Topeka Weekly Times, June 25, 1880. "Mr. Joel Lucas has furnished the State Historical Society several Indian relics, in the shape of an iron bucket, hoe, lead ornaments, a piece of buffalo robe, some braided stuff, and a few bones. They were taken from the ground on his farm near Menoken. It is supposed the relics belonged to a squaw of the Kaw Indians, who lived at the village of Fort Chiefs [Fool Chief], which was established near Menoken about 50 years ago."
Daily Commonwealth, June 25, 1880. "The relics from the old Kaw Indian village near Manhattan have been placed in the Historical Room at the State house. They are of stone, iron and copper, mostly in fragments, and of a rude character. The stones are boulders, some with slight cavities, and used probably for mortars; and others rounded and used for pestles. Some fragments of sheet copper may have been portions of vessels for domestic use. There is one old iron pot, such as used to be hung upon the crane in the old-fashioned fire places in our houses fifty years ago. They were hung by the Indians by chains in the center of their wigwams. They are some worn out and thrown away butcher knives, beads, some iron axes, hoes, etc.; a half dozen gun barrels and part of a gun lock. All but the stones are of such articles as were furnished by traders since our civilization came in contact with the Indians. The things are of a rude and primitive manufacture. One broken iron tomahawk-shaped utensil is in the lot. There are few flint spear heads, and other articles of flint, and some fragments of pottery. The flints and pottery were chiefly found adjacent to but apart from the village site and are probably the work of a different people from those inhabiting the villages. This village site is mainly on the land of Hon. Welcome Wells, and most of the articles were found by members of Mr. Wells’ family in plowing the ground, a part of which has been in cultivation for a good many years. The village was abandoned by the Kaws about fifty years ago. This is the first effort made to gather a collection of relics of the Kaws, who were the aboriginal Indians of Kansas. . . ."
The Daily Commonwealth. December 12, 1883. "Prof. J. A. Udder, of Bethany Academy, Lindsborg, McPherson Couty, has sent to the State Historical Society a stone metate, recently found in a mount on Paint Creek, five miles west of Lindsborg. This is a rare Indian relic to be found eastward of the great plains. The aborigines in this direction used mortars and pestle for grinding the Indian corn by pounding. The metate, employed for grinding by rubbing between stones, has always been in use in the Spanish-American States, but they have rarely been found to the eastward."
Daily Commonwealth. January 24, 1886. A New Relic. Quite a handsome addition was made to the rooms of the State Historical society, yesterday, from the hands of Mr. George Walker, of Burlington. It is an Indian pipe of the most handsome finish, something out of the line of those generally carried by that nation. In dimensions it is 10 ½ inches long, with a bowl 4 ½ inches deep. It is made from a red stone called Catlinate. . .Mr. Walker found the relic on August 19th, in Linn county.
Kansas Newspaper Union [Topeka]. May 9, 1889. "In making excavations for the new school house foundation the workmen unearthed a number of Indian relics. None of them were perfect, however, but very interesting. They consisted of mortar, rub stones, arrow points, broken potters and a curious fine bone needle."
