Black Snake, aka She-me-ne-to or Shemeneto, was the principal war chief of the Shawnee

Shawnee

The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...

 tribe of Native Americans

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 during the American War for Independence

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. He was a member of the Kispoko

Kispoko

Kispoko is the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people that existed during the 18th century. The Kispoko were the smallest of the five divisions. They lived among the Creek as early at 1650, having been driven from their Ohio country homeland by the Iroquois...

 sept or clan of the Shawnee and assumed the title of War Chief upon the death of Pucksinwah, the father of Tecumseh

Tecumseh

Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...

. He was a leader in the defeat of Colonel William Crawford's

William Crawford (soldier)

William Crawford was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War...

 army during the Crawford expedition

Crawford expedition

The Crawford expedition, also known as the Sandusky expedition and Crawford's Defeat, was a 1782 campaign on the western front of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the final operations of the conflict...

of 1782. He was a feared leader of Shawnee war parties for many years.