Kansa

Former tribal area of the Kansa and neighboring tribes and present-day reservations in Nebraska and Oklahoma

The Kansa ( Wind People ), also known as Kaw , Konza or Kasa , are a North American Indian people from the Dhegiha branch of the Sioux language family and originally lived on the Kansas River and Saline River in what is now the central US state of Kansas . The majority of the approximately 2,000 tribal members are now in Kaw City and its neighborhood in Kay County in Oklahoma .

Culture and livelihood

The Kansa are related to the Omaha , Osage , Quapaw, and Ponca . They were a semi-settled people who, in addition to farming, also hunted for a living. It took them about six months a year to till and harvest the fields in which they lived in their permanent villages. The rest of the time, they went buffalo hunting in portable tepees.

Their villages were loosely organized and led by chiefs who were chosen for their wisdom and bravery. Later the chieftainship became hereditary. Two or three Kansa families lived together in a large conical hut. The men wore loincloths over deerskin pants. They were known for carefully plucking all of the hair on their faces and heads, with the exception of a scalp lock that fell from the top of the head and back of the head.

religion

Religious belief revolved around a pantheon of mysterious spirits or wakans of varying rank and power associated with nature such as the sun, light, darkness, forests and plains. Adolescent boys were forced to complete a puberty rite known as the vision quest - a period of isolation and self-denial in which they implored dreams of future heroism and supernatural miracles. Funerals were well thought out and costly. After the women of the tribe had painted the dead man's face and covered the body with bark and a buffalo robe, he was given instructions for the land of the dead. The body was placed in a shallow grave on a hill along with clothing, weapons, a pipe and a supply of food and covered with slabs of rock.

history

The five Dhegiha groups migrated westwards in stages, starting from their prehistoric probable place of residence on the Atlantic coast. At the confluence of the Ohio River in the Mississippi , the individual groups separated. The Kansa moved up the Missouri River to what is now northeastern Kansas.

The French explorer Bourgmont was the first known European to visit the Kansa in 1724. According to his description, they lived in a single large village near what is now Doniphan Ward, Kansas. It was on a rocky bluff high above the Missouri. The Kansa later left this place and moved to the Kansas River. The ruins of the Missouri village stood for decades and were a landmark for travelers. When Lewis and Clark reached the Missouri, according to their diary, they passed the old Kansa village on the Missouri on July 2, 1804 .

Chief Washunga

Their population was decimated by constant wars with the Fox , Omaha, Osage, Pawnee, and Cheyenne . Pressure from the whites, from the Spanish, the English, the French, and finally from American land speculators, undermined their livelihoods. In 1846 a reservation was assigned to the Kansa in Council Grove, Kansas. After all, the Kansa had to give way to pressure from white immigrants and were also expelled from Council Grove. On June 4, 1873, 533 tribesmen moved south and two weeks later they reached the new reservation at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Beaver Creek in the Indian Territory , the later state of Oklahoma. The number of Kansa continued to decline and in 1879 the Indian agent in charge reported that almost half of the tribe had died of contagious diseases in the past seven years. In the 1880s and 1890s, the Kansa leased much of their land to white ranchers as pasture. In 1884 they elected a government with Washunga as chief councilor and a representative from each of the four Kansa bands, the Picayune , Koholo , Rock Creek and Half-breed .

By 1888 there were only 188 surviving Kansa. In the period that followed, however, the number of tribal members grew due to children from mixed marriages, while the pure-blood Kansa continued to decline. The Curtis Act of 1898 expanded the power of federal governments over Indian affairs. The initiator of the law was Charles Curtis (1860-1936), Vice President of the United States. His mother came from the Kansa people. Charles Curtis was the first and so far only Indian politician who managed to hold such a high political office. Curtis believed that Indians should assimilate. He supported the dissolution of the tribal governments and the distribution of tribal land to the tribal members. In 1902 a corresponding law was passed by the US Congress . Each of the 247 tribe members received 0.6 km² of the Kansa area and the remainder of 6.6 km² was transferred to Curtis and his children.

Current situation

After the death of their long-time tribal leader Washunga in 1908, the Kansa no longer had a formal tribal organization. It wasn't until 1959 that the tribe was reorganized and federally recognized. In 1990 the Kansa ratified a new tribal constitution and in 1992 a tribal court. In 2000 the tribe bought land near Council Grove, Kansas. The last Kansa village south of Council Grove in the state of Kansas has been restored and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park . The last speaker of the Kansa language, Walter Kekahbah, died in 1983 and the last thoroughbred Kansa, William Mehojah, passed away in 2000. Today the Kansa speak English and only a few words and phrases of the Kansa language are still in use. The Kansa Language project aims to preserve and revive the old language. The tribe's seat of government is now in Kaw City, Oklahoma. The chairman of the tribal council, elected for four years, is Guy Munroe. Of the 3,182 (2011) registered tribal members, around 1,400 live in Oklahoma. Every year on the first weekend in August, the tribe holds its Oklahoma Powwow at the Washunga Bay Grounds .

Famous Kansa

The only American Indian who ever became Vice President of the United States was Charles Curtis under Herbert Hoover (1929–1933). His mother was a Kansa.
The American jazz saxophonist, singer and composer Jim Pepper (1941-1992) was descended from Kansa and Muskogee .

Other meanings

Kaw is a city in French Guiana .
the Finnish word Kansa means: the people
Kansa is a global project for peace, the environment and self-determination by the artist couple Goller-Masalin .

literature

Raymond J. DeMallie (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 13 Plains, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 2001, ISBN 0-16-050400-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c William Unrau: Kansa Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673-1873. Oklahoma Press, 1971.
↑ ^a ^b Lewis and Clark Diaries , accessed December 25, 2011
^ Frank Norall: Bourgmont, Explorer of the Missouri, 1698-1725. University of Nebraska Press, 1988, p. 51.
^ ^A ^b William Unrau: Mixed Bloods and Tribal Dissolution University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.
^ ^A ^b ^c Frank Finney: The Kaw Indians and their Indian Territory Agency. Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 35, 1957-58
^ Kansa Indian Tribe History , accessed December 27, 2011.
↑ Kaw Nation , accessed December 29, 2011.

[Kansa_Indians-1] A ^b ^c William Unrau: Kansa Indians: A History of the Wind People, 1673-1873. Oklahoma Press, 1971.

[Lewis_und_Clark-2] Lewis and Clark Diaries , accessed December 25, 2011

[3] Frank Norall: Bourgmont, Explorer of the Missouri, 1698-1725. University of Nebraska Press, 1988, p. 51.

[Mixed_Bloods-4] A ^b William Unrau: Mixed Bloods and Tribal Dissolution University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.

[Finney-5] A ^b ^c Frank Finney: The Kaw Indians and their Indian Territory Agency. Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 35, 1957-58

[6] Kansa Indian Tribe History , accessed December 27, 2011.

[7] Kaw Nation , accessed December 29, 2011.