INDIAN TRIBES.

In Kansas.

EARLY INDIAN TRIBES IN KANSAS:

1. Osage

2. Kansas

3. Pawnee

4. Cheyenne

5. Arapaho

6. Kiowa and Comanche

[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.

INDIAN TRIBES IN OKLAHOMA.

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.

1. Cheyenne Agency. Agent Miles.

Tribes living under his supervision:

1. Cheyenne.

2. Arapaho.

2. Kiowa and Comanche Agency. Agent Haworth.

Tribes living under his supervision:

1. Kiowa.

2. Comanche.

3. Apache.

3. Wichita Agency. Agent Williams.

Tribes living under his supervision:

1. Caddo.

2. Wichita.

3. Comanche.

4. Towakonie.

5. Kechi.

6. Waco.

7. Delaware.

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.

Arkansas City Traveler, February 12, 1879.

Opening the Indian Territory.

The Senate Committee who have had under consideration the matter of opening the Indian Territory met this evening and agreed unanimously in the affirmative upon the report. A sub-committee was appointed to prepare a report and bill embracing the following points.

First. To establish a United States Court within the Indian Territory for the better protec-tion of life and property, with the same powers and jurisdiction of other United States Courts.

Second. That each of the five civilized nations be allowed to send a delegate to Congress.

Third. That the lands now held in common by the tribes can be divided in severalty among the Indians.

The Origin of Indian Names.

Winfield Courier, January 21, 1875.

A member of Major Powell's expedition, which has been engaged in the Government survey of the Territories, furnished the New York Tribune some interesting notes of the discoveries made in the origin of Indian names.

It seems that each tribe or primary organization of Indians, rarely including more than 200 souls, is, in obedience to the traditional laws of these people, attached to some well-defined territory or district, and the tribe takes the name of such district. Thus the U-in-tats, known to white men as a branch of the Utes, belonged to the Uintah Valley.

U-imp is the name for pine; too-meap, for land or country; U-im-too-meap, pine land; but this has been contracted to U-in-tah, and the tribe inhabiting the valley were called

U-in-tata.

The origin of the term Ute is as follows: U is the term signifying arrow; U-too-meap, arrow land. The region of country bordering on Utah Lake is called U-too-meap because of the great number of reeds growing there, from which their arrow-shafts were made.

The tribe formerly inhabiting Utah Valley was called U-tah-ats, which has been corrupted into the term Ute by the white people of the country.

The name U-tah-ats belonged only to a small tribe living in the vicinity of the lake, but it has been extended so as to include the greater part of the Indians of Utah and Colorado. Another general name used by white men is Piutes. A tribe of U-tah-ats being defeated and driven away by a stronger tribe, who occupied their country and took their name, were obliged to take a new name corresponding to the new home in which they settled themselves. But they also called themselves Pai U-tah-ats, or true U-tah-ats. The corrupted name Piutes is now applied to the Indians of a large section of country. Several of these tribes have numerous names, and in this way the number of individual tribes has probably been much overestimated.

Galaxy for February.