Who should own the Shawnee Indian Mission site? Now another tribe enters the dispute
The Kaw Nation announced Wednesday it’s opposing the Shawnee Tribe’s efforts to take over ownership of the Shawnee Indian Mission in Johnson County, arguing instead that it should have right of first refusal to receive the land because the mission is on the aboriginal home of the Kaw.
That adds to a growing list of entities at odds with the Shawnee Tribe as it lobbies to take over the 12-acre state historic site at 3403 W. 53rd St., off Mission Road in Fairway. The tribe wants to have a bill introduced this session that would transfer the property from the state of Kansas. Its leaders argue that the site’s three brick buildings are deteriorating, and that it has the resources to restore and maintain them.
The Kansas Historical Society, which owns the site, and the city of Fairway, which helps manage it, have pushed back, arguing that they are responsible stewards of the land and are keeping up with any needed repairs.
Kaw Nation Vice Chair James Pepper Henry said he agrees with the Shawnee Tribe that the historical site should be restored and reimagined to more accurately present the history of how Native Americans were treated at the manual labor boarding school. But he doesn’t believe the solution is conveying the property to the Shawnee Tribe, especially when the site was originally home of the Kansa, known today as the Kaw Nation.
“Kansas is not the aboriginal home of the Shawnee people. I think it would be disingenuous to return the land to the Shawnee. It would almost be an insult to the Kaw Nation if that were to happen because we’ve been there longer than anyone else. We were displaced to make room for the other tribes,” he told The Star.
The Shawnee Tribe countered that its, “aboriginal lands cover more than 20 states so we understand the significance of homelands, particularly when it comes to protecting items that may be in the ground.
“However, there is no basis in cultural protection or federal law that allows any tribe to have an absolute right of ‘first refusal’ over every real estate transaction occurring on lands previously ceded by treaty. Accepting such a standard would have widespread implications for property owners everywhere, particularly those in the Fairway area.”
Pepper Henry said that the Shawnee Tribe did not consult the Kaw Nation about its intentions to take over the land.
The Shawnee Tribe said that it has “begun conversations with the Kaw and are optimistic that our shared goal of preserving this sacred site and our common commitment to cultural protection will make those discussions productive.”
Patrick Zollner, acting executive director of the Kansas Historical Society, said that the state agency is “happy to work with the Kaw Nation, the Shawnee, and other tribes interested in this endeavor.”
“The Kansas Historical Society has preserved this nationally significant property since 1927, and as the state agency charged with preserving the state’s history and telling the story of all Kansans, we continue to be the best steward for the site,” Zollner said in an email. “Our goal is to tell the site’s complete story, including that of all Indian tribes historically associated with the site.”
Kaw’s history with the land
While Pepper Henry believes the Kaw Nation has greater stake over the land, he said there are other solutions rather than conveyance to any one tribe.
He said the Kaw Nation would be interested in coordinating with the Kansas Historical Society and forming a coalition of tribes to raise money or develop a trust to help pay for repairs at Shawnee Indian Mission, as well as the Kaw Mission state historic site in Council Grove.
“We have concerns about the conditions of those missions. And we know there’s a lot of pressure on the state budget,” he said. “I do agree there’s an educational value to those missions. It’s important those stories be told. And I think the best way to do it is to cooperate with the state historical society and raise money to help support those initiatives.”
The Kaw Nation said it outright opposes any legislative effort to convey the Shawnee Indian Mission lands to the Shawnee Tribe — or to any entity other than the Kaw Nation. But it said it welcomes cooperation and supports restoration of the site.
Shawnee Indian Mission is located on the aboriginal and treaty lands of the Kaw. In 1825, the Kaw ceded much of its 20-million-acre land, which comprised roughly the northern half of what is now Kansas. The Kaw’s land was reduced to a 2-million-acre reservation beginning just west of what would become Topeka.
The U.S. government used land acquired from the Kaw Nation to create new reservations for other tribal nations that were forcibly removed from their homes, such as the Shawnee and Delaware. After relinquishing their lands to the east, the Shawnees were moved to 1.6 million acres in eastern Kansas.
Kaw land in Missouri, meanwhile, was redistributed to white settlers, and later in Kansas, settler invasions further reduced the Kaw land and eventually resulted in their removal to Oklahoma in 1872, according to Kansas State University.
“The State of Kansas derives its name from the Kaw (Kansa) Nation. The State of Kansas was built upon the displacement and eventual forced removal of the Kansa people, and many in State Leadership are not aware of or choose to ignore these facts and the historical legacy of the Kansa in Kansas,” the Kaw Nation said in its release.
The Shawnee Indian Mission
Originally located near Turner in present day Kansas City, Kansas, the Shawnee Indian Mission moved to present day Fairway in 1839 on more than 2,000 acres, where a branch of the Santa Fe Trail passed through Shawnee land.
The former boarding school was established by the Rev. Thomas Johnson — for whom Johnson County is named. The mission housed students from several tribes, requiring them to perform manual labor and assimilate into white Christian culture.
“The Shawnee Tribe was coerced into ceding 2,000 acres of land and paying for this site to be built. The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School site may be an archeological curiosity for some, but for the Shawnee people, it has deep importance and stands as a monument to Shawnee perseverance,” the Shawnee Tribe said in a previous statement.
In 1854, the U.S. government reduced the Shawnees’ Kansas reservation to 160,000 acres. During and after the Civil War, white settlers brutalized the Shawnee, and many were forced to move to a Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma.
Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes has said families discovered that at the mission, which operated from 1839 to 1862, children were unkempt, poorly clothed and malnourished. The Shawnee Tribe and others have been calling on government leaders to investigate the former boarding school to discover whether children are buried there. The tribe and Kansas Historical Society have been conflicted over how to move forward with a ground study to search for graves.
The school’s manual labor training ceased in 1854. At its peak, nearly 200 children from roughly two dozen tribes were enrolled at the school. Kansas has owned the site since it was acquired by eminent domain for historic preservation purposes in 1927. Since 2016, the Historical Society has partnered with Fairway to operate the site.
“The school was originally opened in 1839 on Shawnee land, built by Shawnee hands, and remains an important site in the Tribe’s history. The Tribe has designated the site as Mission as a Sacred Site, which means the place is of significant cultural import that the Tribe seeks to protect from any acts of desecration,” the Shawnee Tribe previously said.
The Shawnee Tribe said it commissioned a study of the Shawnee Indian Mission from Architectural Resources Group last year because leaders are “concerned about the future of this historic site.”
The study found that the three buildings “are in need of significant repair and maintenance work, ideally within the next 12 to 18 months.” It found that the buildings’ roofs have not been replaced in many years and are deteriorating, and that leaks have caused water damage.
The repair work will cost up to $13 million, Shawnee leaders estimate. If the tribe were to take over ownership, officials say they would repair the buildings in multiple phases while meeting historical preservation requirements. That would likely require grants or other funding partnerships, leaders previously said.
“We have nothing against the Shawnee Tribe or any other tribes in Kansas now or that had a historic presence in Kansas. We all have the same struggles. We’ve all essentially been erased from the history of Kansas or not had an opportunity to express our own history and our own voice,” Pepper Henry said. “That’s changing now.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 2:51 PM.
