.

This isn't a movie, our people have real problems and in my 20 years in the State Tribal community I have yet to see one day where our people were unified in helping each other, that is not a lie and that is a shame. 

We are fighting back..  

Artifact Hunters and Grave Robbers in Kentucky

It has come to our attention that the terrible practice of artifact hunting for profit, what we call grave robbing, has yet again experienced a boom of sorts in Eastern Kentucky. 

It is no surprise that in these challenging financial times that this sort of horrible practice would yet again blossom in this region. We truly are trying our best to be understanding and sympathetic to individuals and their situations. BUT we have to draw a line in the sand and rebuke those who take things too far.