Kansas Farmer Mail and Breeze. March 6, 1903. An Indian Village Site Near Wichita and a Remarkable Kansas Collection of Curios. "Frank J. Ford, a deputy in the office of county clerk of Sedwick County, has a most interesting collection of prehistoric Indian relics, most of which were gathered near the confluence of Chisolm creek with the Arkansas River, a few miles south of Wichita. At this place Mr. Ford has discovered unmistakable evidences of “an extensive camping ground, if not a permanent village” of the Indians, thus verifying the statement of early white settlers of the county and showing that the Indians still had a large village on this very spot 30 years ago. J. R. Meade says large numbers of buffalo skins, wolf pelts and the like were dressed and sold at that time by the Indians who occupied this site. This accounts for the large number of rubbing stones, flint scapers, and similar objects use in the tanning process, which Mr. Ford has found in that locality. He had picked up hundreds of these primitive skin dressing implements, besides numerous other objects of domestic utility, warfare, and the chase. Mr. Ford says that although he has discovered no mounds, burial grounds or other evidence of the permanent existence of prehistoric people in that locality, he has ample reasons for believing that it was a favorite camping ground for ages. In testimony of a very remote occupancy of this spot. Mr. Ford mentions the fact that he has found chips of flint and fragments of pottery far below the surface in solid and undisturbed soil. Among the most interesting specimens in Mr. Ford’s collection of Indian relics is a stone axe with a spiral groove passing twice around it; two stone pipes, one of them made from catlinite; a grooved stone maul; a five notched flint scraper, and other objects which are exceedingly rare in the locality in question. 'Notched arrow points are rare,' says Mr. Ford, 'only seven perfect ones having been found. The thin, delicate triangular points are more plentiful.' The tract of ground (the southeast quarter of section 3, township 28, range 1 east) on which most of the relics were found is described as being sheltered by natural timber and ills on the north, west, and southwest and is an ideal spot for an open-air camp. Inside of the dotted lines of the accompanying map is where Mr. Ford found most of his relics. At the east end of the brickyard excavation on the bank of the creeks five or six large spearheads were unearthed at a depth of from 6 to 18 inches. At "A" was found a millstone or mortar, measuring almost 20 inches square and seven inches thick at the same place several grinding stones or pestles were found. . .." George J. Remsburg, Oak Mills, Kansas
Topeka Daily Herald. April 13, 1903. Quivira Indian Relics. "Junction City, Kan. Capt. Robert Henderson of Junction City has shipped 360 pounds of Quivira and Harahey Indian relics from this place to Prof. J. V. Brower, president of the Quivira Historical Society at St. Paul, Minn. The collection consists of arrow points, tomahawks, spear points, scrapers, etc. all choice specimens collected in Geary County."
Topeka State Journal. July 18, 1903. "W. L. Bass, north of El Dorado 3 ½ miles, has a magnificent and most interesting collection of prehistoric Indian relics such as flint, arrow and spear heads, pottery, etc. He has gathered them from many localities in Kansas and other states and is quite proud of them. Some of the finest of his specimens he found in Butler County, just east of Chelsea and on West Branch near his home. There are many problems to be solved in viewing such a collection. The flint is not native to the localities in which these utensils and implements are found and the method of making them from the flint is a lost art, as is that of making the pottery from clay, sand or broken mussel shells. – Walnut Valley Times"
Capper’s Weekly. July 31, 1903. "Marysville, Kan. Workmen employed in excavating the cellar for Postmaster J.B. Davis’ new residence on Eleventh Street have unearthed an old flint Indian ax. It is almost perfect in shape, only one little chip being broken from it. It is made of the hardest kind of flint, and when tested by the stonemason’s tools would not chip or break. It was found five feet underground embedded in sand. . . "
Topeka State Journal, September 19, 1903. "The work of the mound builders of Kansas is attracting more and more attention from the archaeologists, who have discovered relics of their habitations and have drawn conclusions as to the time and manner of their existence. In numerous localities in the state abundant remains of habitations have been found from time to time since the earliest settlement by white men. The options held by many Kansas ethnologist, and that supported by the national bureaus of ethnology, is that the people who left these relics were members of a prehistoric race possessed of a degree of civilization considerably greater than that maintaining among the Indians found as native by the white men who invaded this territory within the last one hundred years. Mound builder they were not, literally speaking. But that they were of the same blood and of approximately the same period and were enlightened to an equal extent in the arts of living and trading with the mysterious peoples who raised the enormous earth mounds of the states east of the Mississippi River, is the theory gradually becoming accepted concerning them. Perhaps the most extensive investigations and collection of their relics have been made by W. E. Richey, of Harveyville, Kas. Through his efforts many very valuable specimens have been placed in the collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, where they are arranged on exhibition for public inspection. One hundred or more new pieces of relics were placed in the hands of the society on Friday, and will soon be on display. This collection represents his investigative work upon the site of a southern Kansa village which has heretofore been but little known. …Those who knew the village in the earliest day and no explanation or theory of its origins. It has been a subject of curiosity among the