Formerly a leading tribe of South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. By reason of the indefinite character of their name, their wandering habits, their connection with other tribes, and because of their interior position away from the traveled routes of early days, the Shawnee were long a stumbling block in the way of investigators.
Big Jim Big Jim. The popular name of a noted full-blood Shawnee leader, known among his people as Wapameepto, “Gives light as he walks”. His English name was originally Dick Jim, corrupted into Big Jim. He was born on the Sabine Reservation, Texas, in 1834, and in 1872 became chief of the Kispicotha band, commonly known as Big Jim’s band of Absentee Shawnee. Big Jim was of illustrious lineage, his grandfather being Tecumseh and his father one of the signers of the “Sam Houston treaty” between the Cherokee and affiliated tribes and the Republic of Texas, February 23, 1836. He … Read more
A list of Kansas Indian reservations showing the Indian tribes the land was set aside for, the amount of acres if known, and the acts, treaties, and executive orders used to establish the reservation.
Pueblo Indians, Pueblo Family – (towns, villages , so called on account of the peculiar style of compact permanent settlements of these people, as distinguished from temporary camps or scattered rancherias of less sub stantial houses). A term applied by the Spaniards and adopted by English-speaking people to designate all the Indians who lived or are living in permanent stone or adobe houses built into compact villages in south Colorado and central Utah, and in New Mexico, Arizona, and the adjacent Mexican territory, and extended sometimes to include the settlements of such tribes as the Pima and the Papago, who … Read more
Pottawatomie Indians J. B. Bottineau, speaking Chippewa and Cree fluently, gives Potawatanubñk or Potawaganiñk, i. e. ‘People of the place of the fire,’ as the primary form of the name. This derivation is strongly confirmed by the Huron name Asistagueroüon (Champlain, 1616), for Otsistă’ge`roñnoñ’, likewise signifying ‘People of the place of fire,’ which was applied by them to their enemies who dwelt in 1616 on the west shores of Lake Huron. Read More about the Potawatomie History Potawatomi Indian Biography Pottawatomie Chiefs and Leaders Chief Kack-kack (hosted at Pottawatomie Web) Bureau of Indian Affairs Bureau of Indian Affairs Tracing … Read more
Piankashaw Tribe – From a population of over 1,500 persons in 1759 to only 9 surviving members in 1936, all the children and grandchildren of George Washington Finley, the Piankashaw’s history mirrors that of many other mid-west tribes and is heavily woven with those of the Miami and Peoria tribes.
Wea Indians (probably a contraction of the local name Wawaagtenang, ‘place of the round, or curved, channel’ (Schoolcraft); possibly contracted from Wayahtónuki, ‘eddy people,’ from waysqtonwi, `eddy,’ both renderings coming from the same root. Wawaqtenang was the common Algonquian name for Detroit. (Cf. Wawyachtonoc). A subtribe of the Miami. They are first mentioned in the Jesuit Relation for 1673 as living in east Wisconsin. In the later distribution of the tribes of the confederacy they occupied the most westerly position. Allouez in 1680 found a Wea town on St Joseph River, Indiana. Marquette visited a Wea village at Chicago which … Read more
Kickapoo Indians, Kickapoo People (from Kiwǐgapawa, ‘he stands about,’ Or ‘he moves about, standing now here, now there’). A tribe of the central Algonquian group, forming a division with the Sauk and Foxes, with whom they have close ethnic and linguistic connection. The relation of this division is rather with the Miami, Shawnee, Menominee, and Peoria than with the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa. Kickapoo Tribe History The people of this tribe, unless they are hidden under a name not yet known to be synonymous, first appear in history about 1667-70. At this time they were found by Allouez near the portage … Read more
Fox Indians (trans. in plural of wagosh, ‘red fox,’ the name of a clan). An Algonquian tribe, so named, according to Fox tradition recorded by Dr. William Jones, because once while some Wagohugi, members of the Fox clan, were hunting, they met the French, who asked who they were; the Indians gave the name of their clan, and ever since the whole tribe has been known by the name of the Fox clan. Their own name for themselves, according to the same authority, is Měshkwa`kihŭg’, ‘red-earth people,’ because of the kind of earth from which they are supposed to have … Read more
Lenape Tribe, Lenape Indians, Lenape People, Delaware Indians, Delaware tribe, Delaware People, Lenni-Lenape, Lenni-Lenapi People, Lenni-Lenape Tribe, Lenni-Lenape Indians. A confederacy, formerly the most important of the Algonquian stock, occupying the entire basin of Delaware river in east Pennsylvania and south New York, together with most of New Jersey and Delaware. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-lenape, equivalent to ‘real men,’ or ‘native, genuine men’; the English knew them as Delaware, from the name of their principal river; the French called them Loups, ‘wolves,’ a term probably applied originally to the Mahican on Hudson rivers, afterward extended to the Munsee … Read more
