Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
abickel@hutchnews.comCOUNCIL GROVE - Take a walk along the Kanza Heritage Trail, past a monument, ruins of huts and a reconstructed earth lodge.
It's here the Kaw Indians lived for more than 25 years, as well as a vice president.
The monument is visible from the paved county road - sitting high on a hill in the middle of a stretch of tallgrass prairie that waves with the stiff Kansas breeze.
Underneath lie the remains of an unknown Indian, a warrior who died before his tribe's forced migration to Oklahoma - a tribe that once existed on this parcel of land in the state that bears their name.
Yet the story lives on here amid the flint rock and blooming wildflowers.
It's the story of how a tribe reclaimed a parcel of land - 158 acres of it - in an effort to preserve and educate others about their trials, tribulations - their heritage.
Kaw history
At one time, the Kaw Nation stretched over 20 million acres across northern Kansas into Nebraska and Missouri.
In 1825, the Kaw signed a treaty to move to a reservation near present-day Topeka. In 1846, the Kaw signed another treaty and moved to the Council Grove area, selling their 2 million-acre reservation for a little more than 10 cents an acre.
They lived in the Council Grove area for 25 years before the government decided to move them again, said Linda Poston, with Council Grove's Kaw Mission State Historic Site.
On June 4, 1873, the Kaw's last forced migration began and was completed 17 days later. What was once a tribe plentiful in number had dwindled to 600 when it finally moved to its present-day reservation in Oklahoma.
Then, about 130 years later, in 2000, the Kaw returned to Kansas, back to their homeland, purchasing 158 acres they turned into Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park.
"It can be a rather spiritual experience when you go out there usually - hawks flying overhead and a few miles of trail and not many people," said Ken McClintock, a local historian who runs the Trail Days Bakery and Cafe.
Indian skeleton
Those who make the trip to the heritage park can see the remains of a Kaw Agency and ruins of three of the 138 stone huts the federal government built for the Kaw, although they never lived in the huts, he said.
Visitors also can travel a two-mile Kanza Heritage Trail around the former reservation.
The trail winds around the Flint Hills, past Little John Creek and eventually around the monument.
During the summer of 1924, a group of Boy Scouts discovered the skeleton of the Kaw warrior, McClintock said. The Smithsonian wanted the find, but landowner Frank Haucke told officials the Indian belonged at the site.
The Haucke family gave money for the construction of the monument, which was dedicated by the Kaw during a weeklong ceremony in 1925.
In 1929 or 1930, Vice President Charles Curtis, the most famous member of the Kaw tribe who lived on the reservation for a time with his grandparents, laid a wreath at the site, McClintock said.
Good day trip
About 90 minutes southwest of Topeka in Morris County, Council Grove makes a great day-trip destination.
Once a bustling rendezvous point on the Santa Fe Trail, Council Grove today attracts those of a different sort - tourists eager to relive the trail days' spirit.
"We have more Santa Fe Trail historic sites than any other town along it," McClintock boasts.
Visitors can see Council Oak, where, in 1825, a treaty was signed with the Osage Indians, ensuring safe travel for white settlers.
The Hays House, built in 1857, is the oldest continuously operated restaurant west of the Mississippi River.
Fading Santa Fe Trail ruts are still visible. Other sites include the trail's Neosho River crossing and the Post Oak, the unofficial post office for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail from 1825 to 1947.
Council Grove makes a good one-day trip, or even two, said Jeanine Bacon, who helps run Aldrich Apothecary, a full-service pharmacy with an early 1920s soda fountain.
"With the Kaw, with the trail, there's a lot of history here," she said. "It's a good trip for one tank of gas."
