Alfred Gray to George W. Patterson
Creator: Gray, Alfred, 1830-1880
Date: June 18, 1860
Gray wrote this draft of a letter to George W. Patterson concerning a treaty between the U. S. government and the Delaware Indians at the request of Rev. Pratt, a missionary to the tribe. Gray was concerned that the treaty was unfair to many of the Delaware and that the U.S. government was negotiating with four older chiefs, not some of the younger members of the tribe. He wrote that many of the Delaware were too intimidated to complain.

Andrew Jackson Isacks to General James William Denver
Creator: Isacks, Andrew Jackson
Date: February 01, 1858
In this letter to General James W. Denver, Kansas Territory Attorney General Andrew J. Isacks addresses his recent purchase of the "lands of the Christian Indians." Isacks explains that the Christian Indians were "content to live upon any other four sections of land that I might get for them, if the Delawares were not disposed to receive them."

Annie and Cunningham Grinter
Date: Between 1864 and 1865
A photograph of Annie Grinter and her son Cunningham Grinter. In the late 1830s, Moses Grinter married Annie Marshall, a Lenape (Delaware) Indian whose people had been relocated to the Fort Leavenworth Indian Agency. In 1857, the Grinter's built a two-story brick house in Wyandotte County. Moses operated a ferry across the Kansas River, and from 1855 to 1860 he owned a trading post business that sold about one hundred sixty types of goods (clothing, powder and bullets, perfume, sugar, and scissors, among other things) to the Delawares in exchange for cash and furs. The Grinters also farmed, raised poultry and livestock, and planted an apple orchard on their farmstead. The house is the oldest residence in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Through the assistance of the Junior League of Kansas City, Kansas and the Grinter Place Friends, the State of Kansas acquired the site in 1971 and now administers the former Grinter residence as a state historic site.

Annie Marshall Grinter
Date: Between 1900 and 1905
Portrait of Annie Marshall Grinter, 1820-1905, member of the Delaware tribe and wife of Moses R. Grinter. She came to Wyandotte County, Kansas Territory with her parents in 1832.

B.F. Robinson to General James William Denver
Creator: Robinson, B.F.
Date: March 15, 1858
In this letter to General James W. Denver, Indian Agent B.F. Robinson addresses the subject of the ferry near Lawrence, Kansas. Robinson explains that "the question presents itself whether or not the Delawares under the late treaty with the United States returned the right of the ferry up from their side."

Brass Lamp Burner from Grinter Place, 14WY316
Date: 1857-1920
This artifact was used as part of the burner for an oil lamp. The wick extended through the slot on the top. It was recovered from excavations at Grinter Place State Historic Site in Wyandotte County, a two-story brick home overlooking the Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River that is now in the National Register of Historic Places. Moses and Annie Grinter (she was a Lenape Delaware) owned and operated a ferry and trading post there. Grinter Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

Bullet from the Grinter Place, 14WY316
Date: 1855-1950
This 0.22 caliber bullet was recovered from a tree at the Grinter Place State Historic Site in Wyandotte County. The slug was discovered by a site administrator who related: "Bullet found about 4' high in the heart of the Cottonwood tree at the south corner of the Grinter property. Four or five other bullets are still embedded in the wood." Grinter Place is a two-story brick home overlooking the Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River, and is now in the National Register of Historic Places. Moses and Annie Grinter, the latter was a member of the Lenape (Delaware) tribe, owned and operated a ferry and trading post there. Grinter Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

Butter Pats from Grinter Place, 14WY316
Date: 1855-1950
These five butter pats were recovered from Grinter Place State Historic Site in Wyandotte County. Butter pats are often mistaken for children's toy dishes, but they are meant to hold individual servings of butter. These were made by Haviland and Co., of Limoges, France. Grinter House is a two-story brick home overlooking the Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River, and is in the National Register of Historic Places. Moses and Annie Grinter (she was a Lenape Delaware) owned and operated a ferry and trading post there. Grinter Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

C.C. Isley to Reverend W.C. McGuire, and accompanying manuscript
Creator: Isely, Charles C.
Date: September 06, 1943
These two items, from C.C. Isely of Dodge City, Kansas, contain Isely's thoughts on his experience at the Kickapoo Indian Reservation in the late 1890s. In the letter to Reverend W.C. McGuire of Hoyt, Kansas, Isely asks McGuire if he was familiar with two Potawatomies that Isely appeared with in a picture taken at the time of his 1897 visit. The accompanying story, titled "Democracy in the Primitive" contains Isely's recollections of his visit to the Kickapoo Indian Reservation near Powhattan, Kansas.

