1853 - Sac and Fox Agency
Creator: Green, Charles R.
Date: September 1, 1853
This item lists tribes under the Superintendency of Indians Affairs in St. Louis headed by B.A. James and Colonel Alfred Cummings. In particular, the item lists the Ottawas, Chippewas of Swan Creek, and the Black River Sacs and Foxes.

Abelard Guthrie
Abelard Guthrie was a member of the Wyandot tribe through his marriage to his wife Quindaro Nancy. He was elected as the Wyandot delegate to Congress in 1852. He was involved in the development of the town of Quindaro and had business dealing with numerous early territorial settlers.

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.

Albert Gallatin Boone
Colonel Albert G. Boone was a resident of Westport, Missouri, and was a pro-slavery supporter. He served as U. S. Indian Agent for the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, Comanche and Plains Apache tribes from 1859 through 1861. He was a grandson of Daniel Boone.

Albert G. Boone to Thomas Nesbit Stinson
Creator: Boone, Albert Gallatin, 1806-1884
Date: January 16, 1860
Albert G. Boone, writing from Westport, Missouri, to Thomas N. Stinson, described his unsuccessful efforts to sell a printing press for Stinson. Boone suggested that Stinson contact "Free Statemen" with whom he was on good terms to see if they could help him sell it. Boone added a postscript to the letter asking about the prospects of a treaty with the Pottawatomie.

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.

Al-le-ga-wa-ho, Head Chief of the Kaw
Creator: Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882
Date: 1867
A photograph of Al-le-ga-wa-ho, Head Chief of the Kaws. This is a cropped version of a larger group photograph taken at a meeting between Lewis V. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Chas. E. Mix, Chief Clerk of the Indian Bureau, and the Sacs and Foxes and Kaws in Washington, D.C. At the meeting, Bogy advised the Sacs and Foxes and Kaws to go to a new home, better adapted to their condition, in the valley of the Canadian River in what became Oklahoma. The full photograph titled "Kaw Chiefs" is item 208164.

Amelia Josephine Labedia to James W. Denver
Creator: Labedia, Amelia Josephine
Date: March 8, 1857
Amelia Labedia, a Native American from one of the New York Indian tribes, wrote this letter of complaint to James W. Denver, Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Kansas Territorial Governor. She was angered by white squatters who mistreated these native tribes by burning down their houses, ransacking their fields, and driving them off their land. White settlers had no legal claim to these lands, but they settled on them nevertheless. The New York Indian tribes--which consisted of the Seneca, Onodaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Oneida, St. Regis, Stockbridge, Munsee, and Brothertown nations--had been given land in Kansas Territory according to the treaty of 1838.

An act to legalize certain marriages therein named
Creator: Washington, Chief James
Date: April 8, 1851
This item, approved by Wyandott Chief James Washington, provides a list of people married within the Wyandott territory in the spring of 1851.

An Appeal from Arickaree
Creator: Howes, Cecil, 1880-1950
Date: 1940-1950
This item, written by Kansas City Star editor Charles Cecil Howes, concerns the Battle of Arickaree that took place in Kansas in 1868. Howes does not address any of the controversy surrounding the event but he does provide a solid account of the accepted facts of the combat that took place between U.S. Army soldiers, led by General George A. Forsyth (a Colonel at the time), and Indian warriors led by Cheyenne War Chief Roman Nose. This item also includes some excerpts from General Forsyth's "Thrilling Days of Army Life," which had not yet been published at the time Howes' article was printed.

Andrew H. Reeder to John A. Haldeman
Creator: Reeder, Andrew H. (Andrew Horatio), 1807-1864
Date: August 11, 1856
In this letter to John A. Haldeman, Andrew H. Reeder discusses the "sacking of Lawrence," the loss of papers related to the sale on lands that once belonged to Indians, and the use of Haldeman as his agent for his lots in Leavenworth, Kansas. As Reeder's letter indicates, the transition of Indian lands into the hands of white settlers was often quite difficult and added to tension levels in Kansas in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

Andrew H. Reeder to John A. Haldeman
Creator: Reeder, Andrew H. (Andrew Horatio), 1807-1864
Date: October 06, 1855
In this letter to John A. Haldeman, Andrew H. Reeder informs Haldeman that he has been told that "a new assessment of $5 per share to pay for a Wyandot float of 640 acres has been laid on the town of Tecumseh."

