One
of my favorite characters in my books, Kizzie's Kisses and Otto's Offer is Charlie Gray Cloud, a man in his
late twenties who is half Kaw. The Kaw Indians, also known as Kansa Indians,
are the tribe that gave their name to both the river that joins the Missouri
River at Kansas City, and to the state of Kansas.
Early History
The
Kansa tribe of farmers and hunters lived along the Kansas River, a tributary of
the Missouri and extended from Kansas into Nebraska. They were a strong, proud,
war-like people who fought with other tribes, the fur traders and white
soldiers and settlers before signing a number of treaties which culminated in
their forced removal to reservations.
The
Kaw Nation derived its name from the Siouan word for “south wind,” which was
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
Kaw, along with the 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 other tribes moved up and down the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers,
and the Kaws assumed control of the region in and around present-day Kansas
City as well as the Kansas River Valley to the west.
The
French explorer Bourgmont was the first European known to visit the Kaws in
1724. He found them living in a single large village near the future site of
the town of Doniphan, Kansas, on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. In 1780 the Kaw abandoned this village and
took up residence on the Kansas River, but the ruins of their earlier village
were long a landmark for travelers. When Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri,
they noted passing the site of the “old village of the Kanzas” on July 2, 1804.
Culture of the Kaw/Kansa People
In
the past, each Kansa band was led by a chief who was chosen by a tribal
council. Kansa men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their
families. Kansa women were farmers and did most of the child care and cooking.
Only men became Kansa chiefs, but both genders took part in storytelling,
artwork and music, and traditional medicine.
The
Kansa Indians lived in settled villages of round earthen lodges.
These lodges were made from wooden frames covered with packed earth. Kansa
houses were very large (more than fifty feet across) and several families
shared the same lodge. When Kansa men went on hunting trips, they often used
small buffalo-hide tipis
(or teepees) as temporary shelter, similar to camping tents. Unlike other
Plains Indian tribes, Kansa families did not normally live in teepees.
 |
| So-Jum-Wah - 1865 |
The
men wore a blue or red breechcloth with a belt, deerskin leggings, moccasins
with no ornamentation, and sometimes a blanket over the upper part of the body.
Shells, beads, or metal ornaments were attached to the rim of the ear,
sometimes to great profusion, and long slender hair pipes were common. Kaw men
shaved their heads, leaving only the scalp lock uncut. Sometimes the edge of
the lock was colored with vermilion, or an eagle feather was inserted. On top
of the head a roach (headdress) might be worn, made of deer tail, dyed red and
parted longitudinally by a silver spreader (James, 1823).
 |
| Quyulange aka Eagle Plume 1877 |
For my character Charlie Gray Cloud, I used a combination of the photographs of these two men to visualize what he might look like and how he may have been dressed.
Kaw
women wore moccasins, knee-length leggings of blue and red cloth, a skirt and
occasionally a cloth thrown over one shoulder. The hair was worn long, parted
in the middle, the part colored with vermilion. Like the men, many of the women
tattooed the body.
 |
| Grandma McCauley |
Kansa
artists are famous for their native weaving, beadwork, and hide paintings.
One
of the best early records of the Kaw people came from the 1832 visit by the
artist George Catlin. His paintings of Kaw people preserved images of the dress
styles of the time.
The food that the Kansa tribe ate
included crops of maize, beans and squash and fish caught in the rivers. In the
summer the hunters provided a variety of meat, especially the buffalo.
The religion and beliefs of the Kansa
tribe were based on their belief in the Great Spirit and Animism that encompassed the spiritual or
religious idea that the universe and all natural objects animals, plants,
trees, rivers, rocks, mountains etc. The Kansa religion involved vision quests
and many different spirit beings, or wakan, who held different powers.
 |
| Meach-o-shÃn-gaw, Little White Bear, a distinguished Kansa brave |
Demographers
have estimated that, as a consequence of the white man’s diseases (principally
smallpox, cholera, and influenza), their population had been reduced perhaps to
less than 50 percent, down to about 1,500 men, women and children by 1800. Even
so, the Kaws presented a formidable obstacle to American expansion into the
trans-Missouri West following its acquisition of this vast region by the
Louisiana Purchase of 1803. From their villages and small vegetable farms in
northeastern Kansas and later along the Kansas River west of present-day
Topeka, Kaw warriors maintained control of the lower Kansas valley against both
the white man from the east and alien tribes to the west. Kaw hunters also
engaged in semi-annual hunting expeditions onto the plains of western Kansas.
