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Show "Shavnee River" May Be Real Name Washington. Maybe we should sing, "Way down upon the Shawnee Tiver," if the famous old Suwanee river got its name from those gypsy-Indians, the Shawnees. Pointing out that there are two theories explaining the Suwanee river's riv-er's name, neither proved. Dr. John R. Swanton, of the bureau of American Ameri-can Ethnology, says that Shawnee Indians were gypsies of the Indian race. While other eastern Indians stayed home, or at least within familiar fa-miliar boundaries as a rule, Shawnee Shaw-nee groups roamed the map, leaving leav-ing traces of their presence from New Jersey to Texas. Creek Indians Indi-ans in Georgia twisted their name into Sawanogi. Dr. Swanton says there Is one missing link, needed to prove Indian origin for the name Suwanee. So far, no evidence has shown the Shawnees roaming as far south as the Okefinokee swamp in southern Georgia, where the Suwanee rises, though they may well have been there. They are known to have been as far south as the Chattahoo-chie Chattahoo-chie river, near Atlanta. The other theory of the river's name, which is more widely accepted, ac-cepted, is that it is a shortened form of a Spanish name given the river, San Juanito, or Little St. John. |