Kispoko (also spelled Kiscopocoke, Kispokotha, Spitotha)[1] is the name of one of the five divisions (or septs) of the Shawnee, a Native American people. The Kispoko were the smallest of the five septs or divisions during the 18th century. They lived among the Creek in the Upper South and Southeast as early as 1650, having been driven from their Ohio country homeland by the Iroquois Confederacy during the Beaver Wars. They returned to Ohio about 1759. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Mekoche, Pekowi, and Hathawekela. (Each of the five division names have been spelled in a great variety of ways.) Together these divisions formed the loose confederacy that was the Shawnee tribe. The septs tended to serve different functions for the overall confederacy.
Traditionally, the Shawnee had a patrilineal system, by which descent and inheritance went through paternal lines. The war chiefs were hereditary and descended from their paternal line in the Kispoko division.[2]
Historians have held that most of this sept relocated west of the Mississippi River in the early 19th century during the period of Indian Removal. Some remained in the Midwest. Since the late 20th century, their descendants have organized as two groups that identify as Kispoko of the Shawnee; they are documented in Ohio and Indiana. Neither has been recognized by respective states or the federal government. (Neither Ohio nor Indiana have a process for state recognition of Native American tribes.)