Shawnee, city, seat of Pottawatomie County, central Oklahoma, on the North Canadian River; incorporated 1894. It is a transportation and commercial center for a farming and petroleum-producing region. Oklahoma Baptist University (1910), the Mabee-Gerrer Museum and Art Gallery, and the Shawnee Mission Church (1872, now a museum) are here. The community, founded in 1891, is named for the Shawnee people. Oil was discovered in the area in 1926. Population 26,506 (1980); 26,017 (1990); 28,692 (2000).
