History of the LEOMS Of WV
Our History starts out as individual people from Shawnee ancestors living in the mountains of West Virginia. Some of us trace our people as far back as the 1871 Shawnee Rolls. We have lived here being known as Native Americans in our communities. We became members of the West Virginia Native American Metis Coalition and later joined with the Youghiogaheny River Band of Shawnee Indians Eagle Clan in the year 1991 under Principle Chief and Ceremonial Leader Joseph Raincrow Neale. Chief Joseph Raincrow Neale passed on in the year 1998 and just two years later the Youghiogheneny Band of Shawnee Indians broke apart.
The people of West Virginia went on to regroup as the Middle Island Creek Shawnee of West Virginia and they were reacquainted with the Lower Eastern Ohio Mekoce Shawnee at the Fort Ancient Celebration in 2002 in Ohio. Later in 2002 Wampum was exchanged between both Shawnee peoples and talk of a merger came about.
In 2003 an agreement was made between the Chiefs and the council of both Shawnee peoples for a merger and our first Ceremony was performed in the New Beginning of Spring 2004, in Ohio, and we became the Lower Eastern Ohio Mekoce Shawnee of West Virginia.
As the Lower Eastern Ohio Mekoce Shawnee of West Virginia we have several people in the medical field that have been able to help our people in need of medications. One of our goals is to have a medical fund to help those without insurance obtain their medicine. We have raised money for the West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center and volunteer weekly as caretakers of injured birds of prey. We have Elders in our Village who travel and educate people at different historical locations through out Ohio such as ShaunBraun Village. We also have a young man who is a Shawnee interpretor working for Pricketts Fort in West Virginia. Our womans drum, Struck-By-Lightning, has been asked back to Fort Ancient, Ohio every year for four years and have completed many drum programs around West Virginia.
Within a year of becoming Mekoce Shawnee we were informed that we had been chosen to receive an estate gift which has enabled us to buy fifty one acres in West Virginia to build our Mekoce Shawnee Village. We have plans of a Council House and are in the process of building a log house for Tribal Members and guests. We will be selling our hay from the fields for financial income and hopefully raising horses in the future. We have a federal permit for a Bird of Prey Sanctuary on our grounds, giving non-releasable injured birds of prey a place to live the rest of their lives in dignity while educating the public on the importance of these raptors to our environment. There are endless opportunities opened to us to teach our children to work hand in hand with Mother Earth because our path has led us here and the Creator has Blessed us.
