Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site
Shawnee Indian Mission News REAL PEOPLE. REAL STORIES..
Winter 2009
A quarterly newsletter for the Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site
JCCC students repair fencing Johnson County Community College students in the Metal Fabrication Technology program repaired fencing Oct. 1 at the Shawnee Indian Mission Cemetery. The project took the students two hours, and the instructor and lab aide spent another hour putting away equipment. Said Richard Rowe, metal fabrication instructor and welding department chair, “The job was not only a ‘feel-good’ experience, but also a learning tool. For example, the students used an electric grinder to smooth completed work, distance measuring tools, and the oxyacetylene gas outfit to heat and straighten metal along with clamps to pull materials together and hold it to weld. Also, we used our portable welder for the first time. Before starting the job, we reviewed all Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site 3403 W. 53rd St. Fairway, KS 66205-2654 913-262-0867 kshs.org/places/shawnee
JCCC students volunteered their time and donated materials for the cemetery fencing repair.
aspects of the job, including contacting the police department, checking to see if we needed any permits by the city, developing a work permit for me, and reviewing fire extinguisher use.” The students, who worked in teams of two, did part of each task needing to be done. Participating JCCC students were Scot Casey, Tomas Craner, Nick Fornal, Jonathan Meyer, Jason Ross, Ryan Stauffer, Robert Wike, Peter Winter, and John Winter. Nick Young, welding lab aide, also volunteered his time.
2 INFORMATION ABOUT THE SITE. The Shawnee Indian Mission, 3403 W. 53rd St., Fairway, KS 66205, is a state historic site open 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, operated by the Kansas State Historical Society, a state agency. The Mission opened in 1839 to teach children from the Shawnee and other tribes basic academics, manual arts, and agriculture. For more information, visit kshs.org/places/shawnee or call (913) 262-0867. This newsletter was written and designed by Cindy Higgins with guidance from Bobbie Athon, KSHS public information oďŹƒcer, and Linda Kunkle Park, KSHS senior graphic designer and template creator. Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site 23rd Annual Fall Festival
Dave Montgomery (seen here with Rosie at the quilt show held this year at Bishop Miege to display more quilts and sell quilt items) won the hog calling contest.
October 10 – 11, 2009 A M n P M s &REE !DMISSION A celebration of American Indian traditions Featuring family friendly fun, crafts, entertainment, hands-on activities, and food. You’ll see living history reenactors, mountain men, American Indian dancers, spinners, weavers, storytellers, musicians, traditional craftsmen, pony rides, tipis, and a quilt show. Handmade crafts for sale. CampďŹ re, music, and storytelling 7 p.m. Saturday.
City of Fairway Parks and Recreation sta volunteered throughout the Festival.
3403 West 53rd, Fairway 913-262-0867 kshs.org/shawnee Co-sponsored by Shawnee Indian Mission Foundation with support from Friends of Shawnee Indian Mission.
Donna Kay, the Mission’s Junior Volunteer, helped with beanbag toss, apple cider making, face painting, library reception, and other tasks. Volunteering at Fall Festival isn’t new for Donna. Said her mother, Judy Kay, also a volunteer, “She even volunteered as a baby in the crib at the cabin.�
KSHS provided iers and outside signs. It also coordinated paid advertising in print, online and broadcasting.
Gay Woosley arranged for these quick-selling sampler packs to be items in the Friends fundraiser booth.
To save resources, mailings were done electronically and a map and schedule were printed on one page instead of as a booklet.
Jan Owen helped out in advance by packaging “thank you� gift bags for 17 living history demonstrators and also the Missouri Free Trappers.
A Kansas City Star photographer shot 90 photos viewed more than 4,000 times at Kansascity.com “Community Faces� within a few weeks after the Festival.
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Fall Festival 2009 One of the coldest remembered, the festival had an impressive turnout along with 34 vendors, seven organizational booths, and non-stop entertainment such as Stranger Creek band, KS-MO Autoharp Club, Eagle Talon Dancers, American Indian flute players, Overland Stage barbershop quartet, and Missouri Town dancers. Along with new offerings such as Wyandot storytelling were traditional favorites, e.g., Rodney Winston’s pony rides, Johnson County Young Matrons bake sale, and Troop 192 monkey bridge. See p. 8 for more photos!
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GOING PLACES On Oct. 26, Howard Ziegenhorn gave a presentation on links between Westport and the Mission to Platte Purchase Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in north Kansas City.
GROUNDS REPORT Sewer. The city projects coordinator with Johnson County Wastewater contacted the Mission in November about a potential sanitary sewer issue discovered during the city of Fairway channel improvement project on the southern end of Mission property. Close to project completion, a work crew found a sanitary sewer crossing the stream just outside project limits that serves the West Building. Possible rerouting to a southwest sewer main on the Mission property was discussed.
THANK YOU NOTES FROM GIRL SCOUT TROOP 3407 I loved the tour. My farrit part of the tour is when we made the medican bags. Thank you for giving are girl scout troup a tour. Isabe I really liked seeing the armys room. I also thought seeing there unfiorms. It was realy cool. Lyndsey Thank you for letting us come to the Inidan Mission, and my favorite part was when we saw the clothes, because I thought it was interesting. P.S. Thank you for giving us a tour. Louise [who also drew Indian clothing shown above] Museum Educators Roundtable. Representatives from Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site, Kansas City Museum, National
Master Gardeners. The Environmental Protection Agency this
Archives at Kansas City, Wonderscope Children’s
October funded a grant written by Bill Smith, Johnson County
Museum, Wyandotte County Museum, Harry S.
