Introduction

"Since that memorable summer of 1541, when Coronado led his doughty Conquistadores to its central central river valleys, some twenty odd tribes have at one time or another dwelt within its borders. To some, lured thither by its teeming herds, its prairies and plains were but a transient hunting range; to others, once resident farther east, it offered temporary asylum from the westward encroachment of land-hungry whites. But to one it was both home and hunting ground for at least two hundred years of recorded history, and for an unknown period of time before. It is fitting that the name adopted for the state should perpetuate the designation borne by this one tribe [Kansa] whose habitat, as far back as its record can be traced, has lain entirely within the present limits of Kansas." Wedel, Waldo. (June, 1946).

The Kansa Indians. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 49(1), 1-35.

Tribal Overview

Prehistoric tribes

In small groups, prehistoric Indians arrived into what would be Kansas and hunted with spears in mobile groups. They also foraged for food. Archaeologists differentiate between the Clovis who lived at the end of the Pleistocene era (which spans from 2.5 million years ago to almost 12 thousand years ago) who hunted mammoths and other Ice Age animals and the Folsom people who hunted bison and deer for about 700 years. Later tribes built settlements and began domesticating plants such as squash varieties. Increasingly, they relied on farming supplemented by hunting forays. In Kansas, many lived along rivers and participated in long-distance trade.

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Plains tribes

Prehistoric tribes

Including the Otoe, Pawnee, Osage, Wichita, and Kansa, the Plains tribes in Kansas relied on bison for food, clothing, shelter, and tools. They would go on organized hunts after they planted corn, squash, beans, and other crops by their villages with earthlodge homes. William E. Unrau, author of The Kansa Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673-1873, said current thought is that the Kansa, Osage, Ponca, Omaha, and Quapaw, members of the Dhegiha-Siouan division of the Hopewell cultures, once lived together in the lower Ohio valley. When Europeans came to North Americans in the late fifteenth century, the tribes had migrated west about 1750. The Kansa, Osage, Ponca, and Omaha moved near present St. Louis; later, the Kansa settled around present-day Kansas City and to the west along the Kansas River in northeastern Kansas. Starting in 1825, the federal government transplanted other tribes to the land claimed by the Kansa. Image: Hunting Buffalo, Felix Octavius Carr Darley

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Nomadic tribes

Prehistoric tribes

Emigrant tribes

To hunt buffalo, nomadic tribes came to western Kansas and set up camps. These groups included the Commanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa who lived in movable homes called tipis. Once they obtained horses from Spanish explorers, they traveled by horse. These nomads often battled other tribes, and, as western migration by settlers increased, fought against U.S. military forces. Toward the east, the Otoe and Missouri traveled about the eastern part of Kansas. Image: Comanche Feats of Horsemanship, George Catlin, circa 1834.

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Emigrant tribes

Prehistoric tribes

Emigrant tribes

Beginning in the 1820s, governmental policies, including the Indian Removal Act of 1830, forced about 30 tribes to eastern Kansas. Among these tribes were the Ottawa (who shared their land for a brief time in the 1860s with the Quapaw), Miami, Seneca, Muncie, Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee. Individuals from the Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Oneida, St. Regis, Stockbridge, and Brotherton also came. In 1846, Kansa and Osage peoples who had lived in present-day Kansas numbered 5,800, while emigrant tribal members had double the population, according to Kansas historian Louise Barry. Today the Iowa, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sac and Fox retain reservation land holdings in Kansas. Image: Beaded moccasin from Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site

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