The seal of the Kaw Nation at the Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park in Kansas. Photo from Kansas Travel
The Kaw Nation of Oklahoma will return to its homeland in Kansas this weekend. In 2002, the tribe established the Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park after acquiring 168 acres of its ancestral territory. A ceremony will be held on Saturday to dedicate a dance arbor, campsite and trails. “This is significant because that was the site of the last Kanza villages in Kansas before our removal into Indian Territory in 1873,” Pauline Sharp, the vice president of the tribe's cultural committee, told The Wichita Eagle. “This was where our ancestors lived, and I think if you talk with any Kaw tribal member who has gone out to the park, it has a special feeling. The state of Kansas takes its name from Kanza, the traditional name for the tribe. Despite being promised millions of acres through treaties, Congress forced the Kaws to move to Indian Territory, or present-day Oklahoma. Get the Story:
Kanza people returning to sacred land near Council Grove (The Wichita Eagle 4/22)
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