| Vinyard Indian Settlement | |
| Named After: | Vinyard family,[1] American Indians |
| Formation: | 2002 (nonprofit) |
| Founders: | --> |
| Type: | nonprofit organization, unrecognized cultural heritage group |
| Tax Id: | EIN 37-1387373 |
| Purpose: | Cultural, Ethnic Awareness (A23) |
| Location City: | Herod, Illinois |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Leader Title: | Principal officer |
| Leader Name: | Christine Wagner |
| Publication: | --> |
| Parent Organisation: | --> |
Vinyard Indian Settlement is an unrecognized group and nonprofit organization of people who claim to have Shawnee ancestry. The organization is based in Herod, Illinois.[2]
The poet Barney Bush (1944–2021), who claimed to be of Shawnee and Cayuga ancestry, was a major organizer for this group.[3] He purchased a trailer that served as the group's headquarters and organized a council.[4] Bush said that about 1810 Shawnee refugees fled a militia in Ohio and hid out near Karbers Ridge, Illinois, where the German/Irish-American Vinyard family allowed them to settle on their land.[5] Bush said they assimilated into the local communities.[6] Other locals did not collaborate this story, and genealogists had "open objections to any connection with the Shawnee."[6]
In 2002, the group formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Herod, Illinois. Christine Wagner is their principal officer.[2] In 2011, their revenue was $12,637 and their expenses were $22,254.[2]
In 2019, Mark Denzer served as executive director of the organization.[7]
The group owns a 24-acre parcel of land outside of Herod, Illinois, and hope to purchase more surrounding land.
The Vinyard Indian Settlement is not federally recognized or state-recognized as a Native American tribe. Illinois has no federally recognized or state-recognized tribes.
In 2015, the Illinois state house of representatives passed HB 3127, Vinyard Indian Settlement of Shawnee Indians Recognition Act, which would have established them as the first state-recognized tribe in Illinois. However, upon hearing testimony from Shawnee tribes, the state senate did not vote on the bill.[8] Leaders from the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, and Shawnee Tribe all traveled to Illinois to testify against the recognition of the Vinyard Indian Settlement.[9]
The organization hosts Reconnection Days, an annual gathering in September,[10] begun in 2010.[11] They hold two other annual public festivals.[10]
Ben Barnes, chief of the federally recognized Shawnee Tribe, based in Miami, Oklahoma, stated of Barney Bush and the Vinyard Indian Settlement: "These [ceremonial] activities he presents for people are minstrel shows. When they do those pantomimes, that is offensive and racist."[10]