Audio file Description James Pepper Henry, vice-chair of the Kaw Nation, discusses coming home to Kansas and the challenges and pain therein. Transcript “Well, I'm happy to address that as someone who is a member of the Kaw Nation, and for us, the land that is known as Kansas now is our homeland. We did not leave what is now Kansas, voluntarily. We still think of Kansas as our home, of course, the state bears our name. And when I returned to Kansas, I always feel like I'm coming home, but it's not quite home yet. I know a lot of us and I've talked to Charlie about this, who is also a member of the Kaw Nation, that at some point, in our future, we would love to have a much greater presence in Kansas and have many of our Kaw people returned back to Kansas. We do have Kaw citizens that live in Kansas, but it would be nice to see some of the land come back to us at some point in time. When I'm there in Kansas, especially in the Council Grove area, which is where the Kaws were last living before we were moved to Kansas, I always think about, especially when the wind is blowing a little bit, I think Kansas is a lot like Oklahoma where the wind either blows in one direction or the other direction. But I think about that and I look at the particles in the air and the dust and I think you know, that's the essence of our ancestors who were buried there in the land. So, it means it means a lot to me.” Topics Listen to "Occupying Indigenous Land" audio clips Tags James Pepper Henry