To understand the context of these treaties, we’ve reached out to scholars and community members to share their stories and perspectives on what these treaties mean and how their influence still has impact today. Here are some of the quotes and resources that helped us understand these documents in their historical context. Click the headline in each section to listen to the respective audio clips and learn more:
These audio clips are from the interdisciplinary panel called Kansas without the Kanza: Understanding how the Kanza Homeland became K-State. This project was created to discuss the findings of the Kansas Land Treaties research project. During the discussion, the public learned about the treaties that cumulatively dispossessed the Kanza, the present-day Kaw Nation, of 18,233,620 acres of land. This land loss paved the way for the rapid settlement of the region by non-Native settlers and helped fund institutions of higher learning, including K-State.
The audio clips below are from "Occupying Indigenous Land: Kansa(s) Perspectives about Land Acknowledgements", an online discussion about Indigenous perspectives on land acknowledgments and the #landback movement . This conversation includes James Pepper Henry, Vice-Chair of the Kaw Nation, C. Huffman, independent scholar and Kaw Nation citizen, and Chester Hubbard, Vice President of the Native American Student Body, and was planned and moderated by David Mackay, Associate Director of Theatre.
The audio and video clips linked here focus particularly on how Indigenous people more broadly, and the Kaw Nation particularly, thrive in the current day. Topics include conversations about language reclamation, cultural perseverance, renewal, and more.
Sovereignty is an important concept in conversations about treaties. At its heart, sovereignty is about the power of a people to govern themselves. The U.S. constitution recognizes Indigenous nations as separate governments that have sovereignty. Sovereignty is not “given” by the U.S.; Indigenous nations had sovereignty and independent nation status before the U.S. came into being. The audio and video clips linked here include discussions of political sovereignty and government-to-government relationships, as well as considerations of food, health, cultural sovereignty, and more.
