[Map produced in 1972 by the University of Oklahoma shows above Indian Tribes.]

The native peoples found in the Kansas region by Coronado and by later explorers included the Indians of Quivira, most likely the Wichita of a later day. Except for a brief time during the Civil War, when the Wichita Indians were located on the site of the present city of Wichita, this Indian nation called the region of southwestern Oklahoma and adjacent parts of Texas their home.

The Kansa and Osage Indians, native to the area of eastern Kansas, were of Siouan linguistic stock. These closely-related tribes had permanent villages, corn fields, and gardens along some of the principal rivers of Kansas. To supplement their diet they went on season hunting expeditions to the buffalo range located west of their traditional hunting grounds.

Typically, the Kansas and Osages were enemies of the Pawnees, who were Indians of Caddoan linguistic stock like the Wichitas. Their primary villages were located along the Platte River in Nebraska, but their hunting grounds extended as far south as the Smoky Hill River and as far east as the Blue River. At various times they had small villages on the banks of the lower Republican River or father upstream in present-day Republic County. The name Pawnee Republic, used in reference to these Indians, is the source of the river and county name.

Indians of the High Plains, because of their roving life and dependence on the buffalo, were known as nomadic or wild Indians, in contrast to the more sedentary village tribes located along the eastern fringe of the plains. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were tribes of Algonquian speaking Indians and were allies against encroachment on their hunting grounds in the central Great Plains. They had village locations in the valleys in the Rockies, but they spent a good part of each year living in skin tipis which they frequently moved to new locations in search of the buffalo herds of the grasslands.

Relatively late arrivals to the Kansas area were the Shoshoni-speaking Comanches and the Kiowas. After many years of conflict these tribes allied against their enemies and dominated the southern plains, including parts of Kansas. The tipi-dwelling, nomadic Indians of the western half of Kansas were among the earliest tribes to acquire the horse, and they became skilled horsemen.

From C. M. Scott=s journey to Indian Territory in February 1877, we find that there were three different agencies that he visited as well as Fort Sill.

Note: At Wichita Agency in 1877 the school handled 13 different tribes:

1. Wichita.

2. Caddo.

3. Ute.

4. Comanche.

5. Creek.

6. Kechi.

7. Tonkawa.

8. Delaware.

9. Waco.

10. Cherokee.

11. Seminole.

12. Shawnee.

13. Chickasaw.