In 1804, the Lewis and Clark
expedition (1804 - 1806) shortly after the Louisiana Purchase pulled this
territory under the dominion of the United States. Members of this expedition
attempted to make contact with the Kansa tribe, but the people were on a
buffalo hunt. In September of 1806, A grand council was held between Zebulon
Pike and James Wilkinson and various chiefs of the Kansa, Pawnee and Osage
Nations.
However, this turned out to be
monumental events for the region, for the expedition returned east with
favorable reports of the region. This prompted emigration to the region and the
establishment of Kansas City, one of the trade centers and jumping-off points
for travelers heading further west.
However, this was not the first contact
with Europeans. Prior to that, due to their location at the junction of two
major rivers, they came into contact with both the Spanish and later the
French.which established trading posts in the region. Contact with Europeans
resulted with a devastating smallpox epidemic killed many people in 1801.
Between sickness and inter-tribal warfare, the number of Kansa people declines
dramatically.
 |
| Francis French Killer, Wah-Sis-Tah-Shin-Kah |
In the early
1800s, the Kaw’s domain extended well beyond the present-day borders of Kansas.
From 1780
to 1830 the Kaw lived at Blue Earth Village on the Kansas River, at the site of
present-day Manhattan, Kansas.
The Kaw probably moved to the Kansas River Valley to be closer to the buffalo herds on the Great Plains. The tribe increasingly depended upon buffalo hunting for its subsistence and less on agriculture. Also, living on the Kansas River gave them access to a rich territory of fur bearing animals to trade to the French for guns and other commodities. Unfortunately, this movement west also made them more vulnerable to attack from powerful enemies such as the Pawnees. Lewis and Clark noted that they were "reduced by war with their neighbors." They estimated the Kaw to number 300 men—about 1,500 persons in all.
The Kaw probably moved to the Kansas River Valley to be closer to the buffalo herds on the Great Plains. The tribe increasingly depended upon buffalo hunting for its subsistence and less on agriculture. Also, living on the Kansas River gave them access to a rich territory of fur bearing animals to trade to the French for guns and other commodities. Unfortunately, this movement west also made them more vulnerable to attack from powerful enemies such as the Pawnees. Lewis and Clark noted that they were "reduced by war with their neighbors." They estimated the Kaw to number 300 men—about 1,500 persons in all.
In
1825, the Kaw ceded a huge area of land in Missouri and Kansas to the United
States in exchange for a promise of an annuity of $3,500 annually for twenty
years. The promised annuity—to be paid in goods and services—was often late in
arriving or found its way into the pockets of unscrupulous government officials
and merchants. The Kaw were indifferent to the pleas of government agents and
missionaries that they take up farming as their sole livelihood.
Meanwhile,
the Kaw faced smallpox epidemics in 1827–1828 and 1831–1832, which killed about
500. During the same period the tribe split into four different competing
groups living in different villages, a consequence of rivalry between three
groups of conservatives, who favored retaining traditional ways, and one group
under White Plume
which favored accommodation with the United States. Important in the latter
group were 23 mixed bloods, the sons and daughters of French traders who had
taken Kaw wives.
 |
| Kansas Counties - 1872 |
Due to
pressures from encroaching white men and decimation by disease and warfare, and
a flood that destroyed their crops in 1844, in 1846, the Kaw sold most of
their remaining land and the federal government forced them onto a 20 square-mile reservation
surrounding Council Grove, Kansas. Council Grove is a beautiful area of forests,
water, and tall grass prairie. About 1,000 people, struggling with disease and starvation, lived in
three nearby villages. However, Council Grove was probably the worst location that could
have been selected for the already weakened and demoralized tribe. It was a favorite
stopping place for the rough-mannered teamsters and traders and greedy
merchants on the Santa Fe Trail. The first Kaw arriving there were beaten up by
traders. The flourishing whiskey trade in Council Grove was detrimental to the
Kaw. Whites invaded Indian lands and sporadic efforts by soldiers to force them
off the reservation were ineffective. In 1860, the Kaw reservation, overrun by
White settlers, was reduced to 80,000 acres.
The Kaw lived on the reservation
for less than 30 years when, despite an impassioned plea to Congress by Chief
Allegawaho in 1873, the US government relocated 600 kaws to a new reservation
in (present-day Oklahoma).
After
writing two books about the same family, I decided to make them part of
my own series, Atwell Kin. Books 2 and 3 have been published. Book 1, Virginia's Vocation, is scheduled for publication in April, 2019. Right now, Charlie's Choice,
Book 0, the prequel, is on preorder. It is offered at a preorder sales
price of $.99 through the release date of January 5, 2019.
If you have already read Kizzie's Kisses or Otto's Offer, you have already met Charlie. This is his story and his romance
which takes place 1856-57.
He is the link to remind us that before the white Americans came to Kansas, a tribe of people already lived there.
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