Master Gardeners. Smith said monies will be used to build a
Truman Library-Museum, Midwest Center for
three-component compost system inside the Mission’s fenced
Holocaust Education, Negro Leagues Baseball
garden. To be placed in the northwest quadrant, the bins will
Museum, and Johnson County Museum discussed
be for “starting, cooking, and composting,” Smith said. This
educational activities at various museums and school
new system, Smith said, was necessary because boards from the
visit promotion Oct. 16 at the Mission. Afterward,
previous compost arrangement kept being pilfered.
guests toured the North Building exhibits and ate refreshments.
FINANCES Shawnee Indian Mission Patriots. In November, the Patriots donated $1,000+ to the Mission for salary expenses. Fall Festival. The term “operating in the black” derives from the color of ink used to enter a profit figure on a financial
Introduction reception. Mission staff attended an afternoon of fellowship at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Monday Oct. 5 to meet new president, Greg Baker, and tour the facility.
statement and also applies to the 2009 Fall Festival. Vendor
LIBRARY UPDATE
booth fees offset costs such as music licenses, entertainment,
Norm Keech (seen right) and
and the hospitality room. In addition, Mission staff organized
Carolyn Keech talked with 185
the Festival rather than a paid coordinator.
visitors to the library during the
Friends of Shawnee Indian Mission
P A R T N E R S H I P S
Fall Festival.
also used the festival as a fundraiser. Betty Lu Duncan (sales and raffle), Tom Dix (soda pop sales), and Linus Orth (cider
VISITORS
press) managed booths with tireless
In October and November, Notre Dame de Sion, Bethany
volunteer support.
Lutheran, Derrick Thomas Academy, Primitvo Garcia, Apache
“The hot cider was a hit,” Orth said. “We had lots of kids
Elementary, Holy Cross, and Accelerated Learning Academy
feeding apples and turning the crank. Parents had a good time,
visited the Mission. Also visiting were sister city German
and we had a Cub Scout den that also helped out.”
students and a home school group from Wichita. The Westport
The Johnson County Young Matrons bake sale organized by Marilyn Golub generated funds donated to the Friends.
Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, held a luncheon at the North Building Oct. 19, and toured, too.
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PEMBROKE STUDENTS VOLUNTEER OCT. 30 Eighty students from Pembroke County Day School volunteered at the Mission for four hours. Split into groups, the students raked leaves, moved items between buildings, made ribbons, decorated cookies for Holiday Open House, made student activity kits, and dusted the library. Patty Stein organized the helpful outing and with other parents treated the middle-school students to pizza from Waldo Pizza. Howard Ziegenhorn, Sylvia Spear, and Bernie Spear also volunteered their time and efforts.
HALLOWEEN FUN At Fairway’s Trail of Tricks and Treats at Peterson Park, Mission staff passed out treats to those willing to roll over paper cups with pumpkins in the drizzling rain. Every bowling effort was rewarded with a candy-filled card. Martha Wofford, Johnson County Young Matrons, took leftover candy to HeadStart of Shawnee Mission. “They were thrilled,” Wofford said, with the donation.
The most popular candy the children chose? Red hots!
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Decorating elves Sue Houdek (right) and Cassie Braxdale of Johnson County Young Matrons began putting up holiday decorations at the Mission Nov. 24. This is the fourth year decorating for the duo, and Houdek’s parents also helped.
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2009 Holiday Open House Holiday open house preparations really kicked in Dec. 3 when the Johnson County Young Matrons did their holiday decorating magic and began bringing in cookies as the East Building underwent a meticulous tidying When doors opened Saturday, Dec. 5, Sylvia Spear and Ann Bossing greeted more than 300 visitors with hot apple cider and an array of colorful JCYM cookies in the oďŹƒce. Close by, fresh-from-Topeka seasonal gift items proved popular, especially the holiday books, and author-signed copies of Four Ordinary Women: A Gathering at the Cedar Roe Library. Music ďŹ lled the downstairs, starting with the Kansas City Flute Choir, followed by Gentle Hearts gospel, and Prairie Dulcimers who also played on Sunday. Also appearing on Sunday were the rousing Kaw Valley Shape Note Singers and, later, area Suzuki violin students. JCYM volunteers and others assisted with craft productionoatmeal cookie-in-a-jar, cranberry and popcorn garlands, paper quilt cards, medicine bags, and dried hedgeapple slice ornaments. Over in the North Building open for guests to view the new exhibits, John Forbes and Phil Barbour showed children an 1800s schoolroom.
8 Chapel presentations while JoAnn Russell displayed rug braiding included “Bogus Legislature at the Mission,” Charles Clark; “Life in the 1850s,” Leslie Terrill, “General Order No. 11 Effect on Civil War Families in the Area,” Tom Rafiner; “Fort Leavenworth Veterans at the Battle of Sharpsburg,” Ethan Rafuse, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; “Daniel Boone in Kansas and Missouri,” Herbert Ziegler; “Native American Genealogy,” Barbara LaClair, Topeka Genealogical Society; “River Commerce in the 1800s,” Joe Brentano, Grinter Place; and “The 1838 Potawatomie Trail of Death,” Mary Conrad, Kansas City Archaeological Society.
MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL The stagecoach kept on the street because of wet ground; Sons of American Revolution hosted a booth; Sassy Ladies held older dog adoptions; Charles Tyler brought his accordion, honey and home-made root beer were a few of the offerings; Trey Malone, Rockhurst University, volunteered; and barbershop quartet singers and autoharpists delighted audiences.