Great Leader: Meaurroway Opessa Straight Tail of the Pekowi Shawnee, 1630-1709

What we now know as tribes are actually composed of several bands or clans grouped together under a general name.  On the frontier, long before the BIA and federally recognized tribes, each tribe had several clans, combinations of which often formed bands within the tribe.  Those bands might often be self-governing, with little direction from a centralized authority.  Members of certain clans or bands might be noted for certain things, hunting, war leadership, medicine and the like.  The Pekowi are one band among the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee, which like many tribes has a Turtle clan.  Members of that clan are known as religious leaders. 

Straight Tail Meaurroway Opesa, known to Whites as Meaurroway, was born in 1630 in what is now Ohio to a chief of the Pekowi band and his wife.  Shawnee leadership runs through the paternal line and Meaurroway succeeded his father at about age 40, both as chief of the Pekowi ban and head of the Turtle Clan.  The Shawnee were a nomadic tribe who tended to range far in pursuit of game or to avoid conflicts with enemies.  In 1677, Meaurroway led his people to what is now Illinois.  From 1680-1693, his range was what is now Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.  In 1697, he settled his people near what is now Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and became a friend of William Penn.  Meaurroway eventually retired and passed leadership of the Pekowi and Turtle Clan to his son, who would continue the friendship with Penn.  Meaurroway died in 1709.

His heritage lived on in his many children and descendants.  One of his daughters married Pierre Chartier, a French army deserter turned trader.  Their son, Martin Chartier, was a well-known trader on the frontier who advocated against sales of alcohol to Natives and even led the Pekowi back to Illinois to get away from unscrupulous traders.  Another son, Opessa Straight Tail, became the great-grandfather of Tecumseh.  Through his Chartier descendants, Meaurroway has many-times great grandchildren today.