farmers in the region for 50 years and from time to time relics picked up on the village site have been preserved by them. Many of these have been assembled by Mr. Richey and are not as the state house. . . ..One of the best written descriptions of the fort is that found in a letter written in inquiry to Kansas Historical Society. He says: 'That which is now the most prominent—of the village remains—is an embankment about two feet high and twelve feet wide, in the form of a horse shoe, or nearly so. Immediately within the embankment is a ditch where it has not been filled about three feet deep. Cultivation and time have obliterated part of the embankment and ditch. From the heel to the toe of the shoe is about 128 years, while it is 148 yards across at the widest part. Those remains are to be found on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter, section 8, township 30, range 16 east, and on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 5 in the same township. The toe of the shoe is toward the west and the heel toward the east. In the center of the shoe is a mound about 15 yards in diameter and now raised about one foot above the surround level. About quarter of a mile from this shoe, to the southeast was formerly another shoe smaller size with the toe pointing toward the larger shoes, but cultivation has now removed all trace of it. This fort and village are on what is known as the G.W. Argo farm.' Last May Mr. Richey who has investigated many other Indian villages in Kansas examined the Verdigris remains. In a letter written to Secretary Martin Mr. Richey said of his discoveries: 'The lodge sites occupy a considerable area and the village was an important one. Its occupants must have been known for long distances ads I have found flints of many colors which evidently cold not have been found in that region, none similar being known there. Ther seems to have been no other village of equal important in that whole section of country'…'There seems to be no clue or tradition as regards the village or fortification. I am inclined to think the fortifications more recent than the village and probably the work of white men. I have secured a lot of rubbing stones, flint arrow points, flint chips, bones, shells, several pitted stones, and two large record stones. They are interesting; especially the pitted stones and record stones. I do not know of any pitted stones having been found in Kansas before. They are found in the territory of the mound builders”. . ..”Two of them most interesting things here are those,” said he holding up two good sized, shapeless pieces of rock and pointing out on each small circular depressions large enough to hold the contents of a teaspoon. “I think these must have been used for mixing paints. They are the only ones I know of that have been found in Kansas, but they are common among the mound builders’ ruins. What I consider an important find are these two record stones. I don’t know what else to call them.' The stones referred to each weigh about thirty pounds. They are about six inches thick and unmarked save on one side where numerous straight grooves are found, apparently with no regular design. The grooves are very smooth, from three to six inches in length and are deepest in the middle. Whatever they are they have been made with considerable care. Mr. Richey volunteers the opinion that the stone told the traveling Indian the distance from one point to another, the grooves representing so many 'sleep. He thinks the stone was set up and occupied a position on a line of travel. The village is near an old river ford coming which the fort stood on one elevation. Stone mallets were found in considerable numbers and many pieces of pottery, all in small fragments. The pottery is of an unusually thick mould, some of it made of a sort of fire clay. Upon several these fragments were found handles of an inartistic by serviceable design. A few buffalo bones and teeth were discovered and a good many stone scrapers, pestles, and rubbing stones besides flint arrow points and knives. These are the characteristic implements of Indian civilization. With the exception of the axe and gun plate, the relics are absolute unmixed with any evidence that their makers had contact with white man. . . ."
Horton Headlight-Commercial. June 9, 1904. Took Indian Relics to the Fair. "O. C. Edwards, superintendent at the Kickapoo Mission, left for St. Louis Wednesday with a fine collection of Indian relics for the World’s Fair. He has some of the most highly prized relics to be found anywhere. Among other things he has a medicine flute to scare away evil spirit. A sacred headdress worn by the priests in their dances. A warclub brought from South America. It is very heavy and made of mahogany. Also a bear claw girdle such as worn by members of the bear lodge. A fox hide skull cap worn in the Fox Dance. A medicine chest supposed to contain all kinds of cures for diseases. A medicine incense holder made of Minnesota pipestone. The medicine is placed in this and the smoke arising is thought to drive away the evil spirit. In the collection is a pair of moccasins worn by Chief White Cloud, some sixty years ago. Three human scalps for a part of the exhibition and are sufficient to make the chills creep up and down the average human spine. One of the most interesting things in the collection is an old charter granted to the Iowas from the Governor of the Louisiana and Florida territories. The Indians surrendered this charter to the Territorial Governor of Missouri in 1836 and he afterwards returned it to him. There is a number of strings of wampum in the collection, and a number of sacred mummied animals, among others a sacred monkey. This monkey is wrapped in buckskin and out of that bearskin. It was brought from South America when the Iowa tribe made a visit to that country in the sixteenth century. Mr. Edwards is taking a bark house or wigwam to exhibit his collection in. Seven Indians will accompany him, most of whom will remain in St. Louis. Mr. Edward will return in about ten days. It is safe to say that this exhibit will be one of the most interesting at the Fair."
