Vacation Bible School Shawnee First Indian Baptist Church Minnesota & Darrow St.
The History and Culture of The Kaw Nation of Oklahoma On July 4, 1804, Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery was camped on the site of a Kanza (Kaw) village near the mouth of the Kansas River. They had been told of the proud warriors, who inhabited this area, but did not encounter the tribe, who were hunting buffalo in the western part of present-day Kansas. The Kaw Nation derived its name from the Siouan aca, “south wind”, a reference to the tribe’s role in war ceremonials, using the power of the wind when recognizing warriors. Among the many variations of the name given by French traders and other Europeans were “”Kanza” or “Kansa”. By the mid-18th century, the “Wind People” were the predominant tribe in what became the state to which they gave their name (Kansas). Their territory extended over most of present-day northern and eastern Kansas, with hunting grounds extending far to the west. The treaty of 1825 reduced the tribe’s 20 million-acre domain to a 30 mile wide 2 million-acre reservation beginning just west of future Topeka. Promised annuities were seldom delivered or were obligated to unscrupulous traders, while disease decimated the tribal population. When railroad, town and land speculators coveted the 1825 treaty lands, the Treaty of 1846 further reduced Kaw territory to 256,000 acres at present-day Council Grove. The subsequent Treaty
of 1859 removed the town of Council Grove from Kaw lands and gave the tribe only 80,000 of the poorest acres, sub-divided into 40-acre plots for each family Finally, on May 27, 1872, over the strong protests of Chief Allegawaho and his people, a federal act moved the Kanza to a 100,137 acre site in northern Kay County, Oklahoma. From a population of several thousand, the Kaw had disease and starvation to 1,500 by 1800, to 553 by 1872, and to 194 within 16 years of the move to Oklahoma’s Indian Territory. Even here their land claim was not safe. The Kaw Allotment Act of 1902 legally obliterated the tribe until federal reorganization in 1959. Their former reservation land was inundated in the mid-1960s by the construction of Kaw Reservoir. This required the relocation of the tribal Council House and tribal cemetery. According to Crystal Douglas, cultural preservationist, the Kaw people have preserved their spiritual origin through oral tradition and the written language of the Euro-American invaders. The American scientist Thomas Say, for example, based on contacts with the Kaw people at their Blue Earth Village near present-day Manhattan, Kansas in 1819, noted that the “Master of Life’ first created Kaw man. His solitary life, however, caused him to cry out in anguish, so the “Master” sent down a woman to alleviate his loneliness.
“HE IS I AM” Sunday, June 28 4:00 PM 5:30 PM 6:00 PM
Feast/Pre-Registration Native Praise Choir VBS Begins
Monday, June 29 - Thursday, July 2 6:00 - 9:00 PM Need a ride? 273-5616, 273-5237, 273-6546 Ages 4 years to 100+
Another early 19th-century account stated that Kaw men who simply emerged from the earth became boastful of their long tails, whereupon the Great Spirit (Wakanda) removed the tails and created nagging women from them, and then sent swarms of mosquitoes to remind all Kaw people that modesty was a virtue. The most popular account, however, recalls that overpopulation on a small island created before the main part of the earth caused frustrated Kaw fathers to drown unwanted children, thus prompting more compassionate Kaw mothers to ask the Great Spirit to provide more living space. Their prayers were answered when beavers, muskrats and turtles were sent
down to enlarge the island from the floor of the great waters, and in time the earth assumed its present form. Flora and fauna thrived, the population crisis was averted, and “the entire circle of the world was filled with life and beauty.” Historians and ethno historians have determined that the Kaw, Osage, Ponca, Omaha, and Quapaw- technically known as the Dhegiha-Siouan division of the Hopewell cultures of the lower Ohio Valley – lived together as one people in the lower Ohio valley prior to the white invasion of North American in the late 15th century. Sometime prior to about 1750, the search for better sources of game and pressure from the more powerful Algonquians to the east prompted a westward migration to the mouth of the Ohio River. The Quapaws continued down the Mississippi River and took the name “downstream people” while the Kaw, Osage, Ponca and Omaha – the “upstream people”- moved to the mouth of the Missouri near present-day St. Louis, up the Missouri to the mouth of the Osage River, where another division took place. The Ponca and Osage moved northwest to present-day eastern Nebraska, the Osage occupied the Ozark country to the southwest, and the Kaws assumed control of the region in and around presentday Kansas City as well as the Kansas river Valley to the west. Today the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma has survived adversity and today is a federally-recognized self-governing tribe of 3,376 members.
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Taco Sale June 26th • 11am - 1pm June 27th • 10am - ? Sac & Fox multi-purpose 215 N. Harrison
52nd Sac & Fox Pow Wow July 9th - July 12th
28th Anniversary Pow Wow July 3rd - July 4th Thunderbird Casino
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28th Anniversary Pow Wow Friday, July 3rd & Satruday, July 4th
Fireworks Show July 4th at 10pm
FREE ADMISSION. OPEN TO PUBLIC Head Singer - Joseph Blanchard • Head Lady - Liyahna Bender • Head Man - To Be Selected Emcee - Chad Tappahawickah • Arena Director - Sam Howell • Color Guard - Absentee Shawnee Veterans Contests in all Men & Women adult categories 18-54 years old - $500 1st, $300 2nd, $200 3rd. Teens All Categories Boys & Girls 13-17 years old - $200 1st, $100 2nd, $75 3rd. Juniors Combined 6-12 years old - $100 1st, $75 2nd, $50 3rd. Golden Age 55 to 65 one category for Men & one category for Women - $500 1st, $300 2nd, $200 3rd. Super Golden Age 66 & over. All Dancers Combined - $500 1st, $300 2nd, $200 3rd. Tiny Tots each night Dancers Must Make Grand Entries at 7:00pm each night. Guard Dance 5pm Friday & 2pm on Saturday, Supper break at 5pm Saturday. This is a Family event, alcohol or weapons not permitted. Thunderbird Casino is an Enterpise of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, and not liable for any accidents or thefts. Vendors, Any Questions Call Thunderbird Marketing Dept. 405-360-9270 ext. 1201