Dhegiha (Ceqina)| 1100s to 1450s Kanza Museum. 2000s Sojumwah, Kaw, 1865. 1100s to 1450s Warrior Statue. A group separated from the Sioux people and became the Dhegiha. This was a group of people who shared a language. After the 1400s they began to divide into smaller Developed by Kanza Museum, Crystal Douglas, Museum Director groups, forming the Contents copyright ©2011 Kaw Nation, Kaw City, Okla., Headquarters Kanza, Osage, Omaha, Ponca and Quapaw. Kaw Nation 698 Grandview Drive • P.O. Box 50 • Kaw City, OK 74641 1-866-404-5297 www.kawnation.com Historical references for this publication are available online at www.kawnation.com Special thanks to Kanza Museum Board Kanza News and Jennie Baker, Editor Bryan M. Richter, Graphic Designer Front cover painting “Weekeitulaw, He Who Exchanges, Kaw, 1832” by George Catlin. Courtesy Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. THE KAW NATION to purchase from the Osages with funds from the sale of their former Kansas holdings. This new land was then split up and allotted to individual families. The allotments were of no benefit to the Kanza. This was a tactic devised to break up the tribe into smaller and more easily manageable units, thus silencing Dhegiha (Ceqina)| the unified voice of the tribe. Nearly 60 years later, the U.S. Army 1100s to 1450s Corps of Engineers flooded a portion of the Oklahoma lands to make a large The Kanza, also called the Kaws or reservoir and recreational area. The Kansa, are a federally recognized Native flooded area housed the Kaw Tribal American tribe officially known as the Council House, the old town of Kaw Nation. The tribe currently consists Washunga and the tribal cemetery. of 3,167 enrolled members living as near It is plain to see that in recent history as Kansas, Texas and Missouri and as the Kanza tribe suffered great tragedies far away as Canada and the United and insults to its traditional way of life. Kaw and Sac & Fox Delegation in Washington D.C., 1867. Charles E. Mix and Lewis Bogy are from D.C. The Kanza are Allegawaho, Kahegawahtiangas and Wahtiangah. Kingdom. The Kanza includes both an But how exactly did the Kaws live prior Executive and General Council, to this time? Let’s look at some of the 2000s comprised of all enrolled tribal members older ways and examine how they above the age of 18. The tribe is impacted the lives of tribal members on area of influence, making and breaking prospects for following herds and administered by an elected Executive a day-to-day basis. camps, following herds and defending its hunting, the Kanza had to look for other Council, consisting of a Chairperson, a It is important to note at this point borders. After contact, the tribe was means of food. Agriculture was the Vice Chair, a Secretary, and four that before modern times, the tribe’s squeezed into smaller and smaller logical alternative, and the adoption of additional elected officials. The tribe has primary means of transmission of corners of its homeland, and forced to agriculture ensured that the tribe would a substantial economic and service base important information down through settle in a few places. forever lose its relationship with the and administers many programs and the generations was oral instead of This lifestyle changeover had a buffalo and ultimately the land. facilities near and around its Seasonal lodging. literary. In other words, the older radical effect on the tribe, and led to the Furthermore, as the tribe settled headquarters in Kaw City, Oklahoma. generations passed things on by word of forced dissolution of many important down, bands gave way to villages. 1100s to 1450s mouth to the younger generations. For cultural institutions of the tribe. For Before then, the tribe existed as a A group separated from The Kanza did not always live in Kanza lived on the vast prairie lands of countless other tribes, all of their lands this reason, there are no written records instance, the Americans wanted the number of mobile bands, which may be the Sioux people and Oklahoma. They are members of a the Great Plains, including most of had been sold to one foreign nation by of the traditional ways of life of Kanza western tribes to adopt agriculture as a thought of as towns on the move. When became the Dhegiha. This much older Mississippi Valley Siouan what is now Kansas, one of two states another one in the Louisiana Purchase was a group of people culture, one that yielded many present- bearing the name of the tribe. of 1803. Americans pushed deeper into tribal members prior to the arrival of primary source of food because it agriculture became the main source of who shared a language. day tribes such as the Sioux, Iowa and While on the plains, the tribe became the interior to take advantage of the Europeans on this continent. required much less land than