Shawnee Methodist Mission

Last updated

Shawnee Mission
ShawneeMethodistMission.jpg
The historic site in 2021
Location3403 W. 53rd Street, Fairway, Kansas
Coordinates 39°1′59.2818″N94°37′26.796″W / 39.033133833°N 94.62411000°W / 39.033133833; -94.62411000
Area12 acres (4.9 ha)
Built1839 (1839)
NRHP reference No. 66000345
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966 [1]
Designated NHLMay 23, 1968 [2]

Shawnee Methodist Mission, also known as the Shawnee Mission, which later became the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School, is located in Fairway, Kansas, United States. Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1968, the Shawnee Methodist Mission is operated by the city as a museum. [2] The site is owned by the Kansas Historical Society and administered as the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site.

Contents

The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School served briefly as the second capital of the Kansas Territory, when the legislature was controlled by pro-slavery advocates. The building held that designation from July 16 to August 7, 1855.

The Shawnee Methodist Mission is the origin of the Shawnee Mission name used by the United States Postal Service to refer to the Kansas City Metropolitan Area suburban communities in northeastern Johnson County. The Shawnee Mission School District serves those communities.

History

Shawnee Indian Mission

Shawnee Indians, along with many other eastern tribes, were moved to present-day Kansas in the 1820s and 1830s. In 1830 Chief Fish, leader of the Shawnees, requested a missionary and Reverend Thomas Johnson, a Methodist minister, was appointed to the Shawnees. Rev. Johnson was born in Virginia and later moved to Missouri. He was proslavery and in fact, a slave owner. Johnson proposed that a school be built to serve many tribes. A site was chosen just west of the Missouri border, where the Santa Fe, California and Oregon Trails passed through the Shawnee lands.

The school opened as a day school with one initial building, now the West building, at the present Johnson County location in October 1839. At the height of its activity, the mission was an establishment of more than 2,000 acres (810 ha) with 16 buildings, including the three large brick structures, which still stand, and an enrollment of nearly 150 Native American boys and girls from the ages of 5 to 23. Native children from 22 different tribes were sent to this school to learn basic academics, including English, manual arts, and agriculture. [3] The East building served as the main chapel, boy's classroom, and boy's dormitory in the attic. The North building was the main location for the girl's classrooms and bedrooms.

In 1854 Kansas Territory was established. Andrew Reeder, newly appointed territorial governor, had his offices at the mission. The first territorial legislature met at the mission, with Johnson serving as President of the legislature. It was during this legislative session that the so-called "bogus laws" were passed to perpetuate slavery in Kansas. In 1858 Reverend Thomas Johnson turned the school over to his oldest son, Alexander, who ran the mission until it closed in 1862. The Mission closed during the era of “Bleeding Kansas” and the “border wars” and served as a Union Soldiers encampment during the Battle of Westport until 1864. The site was private property until it was secured by the Kansas State Historical Society in 1927 as a state site, and was deemed a National Historic Landmark in 1968. [4]

The Shawnee

The "Fish" Shawnee tribe had been removed from its traditional Ohio home to the unorganized territories set aside for Native Americans (in the future state of Kansas) under the terms of the Treaty of St. Louis (1825). [5] The mission was initially built on land near the American Shawnee Indian Tribe reserve in Turner by Reverend Thomas Johnson. He hoped to convert the recently relocated tribe to Christianity.

During the 1830s, some of the Shawnees' most venerated men, including Tenskwatawa, "the Shawnee Prophet", frequently visited the mission. The Prophet was the younger brother of Tecumseh, who had led a war against the United States earlier in the century. Tenskwatawa led the Shawnee in Tecumseh's absence at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Following defeat in this battle, Tenskwatawa took his men to the British Canadian colonies. He was placed under virtual house arrest for years following the end of the War of 1812. Tenskwatawa was eventually allowed to return to the Shawnee to help them remove from Ohio to Kansas; he died in 1836 at his village (the present site of Kansas City, Kansas).

