When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, many different Indian nations occupied what is now the United States. European settlement gradually resulted in many of these native peoples being pushed to the west.
In 1825 the U.S. government resolved to move tribes remaining in eastern states to lands west of the Missouri River. Treaties were made and 30 tribes were assigned reservations in what is now eastern Kansas. Historically, these tribes are referred to as "emigrant Indians" because they were asked to give up their homelands and "emigrate" to new lands.
This marker stands on land once assigned to the Delawares. The Wyandots lived to the east. South were the lands of the Shawnees, Potawatomis, Ottawa, Miamis, and Chippewas. North were the Kickapoos. The tribes were assured that "so long as the sun shines and water runs down hill," this land would remain theirs. This was not to be. Two generations later, land-hungry settlers forced new treaties causing Native Americans once again to be displaced, this time to present-day Oklahoma. Northeastern Kansas remains home to four Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and Iowa tribes.
Comments 0 comments