KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As families seek answers, the Kansas Historical Society is moving forward with plans to search the grounds of Johnson County’s Shawnee Indian Mission to discover whether children were buried there.
The Shawnee Tribe and others have been calling on federal and local leaders to investigate the former boarding school in Fairway, which is now a state historic site, at 3403 W. 53rd St., off Mission Road. The mission housed students from several tribes and forced them to perform manual labor, stripping children away from their families with the intent of assimilating them into white American culture and Christianity.
Historical records, city leaders say, show that four Native American students were reported to have died while attending the school. But records are sparse, and some believe there are likely other unreported deaths and unmarked graves.
The Kansas Historical Society, which owns the site, is now entering into a contract with the University of Kansas Center for Research to conduct a ground-penetrating radar survey of the 12 acres, using electromagnetic waves. The method is most commonly used to gain high-resolution images of underground features, including graves, a proposal from KU says.
But that announcement has been met with concern from the Shawnee Tribe, which argues that it has not been included in the process or consulted enough ahead of the work.
“The Shawnee Tribe was coerced into ceding 2000 acres of land and paying for this site to be built. The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School site may be an archeological curiosity for some, but for the Shawnee people, it has deep importance and stands as a monument to Shawnee perseverance,” the tribe said in a statement. “We have requested formal consultation to address serious concerns about the motives of this project, potential deficiencies in the process that may render incomplete findings, and what plans may be for utilizing any results from the project.”
Patrick Zollner, executive director of the Kansas Historical Society, denied excluding the Shawnee Tribe or any other tribes from the process. He said that the Shawnee Tribe was the “first to know” about the project proposal, and that the agency has contacted other affected tribes as well, including the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, Kaw Nation, Osage Nation and others.
Shawnee Tribe leaders continue to push for answers. They worry that the ground study could have “deficiencies,” partly because it is unclear whether any children were buried on the mission’s current 12 acre site, much smaller than the original property. And they worry about the project moving along too quickly before the tribe’s concerns can be addressed, spokeswoman Maggie Boyett said.
Both Zollner and Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, a spokeswoman with KU, emphasized that consultation with the tribes is ongoing and work will not proceed until that process is completed.
“Somebody said something to me recently, that every Indigenous person you know is either a survivor of a boarding school, or a child or grandchild of a survivor of a boarding school. It’s literally just every single Indigenous person,” said Gaylene Crouser, executive director of the Kansas City Indian Center and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “It’s not that far back in history. It really directly affects all of us.”
“I think to really have this be done right is to let the tribe lead. To do it any other way is folly.”
History of the Shawnee Indian Mission
The push to investigate Shawnee Indian Mission comes as the federal government reviews federal boarding school policies and the loss of life at the sites. This past spring, the Department of the Interior reported that “thousands or tens of thousands” of children had died in the custody of federal boarding schools.
Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes has called on the federal government to comprehensively examine every residential school, including those run by the federal government and those brokered by federal agents, like Shawnee Indian Mission.
Following the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws establishing and supporting the boarding schools across the nation. Thousands of Native American children were forcibly taken from their homes and placed in such schools.
The practice has long been condemned as “cultural genocide,” an effort to exploit child labor and erase Native communities. Across North America, many students never returned from the boarding schools.
Shawnee Indian Mission was established by the Rev. Thomas Johnson — for whom Johnson County is named. Barnes previously said families discovered that at the mission, which operated from 1839 to 1862, children were unkempt, poorly clothed and malnourished, and “when some parents came to the mission to see their children, they learned that their children were dead.”
Originally located near Turner in present day Kansas City, Kansas, the Shawnee Indian Mission relocated to present day Fairway in 1839 on more than 2,000 acres of Shawnee reservation land, according to the city of Fairway. At its peak, nearly 200 children from as many as two dozen tribes were enrolled at the manual training school. Children were required to do everything from farming to blacksmithing and shoe cobbling.
The school’s manual labor training ceased in 1854.