Munsee Indians, Munsee People, Munsee First Nation (Min-asin-ink, ‘at the place where stones are gathered together. Hewitt). One of the three principal divisions of the Delaware, the others being the Unami and Unalachtigo, from whom their dialect differed so much that they have frequently been regarded as a distinct tribe. According to Morgan they have the same three gentes as the Delaware proper, viz, Wolf (Tookseat ), Turtle (Pokekooungo), and Turkey (Pullaook). Brinton says these were totemic designations for the three geographic divisions of the Delaware and had no reference to gentes. However this may be, the Wolf has commonly … Read more
Comanche Indians. One of the southern tribes of the Shoshonean stock, and the only one of that group living entirely on the plains. Their language and traditions show that they are a comparatively recent offshoot from the Shoshoni of Wyoming, both tribes speaking practically the same dialect and, until very recently, keeping up constant and friendly communication. Within the traditionary period the two tribes lived adjacent to each other in south Wyoming, since which time the Shoshoni have been beaten back into the mountains by the Sioux and other prairie tribes, while the Comanche have been driven steadily southward by … Read more
Absentee Indian Tribe History
Agencies and Schools listed below are what were listed for the state. Slight indent after an Agency list all schools in that jurisdiction. Haskell Institute, Kansas Post-office: Lawrence, Kansas Telegraph address: Lawrence, Kansas; Postal and Western Union, 2 miles from school; thence telephone. Railroad station: Lawrence, Kansas, on Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rwy., and Union Pacific Rwy., thence by hired team or street car, 2½ miles. Kickapoo School, Kansas Post-office: Horton, Kansas Telegraph address: Horton, Kansas; Western Union, 7 miles from school; thence telephone. Railroad station: Horton, Kansas, on Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Rwy.; thence hired team, 7 … Read more
Warner Lewis
The Kansas town erected at the mouth of the Big Blue was established after Bourgmont’s visit to the tribes at the mouth of Independence Creek. The exact date can not now be fixed. It was probably about 1780. Lewis and Clark found their abandoned villages on the Missouri and their towns were then on the Kansas. One town was twenty leagues up this river, and the other twice that distance. The entry runs to this effect: This river (the Kansas) receives its name from a nation which dwells at this time on its banks, and has two villages one about … Read more
This nation having been at profound peace with the Osages since the year 1806, have intermarried freely with them, so that in stature, features, and customs, they are more and more closely approaching that people. They are large, and symmetrically well formed, with the usual high cheek-bones, the nose more or less aquiline, color reddish coppery, the hair black and straight. The women are usually homely with broad faces. We saw but a single squaw in the village who had any pretensions to beauty. She was recently married to an enterprising warrior, who invited us to a feast, apparently in … Read more
On July 2, 1804, Lewis and Clark made the following entry: Opposite our camp is a valley, in which was situated an old village of the Kansas, between two high points of land, on the bank of the river. About a mile in the rear of the village was a small fort, built by the French on an elevation. There are now no traces of the village, but the situation of the fort may be recognized by some remains of chimneys, and the general outlines of the fortification, as well as by the fine spring which supplied it with water. … Read more
The tribal circle of the Kansas is shown here. It is also known as the camping circle. The figures indicate where the gentes camp or live. The tribal circle is divided into two half-circlesor, in fact, the tribe is separated into two the tribe is separated into two divisions or half-tribes. On the right side of the line dividing the tribal circle live the Ictunga half-tribe, composed of clans or gentes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. On the left side of the tribal circle lives the Yata half-tribe, embracing clans or gentes, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, … Read more
The Kansas had confused and indefinite conceptions of the future life. Mr. Say, of Long’s Expedition, secured from members of the tribe information on this point from which he wrote the following: The lodge in which we reside is larger than any other in the town, and being that of the grand chief, it serves as a council house for the nation. The roof is supported by two series of pillars, or rough vertical posts, forked at the top for the reception of the transverse connecting piece of each series; twelve of these pillars form the outer series, placed in … Read more