Don’t damn Shawnee Indian Mission for abuse that came after its founding | Opinion

I have been involved with the Shawnee Indian Mission since March 2005, when the city of Fairway and the Kansas Historical Society proposed allowing Fairway to purchase several acres of the site’s grounds to build a city hall. So I read with particular interest a recent story in The Star about bills that introduced in the Kansas Legislature over the last four years to transfer ownership of the site to the Shawnee or the Prairie Band of the Potawatomi Nation.

I was heartened by the sensible approach exhibited at the last hearing at the Kansas Senate (in a much, much too small room), which ended with the Potawatomi Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick agreeing that he could work with the Kansas Historical Society to guarantee adequate representation of Native American history at the site.

That would seem the obvious answer to the problem of a site representing the history of all of us in Kansas — not just that of the dominant white culture, or that of the more than 22 tribes moved here whose children attended school at the site.

I continue to be alarmed by the negative assumptions about the history of the site from 1839 to 1862, based the treatment of Native Americans later in the century. During the 1870s and later, Native American children were forcibly removed from their families and often sent great distances away for forced assimilation that sometimes resulted in their deaths and interment in unmarked graves.

That is not the history of the Shawnee Indian Mission. While the Shawnee and other tribes had no choice about their move to the Kansas Territory, it was not universally considered a bad thing at the time. Isaac McCoy’s 1840 book “History of Baptist Indian Missions” reveals a deep respect for the people he ministered to in Ohio for decades. Other missionaries thought that the moves could be potential positives, in which the tribes would be allowed to practice their ancient way of life.

Native American parents chose schools

The Shawnee Indian Mission and other missions such as the Baptist mission were established in the same general area near what became Westport, founded by Isaac McCoy’s son. The government provided members of the tribes with vouchers they could spend for the education of their children at the mission school of their choice. Representatives of the missions traveled the territory trying to convince tribes to send their children to their particular mission.

Because of their long history with the Shawnee people, some Baptists were surprised that tribe members chose the Shawnee Indian Mission for their children. Native leaders apparently chose the mission because of its instruction in manual trades such as farming, milling, blacksmithing, sewing and more, which seemed more useful than classic religion-focused offerings of the other schools. Also, while religion was certainly part of the education at the mission, conversion was voluntary, and many Shawnee Tribe members living in the area attended Sunday services of their own accord.

Many parents lived nearby in the Native American-founded towns of Shawnee (the site of one of their cemeteries), Olathe, Lenexa and what was then Monticello Township. Many parents could visit their children, who returned home during school breaks. Allegations that Native American children were buried in unmarked graves around the mission’s grounds seem unlikely to me, given the parental involvement and the nearby Native cemeteries.

Allegations of lack of care made in recent years involving cholera and failings of the mission personnel neglect to understand that these problems were shared by white settlers as well.

I have had many issues with the Kansas Historical Society over the years, but I am confident of its intent to represent honestly all the history of the Shawnee Indian Mission. And obviously, Fairway has also made efforts to include all voices.

Please do not damn a site that has a relatively benign origin because of the horrific conditions there later in the century. The Shawnee Indian Mission, which will celebrate 200 years of existence in 2039, remains a treasure of our history.

Penny Gilbert is former treasurer of the Friends of the Shawnee Mission, president of the Shawnee Mission Indian Historical Society and one of the founding members and first co-chair of the Shawnee Indian Mission Patriots.