New mission

The mission was located at its original site from 1830 to 1839. In 1839, the mission was moved and built at its present-day Johnson County location, and an Indian boarding school was opened there. From 1839 until its closure in 1862, the Shawnee Mission served as a manual training school for Native Americans, principally from the Shawnee and Delaware (Lenape) tribes.

The Shawnee Mission also served briefly as the second capital of the Kansas Territory. The capital was moved to the mission on July 16, 1855, after pro-slavery delegates to the Territorial Legislature voted to depart the first Territorial Capitol of Kansas at Pawnee. [6] It served as the territorial capital until August 8, when the seat of government became Lecompton. [7] While the capital was located at Shawnee Mission, the legislature promulgated the controversial pro-slavery laws that sparked Bleeding Kansas violence. During the American Civil War, the site served as a camp for Union soldiers.

Administration

The Shawnee Mission is managed by the City of Fairway through an agreement with the Kansas Historical Society, which owns it. [8] [9] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lecompton, Kansas</span> City in Kansas, United States

Lecompton is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 588. Lecompton was the de jure territorial capital of Kansas from 1855 to 1861, and the Douglas County seat from 1855 to 1858. Anti-slavery Lawrence became the de facto capital during the latter part of this period, when the county seat was moved there. This time period was known as Bleeding Kansas, due to the violence perpetrated by the pro-slavery, and to a lesser extent the anti-slavery, factions in the eastern part of the state. Lecompton was a hotbed of pro-slavery sentiment during the mid-1800s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairway, Kansas</span> City in Kansas, United States

Fairway is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is included in the Kansas City metropolitan area census designation and the Shawnee Mission postal services designation. As of the 2020 United States census, the city population was 4,170.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Johnson (Kansas politician)</span> American missionary

Thomas Johnson was an American missionary in Kansas who founded the Shawnee Methodist Mission in 1830. It was intended to serve and convert the Shawnee, several hundred of whom had been relocated to Indian Territory from east of the Mississippi River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bleeding Kansas</span> Violent slavery-related confrontations in Kansas territory in latter half of 1850s

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas Territory</span> Territory of the United States between 1854 and 1861

The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the free state of Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lecompton Constitution</span>

The Lecompton Constitution (1858) was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas. Named for the city of Lecompton where it was drafted, it was strongly pro-slavery. It never went into effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawnee</span> Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands

The Shawnee are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language.

Shawnee Mission is a region of northern Johnson County, Kansas, part of the Kansas City metropolitan area in the United States. Since August 1, 1960, the United States Postal Service has used the name to denote a large postal coverage area at the northeastern tip of Johnson County. It contains numerous towns, and the name was created to structure management of the post offices located therein. Effectively, these towns' post offices are subsidiaries of the Shawnee Mission Main Post Office in Mission, Kansas. Properly, a mailing address may indicate the delivery "place" as either Shawnee Mission, or the actual town name, and be treated the same.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenskwatawa</span> Native American leader (1775–1836)

Tenskwatawa was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a younger brother of Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee. In his early years Tenskwatawa was given the name Lalawethika, but he changed it around 1805 and transformed himself from a hapless, alcoholic youth into an influential spiritual leader. Tenskwatawa denounced the Americans, calling them the offspring of the Evil Spirit, and led a purification movement that promoted unity among the Indigenous peoples of North America, rejected acculturation to the American way of life, and encouraged his followers to pursue traditional ways.

Turner is a neighborhood within Kansas City, Kansas, United States. It was formerly an unincorporated community of Wyandotte County, similar to Piper, Kansas. Turner has its own school district, Turner USD #202.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas Legislature</span> Legislative branch of the state government of Kansas

The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 state representatives, and the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 state senators. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, senators for four-year terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pawnee, Kansas</span> Ghost town in Geary County, Kansas

Pawnee is a ghost town in Geary County, Kansas, United States, which briefly served as the first official capital of the Kansas Territory in 1855. Pawnee was the territorial capital for exactly five days – the legislature met there from July 2 to July 6 – before legislators voted to move the capital to Shawnee Mission, which is located in present-day Fairway. It may be the shortest-lived capital of any U.S. state or territory.

