Johnston Lykins
Date: Between 1840 and 1860
Johnston Lykins was a well-known missionary, physician, and translator who worked with the Pottawatomi and Shawnee Indians who had moved to Indian Territory (present-day Kansas) after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. In 1831, after serving as a missionary to the Indian tribes in Indiana and Michigan, Lykins and his first wife Delilah (McCoy) Lykins moved to Indian Territory. Lykins and his father-in-law, Isaac McCoy, established the Shawnee Indian Baptist Mission in present-day Johnson County, Kansas. In addition to his responsibilities as a physician, Lykins worked as a translator and developed a system of Indian orthography that allowed the Shawnee people to read and write in their native language. He edited and published the first paper printed in Shawnee, called the Sinwiowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun). In the spring of 1843, Lykins founded a mission among the Pottawatomi near what is today Topeka. Due, perhaps, to inter-denominational conflicts and other problems with the mission, Lykins left the Pottawatomi mission and moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He served as the second mayor of Kansas City in 1854, and he remained in residence there until his death in 1876.

Johnston Lykins Journal Entries
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: February 23, 1842-March 5, 1842
Dr. Johnston Lykins, a Baptist missionary to the Shawnee Indians in Indian Territory (present-day Kansas), edited the Shawnee Sun, a newspaper printed in the Shawnee language. In these journal entries from 1842, Lykins wrote about his efforts to teach Shawnee pupils how to read under this alphabet (the Shawnee language had no written system). Lykins also spent some time traveling to visit and treat the sick.

Johnston Lykins journal entry, July 18, 1831
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: July 18, 1831
In his journal, Dr. Johnston Lykins, a Baptist missionary to the Shawnee Indians in northeast Kansas, recorded that many of the Shawnee villages were alarmed about an outbreak of smallpox. Lykins offered his assistance by vaccinating the natives.

Johnston Lykins journal entry, October 27, 1832
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: October 27, 1832
According to this journal entry, Johnston Lykins and his fellow missionaries at the Shawnee Mission in Indian Territory (now northeast Kansas) had written to the school board requesting permission to provide meals for the students. Their request was denied, and the missionaries feared that their students would no longer attend classes.

Johnston Lykins journal entry, undated
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: Between 1826 and 1842
In this undated journal entry, Johnston Lykins, a Baptist missionary to the Shawnee of northeast Kansas, gives his perspective on how the U.S. government and Indian agents have treated emigrant Indians in Kansas. He also discusses how many of these Indian tribes are suffering from starvation.

Johnston Lykins' Shawnee verb conjugations
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: 1842
In his journal Johnston Lykins, a missionary to the Shawnee Indians in Kansas Territory, jotted down verb conjugations for the Shawnee alphabet he had developed while working at the Shawnee Mission. The notes include both singular and plural forms of the verb "to strike" in English and in Shawnee.

Johnston Lykins to General James William Denver
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: December 14, 1857
In this letter to General James W. Denver, Lykins addresses the then-pending case of the Wyandotte land float. Lykins explains that "Jenkins right to the claim, was the testimony of a Kansas City clerk." The "Floats" were granted to the Wyandotte Nation in 1854. According to the agreement, 32 640-acre sections of land west of the Mississippi river were set aside for the Wyandotte Nation.

Ottawa Indians to President John Quincy Adams
Creator: Ottawa Indians
Date: February 17, 1829
This letter to President John Quincy Adams was written by seven Ottawa Indians, including two who had completed a surveying trip with missionary Isaac McCoy. These Ottawas, who had been offered lands west of the Mississippi, appeared to be pleased with the new lands in Indian Territory and wished to move there alongside McCoy and another missionary named Johnston Lykins. The letter was written from Fort Wayne, Indiana, but these Ottawas had originally resided in Michigan. The seven Indians who dictated this letter signed their mark to the bottom of the document.

Shawnee Sun (Siwinowe Kesibwi)
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: November 1841
This photo static copy of the Shawnee Sun represents the first newspaper printed in Kansas (then known as Indian Territory). The paper was written in the Shawnee alphabet created by Johnston Lykins, a Baptist missionary to the Shawnee Indians. The newspaper lists John Gill Pratt as publisher. The original paper copy of this issue is held by the LaBudde Special Collections Department, Miller Nichols Library, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The gospel according to Mathew, and the acts of the apostles: translated into the Putawatomie [sic] langauge
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: 1844
This translation of the New Testament into the Potawatomie language by Johnston Lykins was published in Louisville, Kentucky, and printed by William C. Buck.

To all whom it may concern, Wyandott Reservations west of the Missouri River
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: September 01, 1855
In this item, a copy of the original, Johnston Lykins issues notice that the Department of Interior is moving to protect the "rights of the Wyandott Indians reserves, their heirs or legal Representatives, as intended by the 14th article of the treaty of March 17, 1842, and also the location of the same as intended by the 9th article of the treaty of January 31st. 1855."

Wa fa fe (Wa sha she) wa gry sy (book)
Creator: Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
Date: 1837
This Washashe (Osage) Indian language grammer was created by Johnston Lykins and printed at the Shawnee Baptist Mission.

Wyandotte Float instructions, Kansas Territory
Date: September 1, 1855
Dr. Johnston Lykins, an active Indian agent and land speculator, made this copy in longhand on September 1, 1855, of a notice issued the previous day by John Calhoun, the surveyor general for Kansas and Nebraska territories. The document provides instructions by which the land was to be distributed.