Gray, Patrick Leopoldo. (1905). Gray's Doniphan County history: A record of the happenings of half a hundred years. Bendena, KS: The Roycroft Press. "The late Frank Kitzmiller of Highland, under date of April 20, 1894, wrote me: "'I have been informed by several parties that many Indian relics have been found at Doniphan, and from what I can learn it must have been once occupied by an Indian village. I understand that the rubbish of the old tepees is occasionally met with in digging trenches and making other excavations. One man there has promised to bring me a lot of stone relics which he had plowed up in the town of Doniphan.' Mr. Kitzmiller had an interesting collection of Indian relics gathered in Doniphan county. Mrs. Jane Spencer says that in making excavations on her farm just north of town pottery has been unearthed. Mrs. Spencer came to Doniphan with her late husband in 1855. At that time there was evidence of an Indian graveyard on the land which they pre-empted and on which she still lives. Many wagonloads of loose limestones were hauled from a field on their farm. She had observed many Indian relics and has several in her possession now. Thomas Langan reports numerous evidences of Indian occupancy on his farm near Doniphan. James A. Dunning of St. Joseph, Me., formerly of Doniphan, writes that Indian relies were so very common there in the early days that but little attention was paid to them. 'I have gathered my hat full of arrowheads on the creek bank; also stone axes and war clubs by the dozens. Years after, in plowing over my father's farm, we have picked up beads and pottery, the latter being similar to those I have seen from cliff dwellings.' Joseph Geisendorf says he has found many stone relics on the same farm. Charles Kuch, the postmaster at Doniphan, says that the boys have gathered innumerable arrow points on the land occupied by the Brenner vineyard, and N. G. Brenner corroborates this statement and says he has found hundreds of them himself on the same ground."
Kansas Academy of Science. (1906). Transactions of the annual meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science. "In company with Prof. Patrick, of the State University, the writer made a short collecting tour in Trego county, Kansas, in 1878. We stopped off at the new town of WaKeeney, for headquarters, and made side-trips to different parts of the county. The third day after our arrival, we made an excursion nine miles northwest of WaKeeney, on the Saline fork of the Kansas river, to look after some bones reported to be of large size. We found them to be the bones of a buffalo, and protruding from the alluvial soil upon the side of a draw or ravine. It was here, at the residence of Mr. J. M. Davis, that we found numerous fragments of stone implements lying about the premises. These we readily secured through the generosity of Mr. Davis, and also made arrangements for saving any others he might afterward find. The implements thus secured, whole and in fragments, amount to several hundred pounds in weight. They consisted of stone mallets (many of them of large size), pestles, lap-stones, grinding-stones, and smoothing-stones. The smoothing- stones were many of them much worn by use, and nearly all of them were unbroken. The bottom upon the north bank of the Saline, where most of these implements were found, was covered so thickly with tent-poles, of oak and cedar, that Mr. Davis and some of his neighbors used them for firewood nearly all summer; and what seemed to me a little singular was, that over several acres of the bottom and slope adjoining were, mixed with the coarse sand of the numerous ant-hills, many glass beads of various colors, and of recent origin. So plentiful were they, that one could find several beads in almost every little heap of sand, or rather fine gravel. Near by this locality a stone hatchet was found, with a handle of wood already attached to it. This hatchet I was unable to see or secure, as it was mislaid or lost in removing from a dug-out to a log house. I also learned from several neighbors living near this locality, that the best and choicest hammers and other implements had been, previous to our visit, gathered up and sent away to relic-loving friends living in different localities East thus leaving only the greatest part of the cast-away ones for our hands to gather up. The hammers were all made of metamorphic rocks, such as quartz, quartzite, granite and scienite—rocks which are not found in any part of Kansas that we are aware of. The smoothing-stones may, or may not, have been natives of our State. The tent-poles, those that I saw, were much worn upon their tip-ends, by being dragged over long distances upon the rough ground."
