The Allen County Historical Society is hosting a new traveling exhibit at the Allen County Museum — “Living Sovereignty: Sustaining Indigenous Autonomy in ‘Indian Territory’ Kansas.”
“The exhibit focuses on the Native Americans and their movement westward into Kansas and Missouri territories,” said Allen County Historical Society Director Kurtis Russell. “It talks about the different tribes, from Kickapoo to Cherokee.”
The present-day states of Kansas and Missouri are the original home of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Illinois Confederation, Iowa, Kansa, Kiowa, Missouria, Otoe, Osage, Pawnee, Quapaw, and Wichita nations. This area is also home to several tribes that relocated here due to forced removal.
The exhibit explores the struggle the tribes faced against the United States government for self-governance.
In deeming Indigenous cultures and traditions unsatisfactory, federal authorities characterized Indigenous peoples as “wards” who must be controlled. The exhibit notes that this unequal relationship expressed itself in treaties. In the negotiation of these treaties, Indigenous nations and tribes guaranteed themselves what protections they could through the reservation of land, control of natural resources, and internal sovereignty.
In 1823, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision stating that European discovery of land in North America superseded Indigenous ownership claims and Indigenous people were occupants, rather than owners, of their own lands. In 1830, the federal government passed the Indian Removal Act — a legal means to remove Indigenous peoples from their homelands to open the territory for American settlement.
Forced removal began in 1838.
“The exhibit is on a topic that maybe a lot of people really don’t want to talk about — the dark phases of history,” said Russell. However, having opened on Wednesday, the exhibit has piqued people’s interest. “We’ve had some people already stop by to see it,” he added.
Despite the atrocities that came from the forced removals, Indigenous peoples and cultures survived and tribal sovereignty is codified in U.S. law.
Today, there are more than 570 federally-recognized tribes that continue to celebrate their traditions and tribal sovereignty.
Consisting of eight pop-up banners, the exhibit is created by the Watkins Museum of History in partnership with the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area. Allen County Historical Society board member Jon Wells says it is a “fascinating exhibition shedding light on a central but often neglected portion of Kansas history. A valuable addition to both college and K-12 classrooms.”
The exhibit will be on display for six weeks, from Jan. 22 until March 5 during the museum’s open hours of 2 to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. During this time, the Allen County Historical Society welcomes the public to attend two different presentations.
An open house event for the exhibit will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m., Feb. 2, at the Allen County Museum.
On Feb. 23, at 2 p.m., Dr. Eric Anderson of Haskell Indian Nations University will give a program on the sovereignty of Native American tribes in Kansas. This event will be at the Frederick Funston Meeting Hall, 207 N. Jefferson Ave., and is free to the public to attend.
For more information about the exhibit or the Allen County Historical Society, stop by 20 S. Washington Ave., Iola, or contact Kurtis Russell at 620-365-3051 or [email protected].