Charles E. Mix to James William Denver
Creator: Mix, Charles E.
Date: October 07, 1858
In this letter to James William Denver, Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Charles E. Mix addresses the issue of Native American lands in the Kansas Territory. Mix explains to Denver that he would like him to "determine whether those portions of the aforesaid Blocks were designed for the use and benefit of the lotholders in said city [Leavenworth]."

Charles Journeycake
Date: Between 1850s and 1890s
Unmounted tintype of a portrait of Charles Journeycake.

Clara Gowing reminiscence
Creator: Gowing, Clara
Date: 1908
A series of letters written by Clara Gowing describing Gowing's experiences such as her "Early Mission life among the Indians of the west," "Miss Elisabeth S. Morse," "An Indian Payment," "Indian Traditions," "A Wedding Among the Indians," and "Mission School Among the Indians."

Coronado's route to Quivira, 1541
Creator: Ritchey, William E
Date: 1903
This map of Kansas Territory in 1856 shows Coronado's route to and from Quivira in 1541. The Santa Fe Trail is annotated in red. On the reverse is a newspaper article with a map drawn by George Allen Root showing Coronado's route to Quivira and giving distances between points. There is a note from W[illiam] E Ritchey, Harveyville, Kansas, July 9, 1903, to A. R. Greene, Special Inspector, Department of the Interior requesting that Greene mention Ritchey's work in an article that will be published by the Kansas Historical Society. The location of a number of Indian reservations are shown on the map.

Daily journal of Elisabeth S. Morse, teacher at Delaware Baptist Mission
Creator: Morse, Elizabeth Stevens
Date: February 13, 1866-July 14, 1866
This item is the 1866 daily journal for Elisabeth S. Morse who taught at the Delaware Baptist Mission near Edwardsville, Kansas. While a number of entries are fairly brief, the journal contains interesting information on Morse's daily activities at the Mission.

Daniel Boone to W.W. Cone
Creator: Boone, Daniel Morgan III
Date: August 11, 1879
In this item, Daniel Boone, grandson of pioneer frontiersman Daniel Boone, relates details of his early life in Kansas to W.W. Cole. Boone explains that his family lived just beyond the line that marked one edge of the Delaware Agency, and near to an area of land set aside for "halfbreeds."

Decorated Bowl Fragment from the Grinter Place, 14WY316
Date: 1855-1950
This serving bowl fragment was recovered from Grinter Place State Historic Site in Wyandotte County. It is decorated by transfer printing, a process by which a design is transferred from an engraved metal plate onto the pottery called transferware. Grinter Place is a two-story brick home overlooking the Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River, and is now in the National Register of Historic Places. Moses and Annie Grinter, the latter was a member of the Lenape (Delaware) tribe, owned and operated a ferry and trading post there. Grinter Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

Delaware Baptist Mission globe
Creator: Holbrook School Apparatus Company
Date: between 1855 and 1860
Terrestrial globe on brass stand, used to instruct American Indian pupils at the Delaware Baptist Mission. The mission opened in present-day Wyandotte County around 1836 with the purpose of educating Delaware children and converting them to Christianity. It operated under the leadership of Rev. John Gill Pratt beginning in 1847, and closed when the Delaware tribe was removed to Indian Territory in the late 1860s. The only Kansas town noted on the globe is Lecompton, Kansas' territorial capital from 1855 to 1861.

Delaware Indians
Date: Between 1860 and 1865
This formal portrait shows a group of Delaware Indians. The group have been identified from left to right by their respected rows. FRONT ROW: James Ketchum, James Connor, John Connor, Charles Journeycake, Isaac Journeycake, John Sarcoxie, Sr. BACK ROW: James McDainel, (Cherokee), Black Beaver, Henry Tiblow, John G. Pratt, Charles Armstrong, John Young.

