The Kansas

Tradition and linguistic evidence has the Kansa, Osages, Omahas, and Quapaws originally as a single tribe living in the Ohio and Wabash river areas. By the time of the expedition, the Kansa were settled throughout the northern half of Kansas and in parts of Nebraska and Missouri. They would cede lands multiple times in the 1800’s, and in 1902, the Kansa accepted an agreement replacing their small reservation with individual allotments.^[1]Garrick A. Bailey and Gloria A. Young, Handbook of North American Indians: Plains Vol. 13, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001), 462, 471–73.

Known in the journals as Kanzas, Kansas, Kansias, Kansies, Kar sea, and Kah, they are popularly called the ‘People of the South Wind’. From Private Joseph Whitehouse‘s perspective at the mouth of the Kansas River in late June 1804, the Kansa were an imminent threat to his personal safety saying they:

form’d a temporary breast work with pickets, in order to defend ourselves against the Indians, fearing that they might make an attack on us in the Night.

The captains knew that the nearest Kansa village was 75 miles up the Kansas River and that in late June, most of the warriors would be many more miles west hunting buffalo on the plains. Perhaps the captains—having ordered the trees blocking the view necessary for accurate celestial observations chopped down—decided a military drill utilizing the fresh cut timber was in order. No Indians were ever seen during their stay at the mouth of the Kansas.

The Kansa were well-known players in the fur trade. Most recently, St. Louis trader Perrin Du Lac successfully traded with them bringing back a favorable report the year prior to Lewis and Clark’s arrival.^[2]Extract from the Travels of Perrin du Lac, 1802, in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: … Continue reading Perhaps their fierce reputation came from the pre–1766 slave trade when they abducted Pawnees and Padoucas to sell as slaves to the French.

In the “Estimate of the Eastern Indians,” Clark gives this report:

The limits of the country they claim is not known. The country in which they reside, and from thence to the Missouri, is a delightful one, and generally well watered and covered with excellent timber: they hunt on the upper part of Kanzas and Arkanzas rivers: Their trade may be expected to increase with proper management. At present they are a dissolute, lawless banditti; frequently plunder their traders, and commit depredations on persons ascending and descending the Missouri river . . . . They cultivate corn, &c.^[3]Moulton, Journals, 3:392–3.

In 1959, the Kaw Nation became a federally recognized tribe and reorganized their tribal government. It is headquartered in Kaw City, Oklahoma.^[4]“Kaw People,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaw_people, accessed on 11 January 2021.