Chronology of the Iowa and Sac and Fox Indians in Doniphan County, Kansas
Date: 1882
This chronology details major events occurring between 1837-1855 among the Iowa and Sac and Fox Indians who had been relocated to Kansas after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Topics mentioned within the chronology include warfare among relocated tribes, the arrival of white emigrants, disease, mission buildings, and treaties ceding land to the United States government.

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.

Gottlieb F. Oehler to Eli K. Price
Creator: Oehler, Gottlieb
Date: July 11, 1859
Gottlieb F. Oehler, a Moravian missionary working with the Chippewa and Munsee Indians in Kansas Territory, wrote this letter to Eli Price regarding the mistreatment of Indians and whites' disrespectful attitudes toward Indian lands. Oehler was appalled that white squatters frequently settled on Indian land with no response from the federal government, who should have protected Indian land claims. While most white Americans agreed with the government's approach to removal, Oehler hoped that Price would speak out against federal policies and educate the public in the eastern United States about the treatment of Indians out west.

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 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.

Map of Indian lands in Kansas
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: 1830-1836
This map represents all the surveys of Indian lands completed by missionary Isaac McCoy between the years 1830 and 1836. McCoy, a missionary to the Ottawa and Pottawatomie tribes in Michigan, was convinced that Indians should be moved to new lands west of the Mississippi River. He took some Indian delegates on exploring missions in addition to his work as surveyor, missionary, and teacher. The map was redrawn by H. J. Adams.

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.

Names and numbers of Indian tribes which must have possessions in the Indian Territory
Creator: McCoy, Isaac, 1784-1846
Date: November 1, 1832
Isaac McCoy, a Baptist missionary and surveyor, compiled this list of Indian tribes and their estimated populations. McCoy advocated Indian removal to western lands because he believed that the white man's influence on natives was corrupting. On this chart he listed about 45 tribes from all over the eastern United States. Only some of these tribes were relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Kansas). "Do" is an abbreviation for "ditto."

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.

Richard W. Cummins to William Clark
Creator: Cummins, Richard W.
Date: April 2, 1831
This letter, written by Richard Cummins, an agent to the Shawnee Indians, updated Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Clark on the Delaware Indians who had recently relocated in Kansas (then called Indian Territory). The Delaware had moved to Kansas in the late fall and early winter of the previous year and, due to lack of provisions, were in "a suffering condition." Many of their horses had died and so Cummins gave them some provisions to ease their suffering. The Delaware chiefs wanted the provisions guaranteed them by their treaty with the U. S. government, which they had been told was not yet ratified. They argued that it must have been ratified, because after they signed the treaty white settlers immediately took possession of the Delaware lands east of the Mississippi. In addition, Cummins mentions the Wea Indians (one of the New York Indian tribes), who were also suffering after the harsh winter.

Statement of Lands Purchased from Indian Tribes
Creator: United States. Congress. House
Date: 1838-1839
This chart outlining Indian land cessions is composed of three columns containing the year of cession, acres acquired, and the amounts to be paid for these lands. According to the bottom of the chart, the total acres acquired by the United States totaled 419,429,446 and the total cost was $81,672,824.81. The chart covers the period between 1795 and 1838. It was published in the U.S. serial set as part of series 347, document 147, titled "Indians Removed to West Mississippi from 1789."

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.