Martin, Bill. (1916). In V. P. Mooney, ed., History of Butler County, Kansas. Lawrence, KS: Standard Publishing. Bill Martin in 1916 wrote: "Some have said that Butler county was never inhabited by sedentary tribes of Indians, but I think otherwise, as I have explored a good deal of the southern half of the county, and have found much evidence of settled prehistoric occupation, in the valleys of Big Walnut, Little Walnut, Hickory, Picayune, Mephitis Americana and other creeks. I have in my collection of ancient Indian relics numbers of the following implements and weapons: Metates, mano stones, whetstones, rubbing stones, grinding stones, boiling stones, hammer stones, cup stones, anvil stones, stone mauls, arrow shaft rubbers, stone axes, flint spades and hoes, celts, spears, arrows, perforators, drills, whole pipes, pieces of pipes, block of catlinite (pipe material), flint flakes of many colors, flint knives, discs and pieces of broken pottery of many different kinds. William Bass, who lives near Pontiac, has perhaps as varied an assortment as mine, including flint fish hooks, something I have never found. All of the artifacts mentioned, with the manufactures of wood, bark, reeds, fibers, sinews, hides, bones, shell, horn, hair, feathers and other perishable materials, prove that the ancient man of Butler county was a very industrious person indeed. His wife also was always at work, tanning hides, moulding pottery, working in her garden, cooking and manufacturing the first breakfast foods, hominy and succotash. There are village and camp sites on Hickory creek, on the Stebbins ranch, Wellington Sowers ranch, J. C. Getter ranch, Mrs. Benninghoff's farm, H. M. Cotton farm, Pattison ranch, Brown ranch, Mrs. Noe's farm, J. Ellis farm, William Morti ranch and others. On Little Walnut creek, B. F. Yates' farm, Hon. F. Leidy's farm, L. Boelner's farm, Nunes' ranch, F. M. Tabing's farm, Bear ranch, the Marshall Bros. farms, the Dilts and Discon farms, and Joel Parker's farm. On Picayune creek, on the B. F. Rickey farm, and on Mephitis Americana creek, on farm of F. M. Tabing. I presume there are many more places where our red friends lived, and loved, and worked, and sung, and danced, in the days of long ago. On a farm on the Big Walnut river, once known as the Hazelhurst place, now owned by Mr. Taylor, there is an ancient village site about a mile long, which must have once been covered with many lodges; the ground is full of scrapers, chips of flint and pottery sherds. …. In my collection of relics are many so-called cupstones. They are flat stones of flint and limestone, with from one to six or more small saucer-shaped depressions on one or both sides. Some scientists think they were for cracking nuts; others, that they were for making fire by revolution and friction of a stick of wood in the cavities, and as the cavity, when worn too deep, would not work, a new cavity had to be made. I adhere to the fire theory for these reasons: The flint blocks have but one cavity, not being worn out like the soft limestone, and some of the limestone blocks have the cavities so near the edge that a blow hard enough to crack a black walnut would smash the block to pieces. I have a big stone sledge made of a mountain rock, which had been broken in two. One part of this tool was found by the late H. H. Marshall on his farm, the other was found by my son, Louis H. Martin, on the farm of the late Charles Tabing. There are two kinds of implements peculiar to this Buffalo country, they are flint scrapers and four-edged flint knives. The scrapers were used in preparing hides for the tanning process; the four-edged knife is of a long diamond shape, and they are generally very finely chipped. I have in my collection a piece of iron ore, which had evidently been used as a source of paint, it was found on Hickory creek. Some Indian had fancifully carved on it the face of an otter or some other animal."
