As early as the 1600s, the Kanza (or Kaw) Indians migrated from their home east of the Mississippi River and up the Missouri River into what is now northeastern Kansas. In the 1700s, the Kanza occupied two villages on the west bank of the Missouri: one on Independence Creek in present-day Doniphan County and the other near present-day Fort Leavenworth.
In the early 1800s, the Kanza lived in the Kansas River valley. Two treaties, one in 1825 and another in 1846, forced them to give up their northeastern Kansas lands. The 1,600 Kanza were relocated to a reservation near Council Grove.
In 1873, the Kanza, for whom the state is named, were removed from Kansas to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
By 2003, the Kanza numbered 2,647. Headquartered in Kaw City, Oklahoma, the Kaw Nation provides its members with social, educational, cultural, and health care benefits under the governance of the Kaw Executive Council.
Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park, 3 1/2 miles south of Council Grove, marks the tribe's last home in Kansas.
[Kaw Chief painting caption reads] Mon-Chonsia, or The White Plume, was recognized by Indian Superintendent William Clark and the Office of Indian Affairs as the principal chief of the Kanza nation in the St. Louis Treaty of 1825.
[Photo caption reads] Group of Kaw Indians in full dress, circa 1870.
[Background illustration caption reads] "Dog Dance" in a Kanza lodge at Blue Earth Village...
[Map caption reads] Kanza villages and agencies, 1724-1873.
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