Delaware Indians to T. Hartley Crawford
Creator: Delaware Indians
Date: January 6, 1840
This is a copy of a letter that Isaac McCoy sent on behalf of the Delaware Indians. McCoy was a missionary in Indian Territory (present-day Kansas), and Crawford was Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In the letter, the Delaware asked for government patents that would prove their ownership of their new lands in Indian Territory. Apparently, some of their lands had also been claimed by Kansa Indians. The Delaware refer in this letter to a treaty signed on September 24, 1829, and express their desire to be permanently settled in this new territory. However, the Delaware did not enjoy a permanent home in Kansas--treaties in 1854 and 1860 diminished Delaware lands and, in 1867, the Delaware were moved to present-day Oklahoma.

Die Indianer der Vereinigten Staaten
Creator: Hunnius, Ado, 1842-1923
Date: 1870-1900
This item contains an article on the Indians of the United States written by Carl Julius Adolph Hunnius. Known as Ado to his friends and colleagues, Hunnius was a Civil War veteran, Indian Wars veteran, artist, writer, and long time resident of Kansas. The article, printed entirely in German, contains information compiled by Hunnius on the Native American tribes in the United States. Details include the branch of the tribe (Stamm), place of residence (Wohnsitz), county, and the total number of men, women and children (Manner, Weiber, und Kinder) for each tribe. The information provided in the article was taken from the offical reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The article also mentions that there were a total of 100,000 civilized Indians, 135,000 half-civilized Indians, and 81,000 "Wild" Indians.

Eastman's map of Kansas and Nebraska territories showing the location of the Indian reserves according to the treaties of 1854
Date: Between 1854 and 1856
This map shows the locations of the new or reduced lands of Indian tribes according to the treaties of 1854. With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the former Indian Territory was opened to white settlement, and the government looked for ways to relocate the native tribes who had made their homes in Kansas. To create more land for white settlement, George Manypenny, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, negotiated treaties with Indian tribes that ceded much of the Indians' lands to the government. This land could then be sold to white emigrants. Naturally, these events helped to exacerbate existing tensions between settlers and Native Americans, contributing to the Indian Wars that occupied the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War.

Ellen Douglas Denison Goodnow to Isaac Tichenor Goodnow
Creator: Goodnow, Ellen Douglass Denison, 1812-1890
Date: August 8, 1857
Ellen Goodnow wrote from Shannon, Kansas Territory, to her husband Isaac, who was traveling on the East Coast. In this letter, which is largely personal, Ellen Goodnow describes a frightening conflict between white settlers in the area and members of the Cheyenne Indian tribe. A neighbor had awakened her in the middle of the night to enlist men to fight alongside members of the Delaware Indians, who had also been attacked by the Cheyennes. Isaac's brother, William, had lead her to safety in Manhattan.

Erastus D. Ladd to Hiram Hill
Creator: Ladd, Erastus D
Date: September 3, 1857
Erastus Ladd wrote from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, to Hiram Hill in Massachusetts. Ladd asked for Hill's suggestion as to what to do about a delinquent renter. He updated Hill regarding the status of various land investments, and included a note about Samuel Simpson's sale of half of his investment in West Lawrence. Ladd anticipated a free state election, and the development of a railroad line between Lawrence and the Delaware lands.

Fire Irons from Grinter Place, 14WY316
Date: 1855-1950
These two types of fire irons or fire place pokers were used to tend a fire at the Grinter Place State Historic Site in Wyandotte County. Grinter Place is a two-story brick home overlooking the Delaware Crossing on the Kansas River, and is now in the National Register of Historic Places, 1971. Moses and Annie Grinter (she was a Lenape Delaware) owned and operated a ferry and trading post there. Now it is an historic site overseen by the Kansas Historical Society.

George W. Manypenny to General James William Denver
Creator: Manypenny, George Washington, 1808-1892
Date: December 03, 1857
In this letter to General James W. Denver, George W. Manypenny addresses a "Kaw Half Breed Tract" of land that he believed should have been "ceded to the United States, and sold for the benefit of the families named in the treaty of 1825."