Also known as Kansa, Kanza, Konza, Conza, Kaza, Kosa, Kasa, or Quans, the Kaw people have also been called the "people of the south wind," or "people of the water."
The Kaw are closely related to the Osage, and there were frequent intermarriages between members of the two tribes. Their tribal language, Kansa, is a Siouan language, however.
Their homeland was along the Kansas and Saline rivers in what is now central Kansas, a state that was named for the Kansa people.
The oral history suggests that the early ancestors of the Kaws, one of five Dhegiha tribes, migrated from the East, probably from somewhere around the Ohio Valley. The Quapaw separated from the other Dhegiha at the mouth of the Ohio River, moving south along the Mississippi River to what is now Arkansas. The main part of the Dhegiha continued up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The Osage left the main group in central Missouri, while the Kaw continued upstream along the Missouri River to northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, and the Omaha and Ponca continued north to Nebraska and South Dakota.
This migration probably took place in the early to mid-17th century due to European settlement of the Atlantic Coast and incursions inland.
French explorers encountered the Kaws near the future site of Doniphan, Kansas, where they had a large village in 1724. They later moved downstream, inhabiting the area along the Kansas River.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the primary Kaws village was along the Kansas River near its confluence with the Big Blue River of Kansas. They had hunted and camped along the Kansas River for at least a century. They probably moved to the Kansas River Valley to be closer to the bison herds and further away from other tribes that traded along the French trading posts along the Missouri River. However, the new location put them closer to the Pawnee, with whom there were frequent conflicts.
In the early 19th century, the Lewis and Clark expedition estimated their numbers at around 1,500, but with only around 300 men.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase was devastating for the Kaws, as they encountered American Indian tribes from the East who were forced to migrate west, and European-American settlers who were encroaching on their lands. To the west were the Cheyenne and Comanche, while the Pawnee were to the north.
In 1825, the Kaws ceded a large area of land in Missouri and Kansas in return for a promise of an annuity to be paid annually for twenty years. Often, these payments were late or siphoned off by government officials. A couple of major smallpox epidemics in the mid-19th century killed about 500 Kaws.
Around that time, the Kaws split into four competing groups living in different villages. Three groups favored retaining their traditional ways of living, while another group, under Chief Monchousia (White Plume), favored accommodation with the United States.
White Plume signed a treaty in 1825, ceding millions of acres to the United States, leaving the Kaw with a piece of land thirty miles westward into the Great Plains from the Kansas River Valley.
Most members of the current Kaw Nation of Oklahoma are descended from White Plume or his followers.
In 1846, the Kaw sold most of their remaining land for a cash payment plus a 256,000-acre reservation around Council Grove, Kansas. Frequent skirmishes with teamsters, traders, and merchants along the Santa Fe Trail, as well as the flourishing whiskey trade, proved this to be a bad choice. Overrun by white settlers, the Kaw reservation was reduced to 80,000 acres in 1860.
Kaw warriors were enticed or forced to serve in the 9th Kansas Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War, which took the lives of twenty-one Kaw men. After the War, European Americans in Kansas began agitating for the removal of American Indians, including the Kaw. In 1873, the Kaw were removed to a new reservation in Indian Territory in what would become Kay County, Oklahoma, where their decline continued, largely from disease. By 1888, their population had declined to 188.
Gradually, their numbers increased, but the increase was mostly through intermarriage.
The Curtis Act of 1898 strengthened the control of the federal government over Indian affairs. The author of the Act was Charles Curtis, then a Congressman (later to become the 31st Vice President of the United States). Born in Kansas Territory, Curtis was a member of the Kaw Nation, but he believed that American Indians should be assimilated, and he supported breaking up tribal governments and dispersing tribal lands among tribal members.
Under the Curtis Act, most Kaws sold or soon lost their land, and the creation of Kaw Lake flooded a large part of the former reservation.
The Kaw Nation was reorganized and recognized in 1959.
Recommended Resources
Providing health care for Native Americans since 1998, the Kanza Health Clinic is situated within the Pawnee Service Unit, which encompasses Kay, Pawnee, Osage, Garfield, Grant, Noble, and Payne counties, and has facilities in Pawnee and Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with its offices in Newkirk. The clinic is an ambulatory clinic whose services are extended, by appointment only, to members of any federally recognized tribe. Its medical, women's health, dental, pharmacy, and other services are described.
http://www.kanzaclinic.com/
Hosted on the Kaw Nation website, the Kanza Language, the traditional language of the Kaw people. Kanza is a Siouan language, which is similar to the Dhegiha language, and most similar to Osage. Also included is a compiled list of online courses and downloadable documents important to Kanza language education and preservation, including a Beginner's Class Zoom link, a link to the Kanza (Kaáⁿze Íe) Language class, a downloadable basic course, vocabulary, compiled prayers, and kinship phrases.
https://www.kawnation.gov/language/
Serving the Kaw Nation since 1998, the pharmacy provides services to Native Americans who have an active chart at the Kanza Health Clinic. A free mobile application can be downloaded from the site, allowing members to safely store their information and manage their list of prescriptions, set reminders to take medications, or when it's time to refill, and refills may be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its location, services, and information on medications may be found alphabetically.
https://www.kanzapharmacy.com/
Kaw Mission State Historic Site
This was the site of an international commerce trail when the Kanza were forcibly relocated to a diminished reservation here in 1846. The native stone mission was completed in 1851, designed to accommodate fifty male Kanza students as regular boarders. It was also home to teachers, missionaries, and farmers. The history of the mission, Council Grove, and the intersection of cultures are highlighted in displays. Its hours of operation and contacts are posted on the site.
https://www.kshs.org/p/kaw-mission/19566
The Kaw Nation is a federally recognized American Indian tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas, with its tribal headquarters in Kaw City, Oklahoma. The Kaw Nation operates its own housing authority, food services, emergency management department, police department, judicial branch, and educational department, and it issues its own tribal vehicle tags. Departments, tribal services, and governmental structures are defined, and its efforts to revive its traditional language (Kansa) are reviewed.
https://www.kawnation.gov/
