Indians of Kansas

Kansas Lodge

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

Indian Linguistic Families of Kansas

The Indian Linguistic families represented in Kansas may be separated into two principal divisions or heads: Native Linguistic Families Emigrant Linguistic Families The Native Linguistic Families were: Algonquian Caddoan Kiowan Shoshonean Siouan The Emigrant Linguistic Families were: Algonquian Iroquoian Siouan Tanoan The tribes native to Kansas were enumerated as follows: Arapahoe Cheyenne Of the Caddoan Linguistic Family: 1. Pawnee  Grand Pawnee  Republican Pawnee  Tapage Pawnee  Loup Pawnee 2. Wichita Of the Kiowan Linguistic Family: 1. Kiowa Of the Shoshonean Linguistic Family: Comanche Of the Siouan Linguistic Family Kansa Osage The Emigrant tribes of Kansas are enumerated as follows: Chippewa Delaware … Read more

Great Osage Village of Kansas – White Hair

The one village of the Great Osages on the Neosho mentioned by Colonel Sibley was that of White Hair. It was established about the year 1815, as noted before. In 1796 when the Arkansas band was induced to settle on the Lower Verdigris by Chouteau a trail from these Lower Towns to the old home on the Little Osages, in Vernon County, Missouri, where Pike had found the Osage Nation, was marked, and thenceforth used by traders and Indians alike. This trail followed up the Marmaton, in what is now Bourbon County, Kansas. It crossed over to the waters of … Read more

Confederated Pawnee of Kansas

The compact manner in which the Pawnees were always found, and which remained until recently, would seem to justify the conclusion that these gentes or clans extended through all four of the tribal divisions, as with the Iroquois. The chiefs of the band were the governing power, the individuals having little influence in tribal matters. The principal expeditions to the country of the Pawnees in early times have been noted. In 1833 John T. Irving, Junior, went with Commissioner Ellsworth on a tour of the Indian country tributary to Fort Leavenworth, visiting the Pawnees. Later, he was present when the various … Read more

Big Blue River Kansas Indians

Monchousia White Plume

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

Arapaho and Cheyenne in Kansas

Powder Face And Squaw. Northern Arapaho

The Arapaho and Cheyenne will be considered together. They both belong to the great Algonquian family, and, for a long period, were closely associated. Both were important Plains tribes and bore prominent parts in the early history of that plain along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Cheyenne ranged far down the plains streams, coming into close contact with pioneer settlers of Northwestern Kansas. The Arapahos did not trouble the white people making homes in Western Kansas. Both tribes lay in wait along the great trails to fall upon the stragglers and the unprotected. They were fierce and daring … Read more