Michigan’s Native people did not bear the full force of early contact with Europeans.  Many Native people were still living in Michigan, in their tribal units, speaking their own language, in the 1800s, even into the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Records do exist, in many cases, which allow us to take a look at the evolution of Native names.

When I’m working with the WWI draft records, and I see a grouping of names, I always know I have a family unit of some type and it’s not an aberration.  When I see three or four people, scattered between counties, I always wonder why.  Here’s an example using the Shaw family

WWI Draft Registration Cards – 1917-1918 – registered as Indian

 Adam Shaw b 1886 registered Lake Co., Mi.

 John Thomas Shaw b 1890 Mi registered Baraga Co., Mi.

 Aaron James Shaw b 1891 Mi registered Manistee Co., Mi.

These names are very similar.  They may or may not be a derivative of Shaw. 

 In Emmet Co., Mi.

Amos Mathew Shawa b 1884

Frank Shawan b 1882

I wanted to take a look at the various records that we do have to see what can be discovered about this surname.  Whatever lessons or trends we find can probably generally be applied to Native surnames in general.

Looking at the land allotment records from 1887, we can see that the surname Shaw was already in use then, in several counties among the Native people.  However, we can also see that Shaw was a portion of several other names spoken in the Native tongue.  It’s certainly possible that Shaw became a surname because it was part or all of a Native name and Shaw became the anglicized version.

Several land allotment records from this link are shown below.

http://www.mainlymichigan.com/nativedata/LandAllotments/Land.aspx

The Durant Rolls from 1870/1908 returned 10 pages of names that included the word “shaw.”  Both the name Shaw and Shawan were shown.

http://www.mainlymichigan.com/nativedata/DurantRoll/Default.aspx

From the records above, and the list of Halfbreeds, below, it looks like we might well have several sources for the eventual surname Shaw.  One source could indeed be a European male, given that the name appears on the list of halfbreeds.  Several native names inclusive of the word or syllable shaw could have evolved into the surname Shaw.  Only DNA testing would tell us definitively how many sources we have for this surname and this could potentially be affected by matrilineal naming practices.  Regardless of the genesis, it’s apparent that Shaw was a very early Ottawa/Chippewa name in Michigan.

Looking at the 1836 list of Halfbreed Ottawa and Chippewa, we find Shaw there as well.

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