Shawnee Reservation Land Was One Mile East of Baldwin!
(map below article)
Maps from 1857 show the western boundary of the Shawnee Reservation was today’s East 1800 Road. These same maps also show some of the reservation land being settled by pioneers. I wondered how this could be? I did some research in The Kansas Room* at the Baldwin City Public Library and found some interesting information.
The Shawnee Nation’s original origins are not known, but by the 1600’s, they lived in the Ohio River Valley. The Shawnee numbered about 10,000 people in the areas of the current states of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Indiana. They hunted, fished, and farmed. They lived in bark-covered longhouses in villages during summer and in smaller hunting camps in wigwams during winter.
Around 1630, the Iroquois Tribe began to push the Shawnee westward. In the 1700’s, westward expansion by colonists moved them further to the west. By 1817, some Shawnee had ceded their lands and moved to reservations in Ohio. Other Shawnee moved to Cape Girardeau, MO. In 1825, the Treaty of St. Louis relocated 1,400 Shawnee to 1.6 million acres of land south of the Kansas River and west of the Missouri River. This land extended almost to modern-day Junction City, KS and as far as the southern line of Johnson County. Soon this land would become Kansas. The Shawnee shared the area with the Kanza and Osage Peoples.
The Act of Congress of March 3, 1853, (10 Stat. 226, 238) authorized negotiations with these tribes “for the purpose of `securing the assent of said tribes to the settlement of the citizens of the United States upon the lands claimed by said Indians, and for the purpose of extinguishing the title of said Indians, in whole or in part, to said lands…'” In 1854, a new treaty was signed between the Shawnee and the U.S. The Shawnee ceded their 1.6 million acres to the U.S., the U.S. paid the Shawnee $829,000+ for this land, and the U.S. gave the Shawnee a 200,000-acre tract of land within the original tract. Now the western boundary of Shawnee land was E. 1800 Rd, instead of Junction City.
In addition, the U.S. government said that the Shawnee People could not keep the 200,000 acres together for the whole tribe to use. The land had to be divided up into 200-acre parcels and the members of the tribe would choose their allotments. After 5 years, the U.S. government would sell the unallotted parcels. The government would hold the proceeds for five years before giving the funds to the Shawnee. Absentee Shawnee (Shawnee who had moved to Oklahoma already) could have their allotment if they appeared within this ten-year period.
The Treaty stated that “a single person” (Shawnee) received 200-acres. The “head of a family” received “a quantity equal to two hundred acres for each member of his or her family.” The Treaty also stipulated that the land tract could not be sold or transferred by the owner or his heirs without the consent of the Secretary of the Interior. The land patents and information about the land allotted to the Shawnee were recorded by the US government in record books in Washington D.C.
The Kansas Room* contains the real estate abstracts from some of the tracts of land that belonged to members of the Shawnee Nation. These real estate abstracts refer to this 1854 Treaty and explain the information in the above paragraph. Interestingly, this information is usually buried very deeply in the abstract – towards the middle of the document or so.
The abstracts have more information about the allotments. The date the Shawnee Member received the “Patent” (original title or deed) to their land was recorded. The names of the US agents involved in the deed transfer were also noted. If the deed was later transferred by a Shawnee minor (in the instance that the original owner was deceased and a child was involved), Shawnee chiefs were noted as representing the minor. The prices paid by the pioneers when they purchased land allotments from the Shawnee were recorded. One transaction notes a Shawnee receiving $100 for 40 acres ($3,610 today) in 1870. Another Shawnee received $500 for 40 acres ($18,045 today) in 1869. Both transactions were acknowledged by R.S. Roberts, US Indian Agent and J.D. Cox, Secretary of the Interior.
I have heard many stories about the pioneers in this area interacting with various Native Americans in so many ways. I had not realized that reservation land was so close! The Kansas Room* has diaries and writings from some of these pioneers and their children containing these stories. Come check them out!
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*The Kansas Room, located in the Baldwin City Public Library (BCPL), contains local and state history. It is a great place for reading, book check-out, and research. The librarian or volunteer can answer your questions or help your search. Contact The Kansas Room through the BCPL website.
–M. Jardon, June 2024, Updated Jan. 2025
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- First printed in The Maple Weekly, (Baldwin’s weekly newspaper).
- Reprinted with permission.
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Map of Shawnee Reservation – 1854
To make any part of the map bigger, just hold down “Ctrl” button and spin the roller ball on your mouse.
Eastman’s Map, showing reservations in Kansas, c. 1854. Courtesy Kansas Historical Society.