In 1927, the state used eminent domain to acquire the 12 acres of land, which contained the three original brick buildings at the Shawnee Indian Mission. The Shawnee Indian Mission was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1968.
It is unclear whether it will be included as part of the federal investigation into boarding schools, although it did receive some federal funds, according to the city. In Canada last year, the remains of hundreds of students were discovered at residential school sites, igniting a broader effort to lift the veil off of the abuse at the schools, and provide answers to Indigenous families.
Meanwhile the Kansas Historical Society is pushing its own study forward.
“While the Kansas Historical Society has no documentation that suggests unmarked graves may be located on the remaining 12-acres, all agree that pursuit of fact-based knowledge can benefit everyone,” city leaders said in a news release. “Given the proximity of several tribal cemeteries within short distances from the Mission, historians of the site believe it is unlikely that students who died at the school would have been buried on the Mission’s grounds, especially on the remaining 12-acres.”
Crouser argued that the process must involve a strong partnership with the tribes to be successful.
“One thing people forget is the tribe already has ideas of where people might be buried and where they need to look,” she said. “And if they do things without the tribe, there could be some places that are overlooked, and then we won’t really ever have answers.”
Shawnee Indian Mission ground study
Zollner said that on Aug. 25, he met with Barnes, wanting to ensure he was the “first to know” about a plan to study the Shawnee Indian Mission grounds.
He said he gave Barnes the preliminary scope of work from KU, as well as an initial timeline. The proposal included dates that already had passed, saying that data collection would begin on Aug. 1 and last six weeks.
On Sept. 8, the Shawnee Tribe sent a letter to the Kansas Historical Society requesting “consultation with your office regarding our concerns with this proposal. In addition to the lack of notification about this proposal, we also have concerns with the approach to the research.
“In addition, the Shawnee Tribe is in the process of developing a Cultural Landscape Survey which, once complete, would be a significant resource for informing the survey and locations which may be important.”
Zollner said the letter was sent before the Kansas Historical Society could notify other tribes, and that it made it seem like “we had started the project without consultation,” which he says was not the case.
On Sept. 12, State Archeologist Robert Hoard responded to the tribe with a letter saying that it is likely some children died at the school, but that records are lacking and no grave locations are known.
He said the state approved a contract with KU’s Kansas Geological Survey to conduct a geophysical survey of the mission property owned by the Kansas Historical Society.
According to the Kansas Geological Survey’s proposal, work could first include measuring the electrical conductivity and the magnetic field underground. That data would then be used to do a more targeted survey, using electromagnetic waves to obtain images of any potential graves.
Hoard wrote that it is his understanding that the Shawnee Tribe had already been contacted by KU’s Kansas Geological Survey about the work. But Boyett claimed that was not true.
“While we are glad that the archeologist’s office acknowledges an obligation to consult with the Shawnee Tribe, we have let the state archeologist’s office know that we had had no contact from either (the Kansas Geological Survey) or KU regarding this study,” Boyett said in an email to The Star. “The fieldwork for this project has not begun — nor should it until proper consultations have been completed.
“These are sensitive cultural matters and we expect the state to take a more substantive approach to consultation.”
Zollner and KU both say that the work will not continue until the consultation process with the tribes is complete. Zollner said that the Kansas Historical Society is doing its due diligence by contacting all of the affected tribes. He shared a letter with The Star, dated Sept. 16, from the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma saying that, “The project proposes NO Adverse Effect or endangerment to known sites of interest to the Eastern Shawnee Tribe. Please continue project as planned.”
The Eastern Shawnee Tribe asked to be notified if any objects are discovered, and asked for work to stop so they could be consulted if any plans were to change.
A not yet fully signed contract for the ground study, between KU and the Kansas Historical Society, is dated Sept. 30. The geophysical survey of the Shawnee Indian Mission site is expected to cost more than $13,000.
The contract states that they will coordinate with tribes and other entities requesting consultation on the project. Under the contract, field work could be completed next April, with a report submitted next summer.
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