Lyons Republican. August 31, 1922. "Although few of the present Rice County residents know it, there was once a pretentious Indian camping ground and burial spot a half mile southeast of Saxman. This camp which must have been visited each year by roving Indians is in a sheltered 'U' bend of Cow Creek on the Z. L. Jenkins farm. Jim Truitt, manager of the Fair Lumber company at Saxman, has picked up a splendid collection of Indian relics from the old camp site. He has hundreds of flint arrow heads, and several peace pipes of genuine red pipe-clay. The old camp site also yielded a half dozen flint drills, which the Indians used in making pipes and for boring holes through their crude implements. It is interesting to observe that all the drills are left-handed. Two of his most highly prized pieces found at the old camp are a granite maul head and a stone tomahawk. The former is perfectly formed, the grooves for the rawhide thongs being still plainly defined. The maul is scarcely larger than two organs, but it weighs 5 ½ pounds."
Emporia Gazette, July 10, 1939. Clements Banker Finds Chase County Rich in Indian Relics. "What began as a rock collecting job for the rock-garden, has developed into a hobby of collecting Indian relics and now, four years after starting to gather rocks, George E. Dawson, cashier of the Clements State bank, has a room well filled with interesting Indian relics. . .With Gus Wagner, and C. W. Hawkins, who has one of the finest Indian collections in Kansas, Mr. Dawson has traveled to all sections of Kansas and possibly in no other county has he found as many evidences of Indian residence as in Chase county. Particularly in the Coyne Valley and Turkey creek regions near Clements. One complete case in Mr. Dawson’s Indian room at his home is given to arrowheads and knives found on the Dawson farm and at other places south of Clements. He has one case of relics from other states and six others which have a mixture of objects from various places. Among the Indian objects Mr. Dawson has collected in the four ears are arrowheads, pottery vessels, pipes, spears, banner stones, paint rock with which the Indians patinated themselves, knives, hammers, bows and arrows and a case contained 101 bird points, all different. Some of the relics in the collection have been purchased by Mr. Dawson and many others have been given him. . . .Material in the collection at the Dawson home is from New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oregon, Arkansas, North and South Dakotas, Kansa Teas, Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois. . . ."
AgWeb. June 21, 2023. Find of a Lifetime: Kansas Family Discovers Incredible Indian Artifact. "Clinging to the face of a sheer, 14’ river embankment, Gauge Oehm, 11 years young, carefully clawed the soil around an outrageous Native American treasure sticking just inches out of the dirt wall, untouched by human hands for millennia. The deeper he dug—4”, 5”, 6”—the tighter the artifact’s grip. Without warning or wiggle, the object tore loose from the dirt, and Gauge fell backward off the embankment perch and a crashed into a sleepy, 6’-deep bend of water. Lungs pleading and legs pumping, he surfaced in mid-river and pushed toward the far bank in an odd flailing motion, arms folded inward. Bare feet crunching gravel in the shallows, Gauge scrambled onto dry ground and uncradled his arms, shaking with wonder as he turned about and lifted a massive, caramel-colored blade against a painted blue sky, and shouted triumphantly across the water: “Mommmmmmmmm.” Behold the prize. He held an 8,000-year-old jasper masterpiece in pristine condition—11 ½” long, 2 ½” wide, and 3/8” thick. Sharing the moment from the opposite bank, his mother, Michelle Oehm, stared in disbelief. “It was unbelievable, the find of a lifetime,” she says. “No, it was the find of several lifetimes.” Sincerely. An intrepid Kansas mother and her Johnny-on-the-spot son had just found and preserved one of the most stunning Indian artifacts of recent U.S. history. . . .“There were so many kind people out there in the collecting community that helped me. The blade is made from smoky hills jasper—gem quality, and phallic in shape. It’s not local material and fits none of the known pieces in our area,” she explains. “I’m told it’s conservatively 8,000 years old. The bi-faced chipped part is shinier, indicating it may have been re-chipped, and therefore possibly resharpened by different peoples thousands of years apart. Everyone has speculations and opinions about it, and I welcome them all.” . . .“Nobody knows what tribe or people group it comes from,” she continues. Read more about Chris Bennett's article American Indian Artifacts from the Kansas River (core.ac.uk)
