1856 One-Cent Coin from the Canville Trading Post, 14NO396
Date: 1856-1872
This one-cent coin was found at the Canville Trading Post in Neosho County near the Osage Reservation and was donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1994. The obverse of the coin shows Liberty with braided hair surrounded by stars and the date 1856. The reverse side shows an oak leaf wreath surrounding the words "ONE CENT." Large one-cent coins were discontinued in 1857 and replaced with smaller one-cent coins of the size we use today. The Canville Trading Post was established in 1847 by A. B. Canville. When the Osage reservation land was ceded to the United States in 1870, the Osage left for Oklahoma and Canville followed in 1872.

Abstract of articles purchased during the 4th quarter, 1878
Creator: Potawatomi Indian Agency
Date: October 01, 1878-December 14, 1878
This item details the goods and services purchased for the Kansas Agency in the final quarter of 1878. This abstract lists who purchased the item, what item was purchased, as well as the price of the item. Items purchased include buttons, coffee, nails, rice, scissors, and many other items needed for the Kickapoo tribe that lived on the Kansas Agency. During this period, the Kansas Agency was officially known as the Potawatomi Agency but was often referred to as the Kansas Agency because it was the only one in Kansas at the time.

Abstract of articles purchased during the third quarter of 1879
Creator: Linn, H.C.
Date: July 01, 1879-September 01, 1879
This item contains a list of items purchased by U.S. Indian Agent H.C. Linn for the Kansas (Potawatomi) Agency in the third quarter of 1879. Items include beef, bastard files, bacon, lye, nails, and other things. The abstract indicates that the purchases were for the Kickapoo tribe living at the Kansas Agency.

Account of provisions and supplies issued to destitute Shawnees
Creator: Abbott, James Burnett, 1818-1897
Date: 1861
This account book belonging to an Indian agent named James Burnett Abbott lists the names of Shawnee Indian heads of household, the number of family members within their household, and the amount of pork, corn, and meal provided by the government to each Shawnee. The Shawnee had emigrated to Kansas after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Only an excerpt is included here.

Bark house, Kickapoo Reservation
Creator: Parkman, Mary
Date: 1935
This photograph, taken in 1935 as part of the New Deal Federal Indian program, depicts a bark house on the Kickapoo Reservation in northeast Kansas. This was the home of Marie Pewamo, who is presumably the woman standing out front. This style of house had been used since the nineteenth century by both the Kickapoo and Pottawatomi tribes.

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."

Buckle from the Canville Trading Post, 14NO396
Date: 1847-1872
This cuprous (contains copper) buckle was found at the Canville Trading Post in Neosho County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1994. The centerbar buckle is decorated with a floral motif and would have been quite a fancy buckle when new and shiny. The Canville Trading Post was established in 1847 by A. B. Canville. When the Osage reservation land was ceded to the United States in 1870, the Osage left for Oklahoma and Canville followed in 1872.

Buttons from the Canville Trading Post, 14NO396
Date: 1847-1872
An assortment of buttons were found at the Canville Trading Post site, 14NO396, in Neosho County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1994. They include both fancy and plain buttons made from glass, shell, bone, jet, and brass. The Canville Trading Post was established in 1847 by A. B. Canville. When the Osage reservation land was ceded to the United States in 1870, the Osage left for Oklahoma and Canville followed in 1872.

Carl "Ado" Hunnius diary
Creator: Hunnius, Ado, 1842-1923
Date: January 10 - 24, 1876
Carl J. A. "Ado" Hunnius kept this diary while visiting the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in Indian Territory. The diary contains detailed information about the trip and sketches (drawn illustrations) of some of the things he saw during the course of his travels. A complete transcription is available by clicking on Text Version below.

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 R. Green to George W. Martin
Creator: Green, Charles R.
Date: June 28, 1910
In this letter to George W. Martin, Charles R. Green addresses details of Sac and Fox history.

Cheyenne cradleboard and log cabin
Date: 1930-1940
This is a photograph that features two separate images. The first image is of a child in a cradleboard posed outside a log building. The second image is of a large group of children holding hands along with adults supervising in the front yard of a log cabin. The photographs are attributed to Alfred Habegger. Habegger was a Mennonite preacher in Busby, Montana on the Cheyenne Reservation. Funds for digitization provided by Mr. Steve Peckel in memory of William Chalfant.

Chief American Horse family portrait
Date: Between 1890 and 1908
This is most likely a group portrait of Chief American Horse the Younger, Chief of the Oglala Tribe of the Lakota, and his family. The location of where the photograph was taken is unknown, but it could have been taken on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota

Chief Wiskigeamatyuk
Creator: Nusbaum, Jesse L. (Jesse Logan)
Date: 1921
This is a photograph of Chief Wiskigeamatyuk who was a chief and holy man in the Potawatomi tribe. Geronimo, who had heard rumors of Chief Wiskigeamatyuk's magic powers, was intrigued and wanted to meet the chief and holy man. The photograph was taken by Jesse Nusbaum, anthropologist, who visited Chief Wiskigeamatyuk with William Hale, a Potawatomi interpreter. According to the information written on the back of the photograph, Chief Wiskigeamatyuk was a prisoner of war for disruption towards the government. He and his brother Wah Quah Bosh Kuk were arrested for refusing to send children from their tribe to an Indian school where they would be Americanized.

