Indian farm in Delaware Reservation, Kansas. 311 miles west of St. Louis Mo.
Creator: Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882
Date: 1867
This stereograph was taken by Alexander Gardner in 1867. It depicts an Indian farm located on the Delaware Indian Reservation in Kansas (approximately 311 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri). The Alexander Gardner Collection contains 170 photographs taken along the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division. It covers a geographic area stretching from Wyandotte (in present-day Kansas City) to west of Hays, Kansas. The image was taken from Alexander Gardner's series, "Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division."

Joe Topash
Creator: Parkman, Mary
Date: 1935
This photograph of Joe Topash, an Indian farmer, was taken in 1935 as part of the New Deal Federal Indian program.

John Dougherty to William Clark
Creator: Dougherty, John
Date: November 10, 1831
John Dougherty wrote this letter from Fort Leavenworth to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame). As Indian agent in Kansas Territory, Dougherty had seen the effect that hard liquor had on the local Indian tribes, and he believed that it should not be allowed into the territory. To back up his position he included a copy of a letter by J. L. Bean.

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.

Jotham Meeker to Rev. Lucius Bolles
Creator: Meeker, Jotham, 1804-1855
Date: July 8, 1840
In this fascinating letter, Jotham Meeker updated Reverend Lucius Bolles (of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions) on his missionary efforts among the Ottawa Indians in Kansas Territory. Meeker included excerpts from his journal to describe the turmoil among the Ottawa over Indian conversions to Christianity. On March 13, 1840, Meeker and his fellow missionary David Green, attended a council of the Ottawa and Chippewa that had been called to protest their missionary work. The Ottawa and Chippewa chiefs were concerned about the breakdown of their tribal society, customs, etc... and placed the blame squarely on the missionary's shoulders. The Ottawa Mission was located near present-day Ottawa, Kansas.

Jotham Meeker to Rev. Lucius Bolles
Creator: Meeker, Jotham, 1804-1855
Date: March 11, 1840
This fascinating letter by Baptist missionary Jotham Meeker describes recent Ottawa converts to Christianity and the Ottawa chief Ottowukkee's passionate stand against further missionary efforts. Apparently, just as Ottowukkee was about to drive the missionaries out of the area, he was struck by a sudden illness. According to Meeker, many of the Ottawa believed his sickness was a sign of God's judgment. Also, Meeker discusses David Green, a native convert who has joined Meeker as a missionary at the Ottawa Mission (near present-day Ottawa, Kansas). The recipient of this letter, Reverend Lucius Bolles, was Meeker's contact on the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions.

Jotham Meeker to Rev. Lucius Bolles
Creator: Meeker, Jotham, 1804-1855
Date: February 13, 1839
In this letter, Jotham Meeker, a missionary to the Ottawa Indians, provided a description of his work teaching the Ottawa how to read and write in their own language. According to Meeker, the Ottawa were eager for their children to learn English as well. Meeker's mission was located near present-day Ottawa, Kansas. Reverend Lucius Bolles, the recipient of this letter, was Meeker's contact at the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions.

Map showing Indian reservations in the United States
Creator: Haskell Institute
Date: 1948
This map, created by Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, depicts all Indian reservations within the continental United States. It also includes the names of agencies and non-reservation schools. It was originally part of a brochure for the National Parks Service.

No-tin-no to D. D. Mitchell
Creator: No-tin-no
Date: October 4, 1843
No-tin-no, a leader of the Ottawa nation, wrote this letter to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, D. D. Mitchell, concerning a shipment of farming implements that the government had promised to the tribe. The Ottawa were frustrated by the delay, and No-tin-no stated that if he did not hear back from Mitchell, he would write to the President of the United States himself. The letter was dictated to Jotham Meeker, a missionary and printer at the Ottawa Baptist Mission near present-day Ottawa, Kansas.

Reverend Charles Bluejacket
Date: Between 1860 and 1879
Charles Bluejacket, a mixed-blood Shawnee Indian, came to Kansas (then called Indian Territory) in 1832. He was a well-respected man among the Shawnee Indians, and he became an ordained Methodist minister in 1859. He moved to new Indian territory in Oklahoma in 1871. This photograph, which depicts Bluejacket in his late thirties or forties, was most likely taken in the 1860s or 1870s.

Thomas L. McKenney to James Barbour
Creator: McKenney, Thomas Loraine, 1785-1859
Date: December 13, 1825
Thomas McKenney, the current Superintendent of Indian Affairs, wrote this letter to James Barbour, Secretary of War, explaining the perceived success of the government's attempts to "civilize" Indian tribes. As part of this process of "civilization," the government believed that it was necessary for native groups to become assimilated into white American society by adopting white agricultural methods, Christianity, and other elements of European American culture. Thomas McKenney was a passionate proponent of this system, and so he included a transcription of a letter written by a Cherokee man named David Brown who describes how his people had adopted Christianity, a republican form of government, and other elements of white culture. According to McKenney, as well as many other white Americans during this time period, the "civilization" process had a positive effect on Native Americans. McKenney also advocated Indian removal, writing that "should they retain their present location [within the United States] they will, in the course of a few years, be lost as a race."

William Clark to John H. Eaton
Creator: Clark, William, 1770-1838
Date: September 22, 1830
In this letter, Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) informed his superior, Secretary of War John Eaton, of the problems associated with traders' selling of liquor to the Indians relocated in Kansas. Hard liquors such as whiskey were permitted in Indian country for the use of white traders and boatmen; however, apparently this privilege had been abused and Clark feared the effect that alcohol consumption would have on the Indian tribes in the territory.