hunting. food, these bands were forced to stay After the 1400s they began Winnebago (Ho-Chunk). Along with more and more distinct from its wide-open spaces and seemingly endless Because of this, written history of the That land could then be developed for put. This perhaps more than anything to divide into smaller their close cultural relatives the Quapaw, Dhegiha cousins, gradually developing resources. Many tribes were driven tribe begins at a time when the Kanza American interests. In a rapidly succeeded in breaking traditional social groups, forming the Omaha, Ponca and Osage, the Kanza its own language, culture and traditions. westward during this period of American were already in contact with European shrinking world, and with diminished institutions within the tribe. Kanza, Osage, Omaha, are more specifically members of the The Kanza language was no longer expansion. Some of these tribes were and American invaders. Consequently, Ponca and Quapaw. Dhegiha (pronounced they-GEE-hah) understandable with Quapaw and was forced onto Kanza lands, despite drastic the Kaws at this time were actually in a branch of Siouan peoples. Following the increasingly less familiar to Omaha- cultural differences and the fact that state of gross cultural transition between rivers, these tribes migrated toward the Ponca speakers. A uniquely Kanza way some were openly hostile to the Kaws. their traditional ways and the ways they Great Plains probably sometime of life had arisen, and the tribe therefore In addition, American squatters adopted in order to contend with an between the 16th and 18th centuries. enjoyed a long period of independence settling throughout the Kanza hunting increasingly foreign presence at home. According to a popular account, it is and cultural maturity. Unfortunately, it territories demanded more and more Furthermore, it was these cultural said that the Quapaw split off first. They was during this time the threat of land to raise crops and make cities. The outsiders who documented the tribal left the others along the banks of the European American invasion first U.S. government obliged as often as it affairs. Most information from this Mississippi and went southward into became a reality. could — and busied itself renegotiating period may be biased in favor of what is now Arkansas. For that reason, Smallpox, a disease introduced to the treaties, selling off lots and avoiding European or American invaders. It deals the name of their tribe is often continent via European invaders, arrived commitments. Each new treaty more with Kanza cultural adaptation translated as “downstream people.” The in 1755. The affliction killed Kaws drastically reduced the size of the Kanza than Kanza culture in general. Omaha, or “upstream people,” turned without mercy for over a century. In the homeland, once estimated at One of the most noteworthy features northward along with the Ponca and first 10 years after exposure to smallpox, approximately 20 million acres. Finally, of this adaptive period is the tribe’s shift settled in present-day Nebraska. The for example, one of every two Kanza after nearly 70 years of this sort of from a semi-nomadic lifestyle to a Osage and the Kanza were the last to males died. But disease was not the only bureaucratic warfare, the United States sedentary or stationary lifestyle. Prior to part ways. The Osage, or “middle waters problem facing the tribe. American government forced the tribe to cede all contact with the European and people,” stayed in the Ozarks, and the bureaucracy and greed had also reached lands in Kansas. The tribe was moved Americans, the Kaws were very mobile. Kanza, or “wind people,” continued on. the plains. altogether to a roughly 100,000 acre site The tribe as a whole was often moving in Thus, prior to the 20th century, the Unbeknownst to the Kanza and in Indian Territory, which the Kaws had several different directions within its own In March 2010, the Kaw Nation Veterans Society created an Honor Wall dedicated to Kaw tribal members who served their country. The Wall is located in the new Community Center. to purchase from the Osages with funds from the sale of their former Kansas holdings. This new land was then split up and allotted to individual families. The allotments were of no benefit to the Kanza. This was a tactic devised to break up the tribe into smaller and more easily manageable units, thus silencing Dhegiha (Ceqina)| the unified voice of the tribe. Nearly 60 years later, the U.S. Army 1100s to 1450s Corps of Engineers flooded a portion of the Oklahoma lands to make a large The Kanza, also called the Kaws or reservoir and recreational area. The Kansa, are a federally recognized Native flooded area housed the Kaw Tribal American tribe officially known as the Council House, the old town of Kaw Nation.