Andrew J. Mead to John A. Haldeman
Date: July 12, 1856
In this letter to John A. Haldeman, Andrew J. Mead asks if he knows of a portion of the Wyandotte Float that was available for sale. The Wyandotte Floats were originally set aside for the Wyandotte Tribe. However, the flexible nature of the Floats allowed them to be more easily transferred to white settlers once the U.S. Government decided to remove Native Indians from the newly created territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

A story of the Shawanoes (Shawnee)
Creator: Rayner, John Allen
Date: 1886
This reminiscence by George Bluejacket, a Shawnee (Shawanoe) Indian originally from Ohio, tells the creation story of the Shawnee people as well as the history of his own tribe. Although his story ends before the Shawnee were relocated to Kansas (then called Indian Territory), it appears that he relocated with the rest of his tribe. The reminiscence was recorded by John Allen Rayner, and the first page of the document is an explanatory letter written by Rayner.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company depot, Guthrie, Oklahoma
Creator: Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company
Date: April 14, 1889
This black and white photograph shows the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company depot at Guthrie, Oklahoma. In front of the depot, U.S. soldiers have gathered to prevent "sooners" from leaving the train to seek land for settlement in the Indian territory.

B.F. Johnson to General James William Denver
Creator: Johnson, Benjamin F.
Date: January 23, 1858
In this letter to General James W. Denver, B.F. Johnson asks Denver if the New York Indians had made a treaty with the United States Government. Johnson also asks Denver if the land set aside for the New York Indians near Fort Scott, Kansas, was open "for settlement either by Preemption or in any other way." Johnson is writing from Wyandotte City, Kansas Territory.

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."

Black Hawk, Sauk Indian
Creator: Catlin, George, 1796-1872
Date: 1832
This portrait, painted by the well-known artist George Catlin, depicts the fierce leader of the Sauk and Fox tribe after his arrest in 1832. Black Hawk and some of his tribe had resisted their removal to lands west of the Mississippi River, but the Black Hawk War, as it came to be known, ended in defeat. The original of this portrait is on exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The Sauk and Fox would eventually be relocated to Kansas.

Boomer camp on Walnut River, Arkansas City, Kansas
Creator: Mitchell & DeGroff
Date: Between 1886 and 1889
This sepia colored photograph shows a "Boomer" camp on the banks of the Walnut River in Arkansas City, Kansas. The "Boomers" were white settlers who were attempting to settle in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. Some of the "Boomers" would camp near the Kansas Oklahoma border waiting to enter the territory to claim land that had not been assigned to Indian Tribes and was believed to be in the public domain under the Homestead Act of 1862. The land in question was some of the last few sections of lands set aside by the U.S. Government for the Native American tribes who had been removed from their ancestral lands in other parts of the U.S.

Boomer camp on Walnut River, Arkansas City, Kansas
Date: Between 1886 and 1889
This black and white photograph shows a "Boomer" camp on the banks of the Walnut River in Arkansas City, Kansas. The "Boomers" were white settlers who were attempting to settle in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. Some of the "Boomers" would camp near the Kansas Oklahoma border waiting to enter the territory to claim land that had not been assigned to Indian Tribes and was believed to be in the public domain under the Homestead Act of 1862. The land in question was some of the last land set aside for the settlement of Native American tribes who had been removed from their lands in other parts of the U.S.

Boomer Camp on Walnut River, Arkansas City, Kansas
Creator: Mitchell & DeGroff
Date: Between 1886 and 1889
This sepia colored photograph shows a group of "boomers" near the banks of the Walnut River in Arkansas City, Kansas. The "boomers" were white settlers who were attempting to settle in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. Some of the "boomers" would camp near the Kansas and Oklahoma border waiting to enter the territory to claim land that had not been assigned to Indian tribes. Many of the settlers believed that the unassigned land was in the public domain under the Homestead Act of 1862. The land was some of the last that had been set aside for the settlement of Native American tribes after they had been removed from their ancestral lands.

Boomer Camp on Walnut River, Arkansas City, Kansas
Date: Between 1886 and 1889
This sepia colored photograph shows a "boomer" camp on the banks of the Walnut River in Arkansas City, Kansas. The "boomers" were white settlers who were attempting to settle in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, which was the last area of the nation set aside for Native American tribes. Some of the "boomers" would camp near the Kansas and Oklahoma border waiting to enter the territory to claim land that had not been assigned to Indian Tribes. Many of the settlers believed that the unassigned land was in the public domain under the Homestead Act of 1862.

Boomer Camp on Walnut River, Arkansas City, Kansas
Creator: Mitchell & DeGroff
Date: 1889
This sepia colored photograph shows a "boomer" camp on the banks of the Walnut River in Arkansas City, Kansas. The "boomers" were white settlers who were attempting to settle in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. Some of the "boomers" would camp near the Kansas and Oklahoma border waiting to enter the territory to claim land that had not been assigned to Indian Tribes. Many of the settlers believed that the unassigned land was in the public domain under the Homestead Act of 1862, despite the fact that the lands were assigned for the settlement of Native Americans.