Chain mail from the Majors Site, 14RC2
Date: 1541-1720 CE
These links of chain mail were recovered from the Majors site in Rice County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1982. The chain mail, a series of small metal rings linked together, was brought to Kansas by sixteenth-century Spanish explorers. The Majors site was a Great Bend aspect, Little River focus (ancestral Wichita) village that was occupied during the late 17th century based on southwestern pottery styles.

Chain Mail from the Saxman Site, 14RC301
Date: 1541-1720 CE
These links of chain mail were recovered at the Saxman site in Rice County and donated in 1977 to the Kansas Historical Society. The chain mail consists of several individual rings, series' of several rings linked together, and small masses of rings rusted together. The chain mail was brought to Kansas by sixteenth-century Spanish explorers. The Saxman site was a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village occupied in the Late Ceramic period.

Chain Mail from the Sharps Creek Site, 14MP408
Date: 1541-1800 CE
These fragments of chain mail were recovered from excavations at the 1992 and 1993 Kansas Archeology Training Program field schools at the Sharps Creek site. The chain mail, a series of small metal rings linked together, was brought to Kansas by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. The Sharps Creek site was a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village in McPherson County.

Colonel Don Estevan Miro to the Ioway Indians
Date: March 15, 1784
This document was presented to Antoine Burada by his uncle, George Campbell. George Campbell was the "half-breed" son of Vance Murray Campbell, a fur trader and U. S. treaty interpreter, who fathered several children by the daughter of No Heart, an Ioway chief. Their daughter Emily (sister of George) married Michael T. Barada. Their son Antoine Barada (1863-1924) of White Cloud, Kansas, was one of several by that name in the Ioway and Omaha tribes, so he is not to be confused with his first cousin Antoine Barada (1807-1885) of Barada, Nebraska, a celebrated figure in that state's folklore. This is the Antoine Barada who signed the treaty between the United States and the Kansas Nation, at St. Louis, in 1815. The document is addressed to "de la Nacion Ayoas" - the Ioway nation - and was signed by Colonel Don Estevan Miro, who was the Spanish governor of Louisiana during the period when it was secretly deeded by the French to the Spanish. It was presented to the Iowa Nation at the Spanish Office of the Province of Louisiana, at New Orleans, March 15, 1784. This document was donated to the Kansas Historical Society circa 1905 according to the Transactions of KSHS, vol. 9 (1905-1906), p. 251, note 55.

Coronado flag
Date: 1941
This red and yellow wool flag commemorates the 400th anniversary of Coronado's journey through Kansas in 1541, during his expedition of the southwestern United States. Coronado traveled with a large group of Spaniards, Native Americans, and Father Juan Padilla. Both Coronado and Padilla are depicted on the flag.

"Coronado" sword
Date: 1700s
In 1886 a man found this sword blade thirty miles northwest of Cimarron, Kansas. Initially the sword was taken as proof of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's 1540-1541 expedition to what is now Kansas. Instead of an artifact from the Coronado expedition, the blade is now believed to have been sent to America by the Spanish in a shipment of blades. Perhaps it was intended for army use or for trade, which may account for its discovery near the Santa Fe Trail, a major U.S. - Mexico trade route for many years.

Route of Coronado between the Rio Grande and Missouri rivers
Creator: Root, George A. (George Allen), 1867-1949
Date: 1912
This map shows the route of Coronado between the Rio Grande and Missouri rivers.