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Ridgetop Shawnee
Tribe of Indians, LLC
Pine Mountain Indian Community

Seal of the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians
Nickname	Ridgetop Shawnee, Ridgetop Band of Shawnee Indians
Named after	Shawnee people
Formation	January 22, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-01-22)
Founder	William Hayes Shackleford
Dissolved	September 10, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-09-10)
Type	limited liability corporation
Legal status	inactive
Location	Hazard, Kentucky
Official language	English
Website	ridgetopshawnee.net

The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians is an inactive limited liability company, nonprofit organization, and unrecognized tribe in Kentucky. Founded as an organization in 2009, they identify as being of Shawnee and Cherokee descent.

Nonprofit organization

William Hayes Shackleford founded the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, LLC, as a limited liability company and nonprofit organization, based in Hazard, Kentucky, in 2009. The organization went inactive but became active again in 2021, with Jeffery R. Morgan serving as its registered agent.

Shackleford organized the Pine Mountain Indian Community, Kentucky LLC in 2013, another nonprofit limited liability company in Hazard, Kentucky. This organization dissolved in September 2015. Morgan also served as this organization's registered agent.

In June 2013, the Pine Mountain Indian Community LLC announced that the Ridgetop group would be renamed as the Ridgetop Shawnee, to serve as the heritage arm of this nonprofit organization. Within this new management structure, the Ridgetop Shawnee would concentrate on the preservation and protection of the heritage of the region. The Pine Mountain Indian Community would focus on economic development and community development in Southeastern Kentucky.

Status, recognition, and identity

In March 2023, the Cultural Preservation Department of the Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe described "a concerning phenomenon we are witnessing in our ancestral settlement areas in our ancestral settlement areas including but not limited to Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Alabama", commenting that "In these areas, there are a number of people who claim Shawnee ancestry; this is not so much the concern as the fact that some of these individuals or groups use this claim to exploit Shawnee culture as a means of gaining opportunities for themselves from a public that is largely unaware of the vast divide that separates our tribal community politically and culturally from those of alleged Shawnee ancestry", and went on to name the Ridgetop Shawnee as one of the ten similar groups they "have identified that have recently organized as alleged Shawnee bands/tribes and promote themselves as the voice of the Shawnee".

While the State of Kentucky has a Native American Heritage Commission, Kentucky has no state-recognized tribes and "the state doesn’t have a process for them to apply for formal recognition."

The Kentucky House of Representatives passed Joint Resolution 15 in 2009 and Joint Resolution 16 in 2010 as congratulatory resolutions to "Commend the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians for their efforts to help their elderly and their youth; recognize their work to preserve their native language and heritage."

See also

• Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
• Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
• Shawnee Tribe
• Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky – another non-recognized tribe in Kentucky

References

1. ^ "Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians L.L.C." OpenCorporates. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
2. ^ "Pine Mountain Indian Community, Kentucky LLC". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
3. "Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Cultural Preservation Department" (PDF). The Absentee Shawnee News. No. 11, Vol. 25. Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. November 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
4. ^ Hume, Sarah (November 23, 2023). "Written out of existence? Native Americans in Kentucky push for recognition of culture". Courier Journal. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
5. "State Recognition of American Indian Tribes". National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
6. "Kentucky General Assembly 2009 Regular Session HJR-15". kentucky.gov, updated February 5, 2009. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
7. "Kentucky General Assembly 2010 Regular Session HJR-16". kentucky.gov, updated February 9, 2010. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
8. "House Joint Resolution 16". Kentucky General Assembly. Retrieved January 15, 2024.

External links

• Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians
• Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission

• Cultural organizations based in Kentucky
• 2009 establishments in Kentucky
• 2011 disestablishments in Kentucky
• Unrecognized tribes in the United States
• Non-profit organizations based in Kentucky
• Harlan County, Kentucky
• Shawnee heritage groups