Emigrant Tribes

By the 1830s, the world of the native Kanza and Osage tribes changed. Their land was no longer their own. Native groups all around the East and Midwest had been defeated and pushed from their land by incoming European settlers. The question was what to do with these eastern Indians. An idea was to create a Permanent Indian Frontier in what is now eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. It was hoped that Indians located here would be undisturbed by white settlers and the alcohol trade. But that didn’t happen.

Large and small bands of Indians from the Great Lakes to Florida were removed to this Indian Territory. The Cherokees called their brutal removal journey “The Trail of Tears” and the Pottawatomies called theirs “The Trail of Death.”

Several native groups were relocated to the area now known as Franklin County: Ottawas, Chippewas, Munsees, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomies, Shawnees, Peorias, Piankeshaws, Kaskaskias and Weas.

The Chippewas Ash-E-Taa-Na-Quet or Clear Sky (Francis McCoonse) of Black River and Swan Creek (Michigan) Ash-E-Taa-Na-Quet or Clear Sky (Francis McCoonse)

Grandson of the Old Chippewa Chief Ka-pah-us-ke, (Robert McCoonse) Grandson of the Old Chippewa Chief In his youth, he was sent to school in Nazareth, PA by the Moravian missionaries. He’s wearing his uniform above.

Her little sister, Matilda Maria, is left. Mary Alice McCoonse, Chippewa, right, dressed to go to school at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, KS. Her little sister, Matilda Maria, is left.

The Sac and Fox of the Mississippi

Sac Chief Keokuk, or the Watchful Fox

Sac and Fox Keokuk’s son, Wa-som-e-saw called the Reverend Moses Keokuk in later life. Sac and Fox

Op-po-noos or Appanoose or Appan-oze-o-ke-mar (The Hereditary Chief, or He Who Was a Chief When a Child)

Right is a print of a painting of Appanoose made by Sac and Fox Right is a print of a painting of Appanoose made by George Bird King

Two unidentified Sac and Fox men photographed by A.W. Barker.

Two examples of Sac and Fox bark houses—one in Franklin County and one in Oklahoma.

The Munsees William Henry Kilbuck

Munsee John Henry Kilbuck, Moravian missionary to Alaska

The two groups posed for a final photograph. In 1900, the Chippewas and Munsees were given their land individually, and the tribes were dissolved. The two groups posed for a final photograph.

The Illinois and Wabash Bands The Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankeshaw and Wea Chief Baptiste Peoria

and Ocquanoxcey’s Village The Ottawas of Blanchard’s Fork, Roche de Boeuf, and Ocquanoxcey’s Village

Ottawa Chief Pah-Tee (John Wilson) 1813-April 9, 1870 Died on the journey to Oklahoma at Osage Mission

Che-quah, Ottawa Medicine Woman (Aunt Jane Phelps) 1766-1886

Ottawa Chief Ko-twah-wun (Joseph Badger King) 1822-1915

Na-qua ke-zhick--Noonday (William Hurr), trustee of Ottawa University, translator for Sac & Fox

The route of the Ottawa from the Great Lakes through Ohio to Kansas and then Oklahoma

By 1900, all the Nations had been relocated to Oklahoma except the Munsees and Chippewas, whose tribal organizations were terminated.