Cone Tinkler from the Wea Presbyterian Mission, 14MM322
Date: 1837-1857
This cone tinkler was recovered from the Wea Presbyterian Mission in 1997 by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and crew. The excavations revealed foundations for the Mission house, a spring house, and an outbuilding in addition to a filled in well. The Wea Mission (1834-1837) changed functions over time: it served as the Osage River Subagency (1837-1844), the Wea and Piankeshaw Baptist Mission (1844-1857) and then had other occupants until 1909 when the house burned. Tinklers were used to decorate hair, clothes and other objects.

Council meeting at Kickapoo Agency
Creator: Baldwin, Royal
Date: 1857
This is a transcribed copy of a conversation between Keotuck and his fellow Potawatomi leaders and their Indian agent, Royal Baldwin. The Potawatomi and Kickapoo had been living on the same lands, and since they had just planted their crops, the Potawatomi were expressing their desire to remain settled on this land. Apparently the United States government had not given the Potawatomi their full annuity payment and had asked them to move, but Keotuck's band protested because they had paid $8,009 to remain with the Kickapoo. The back of the document includes a transcription of the compact joining the Kickapoo and Potawatomi, written in 1851. This item demonstrates that many Native Americans lived in the middle of a very precarious situation due to the nature of the treaties they signed with the U.S. Government.

Dance hall and ring, Pottawatomie Indian reservation
Date: Between 1890 and 1920
This is a photograph of the dance hall and ring, Pottawatomie Indian Reservation, Jackson County, Kansas.

Daniel Read Anthony, Sr. to sister
Creator: Anthony, D. R. (Daniel Read), 1824-1904
Date: August 07, 1857
The following is a letter from Daniel Read Anthony, Sr. to his sister describing his recent land acquisitions and providing a sketch drawing of her claim (at the edge of the Kickapoo Tribe reservation) that he has prepared for her once she arrives in the territory. American Indian lands were in high demand as white settlers poured into the territory. It is not clear if the "sister" to whom the letter is addressed is Susan B. Anthony but there are references to a claim for Susan and the map (last page) shows her cabin.

Dishes from 14JO55
Date: 1820-1869
These dish fragments were just a few of those that were recovered from the surface of a site in Johnson County in what was the Shawnee Reserve. A wide variety of patterns were recovered from the site including dish sherds with scalloped edges and hand painted sherds. Additionally, sherds were recovered that were decorated by transfer printing, called transferware, and by sponging with color, called spongeware. It is unclear whether the site was a Shawnee farmstead or the Chouteau trading house for the Shawnee.

Dishes from the Jotham Meeker Farmstead, 14FR308
Date: 1845-1865
These dish fragments were recovered from the Jotham Meeker farmstead site in Franklin County. A wide variety of patterns were recovered from the site including dish sherds with shell-edged, transferware, spongeware, flow blue and hand painted patterns. The site was excavated in 1985 at a Kansas Archeology Training Program field school. Jotham Meeker served as a Baptist missionary among the Ottawa on their reservation. A wide variety of patterns were recovered from the site including dish sherds with shell-edged, transferware, spongeware, flow blue and hand painted patterns.

Dog dance performed by Kansa Indians
Creator: Seymour, Samuel
Date: August, 1819
A photograph of an illustration showing a dog dance performed by Kansa Indians inside of a lodge. The sketch was published in "Account of An Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains Performed in the years 1818 and 1820 Under the Command of Major Stephen H. Long" by H. C. Carey and I. Lea, Philadelphia, 1822.

Dr. Fenn's history and sketch of their days with the Indians
Creator: Fenn, Elbridge Burke
Date: Between 1900 and 1920
Elbridge Burke Fenn moved to Kansas in 1866 with several others, first settling in a "vacant cabin" on the Sac and Fox Agency. This item contains information on several Sac and Fox bands. In addition, it highlights the tensions that existed "on the part of the common Indians and one or two of their chiefs against whites for driving them off the Kansas Reservation."

Earring from the Canville Trading Post, 14NO396
Date: 1847-1872
This metal (possibly lead) earring was recovered from the Canville Trading Post located near the Osage Reservation in Neosho County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1994. The earring is similar to a ball and cone type, which were a common trade item in the 19th century. There are two small holes near base of the earring. The Canville Trading Post was established in 1847 by A. B. Canville. When the Osage reservation land was ceded to the United States in 1870, the Osage left for Oklahoma and Canville followed in 1872.

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.

English Gunflint from the Wea Mission, 14MM322
Date: 1837-1857
This gunflint was recovered from the Wea Presbyterian Mission in 1997 by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and crew. The gunflint, quarried and manufactured in southern England, and has a single dorsal arris. Gunflints were used to generate a spark in a flintlock musket or pistol and as strike-a-lights for lighting a fire. The excavations at the site revealed foundations for the Mission house, a spring house, and an outbuilding in addition to a filled in well. The Wea Mission (1834-1837) changed functions over time: it served as the Osage River Subagency (1837-1844), the Wea and Piankeshaw Baptist Mission (1844-1857) and then had other occupants until 1909 when the house burned.