The timeline of Kansas details past events that happened in what is present day Kansas. Located on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, the U.S. state of Kansas was the home of sedentary agrarian and hunter-gatherer Native American societies, many of whom hunted American bison. The region first appears in western history in the 16th century at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, when Spanish conquistadors explored the unknown land now known as Kansas. It was later explored by French fur trappers who traded with the Native Americans. It became part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In the 19th century, the first American explorers designated the area as the "Great American Desert."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution Hall (Lecompton, Kansas)</span> United States historic place

Lecompton Constitution Hall, also known as Constitution Hall, is a building in Lecompton, Kansas, that played an important role in the long-running Bleeding Kansas crisis over slavery in Kansas. It is operated by the Kansas Historical Society as Constitution Hall State Historic Site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas Historical Society</span>

The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaw Mission</span> United States historic place

Kaw Mission is a historic church mission at 500 N. Mission Street in Council Grove, Kansas that was home, school and church to 30 Kaw boys from 1851 to 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Territorial Capitol of Kansas</span> United States historic place

The First Territorial Capitol of Kansas is the sole remaining building of the ghost town of Pawnee, Kansas. The city served as the capital of the Kansas Territory for five days before it was moved to present day Lecompton, Kansas, and the town became part of neighboring Fort Riley. The building was the meeting place for the first elected Territorial Legislature in 1855. After falling into disrepair, the structure was restored in 1928 and today it serves as a history museum operated by the Kansas Historical Society and supported through The Partners of the First Territorial Capitol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)</span> Historic, autonomous Native American government

The Cherokee Nation was a legal, autonomous, tribal government in North America recognized from 1794 to 1907. It was often referred to simply as "The Nation" by its inhabitants. The government was effectively disbanded in 1907, after its land rights had been extinguished, prior to the admission of Oklahoma as a state. During the late 20th century, the Cherokee people reorganized, instituting a government with sovereign jurisdiction known as the Cherokee Nation. On July 9, 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation had never been disestablished in the years before allotment and Oklahoma Statehood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minneola, Franklin County, Kansas</span> Ghost town in Franklin County, Kansas

Minneola is a ghost town in Franklin County, Kansas, United States. Briefly in the running to be the territorial capital of Kansas, it was roughly one mile away from Centropolis. Today, hardly anything remains at the original site.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 "Shawnee Mission". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 25, 2009. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
  3. Hood, Nydja (December 1, 2023). "'We still have our culture.' Native American tribe fighting to keep history alive at Shawnee Indian Mission". KCTV5. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  4. "Shawnee Indian Mission - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society".
  5. "Shawnee treaty". Archived from the original on November 25, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2006.
  6. History of Wyandotte County Kansas and its people, ed. and comp. by Perl W. Morgan. Chicago, The Lewis publishing company, 1911. (cf., "When the first territorial legislature met at Pawnee on July 2, 1855, at the order of Governor Reeder in a stone building erected for its use, it unseated the free state members, seated the pro-slavery men instead, and then passed a bill "to remove the capital temporarily to Shawnee Manual Labor School." It did this because the Shawnee mission was well known as a center of pro-slavery sympathy.")
  7. "Lecompton, Kansas". Civil War on the Western Front. The Kansas City Public Library . Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  8. "Who owns the past? Tribes and state historians ask lawmakers to decide on Shawnee Indian Mission". KAKE ABC. January 28, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  9. Flener, Matt (January 3, 2023). "Shawnee Indian Mission in "overall distressed condition," according to Shawnee Tribe report". KMBC. Retrieved January 5, 2023.

Further reading