The Enduring Indians of Kansas
A Century and a Half of Acculturation
Joseph B. Herring
248 pages, illustrated
Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-0588-0, $12.95
The Cherokees' "Trail of
Tears" and the forced migration of other Southern tribes
during the 1830s and 1840s were the most notorious consequences
of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy. Less well known is
the fact that many tribes of the Old Northwest territory were
also forced to surrender their lands and move west of the Mississippi
River.
By 1850, upwards of 10,000 displaced Indians had been settled
"permanently" along the wooded streams and rivers of
eastern Kansas. Twenty years later only a few hundred--mostly
Kickapoos, Potawatomis, Chippewas, Munsees, Iowas, Foxes, and
Sacs--remained.
Joseph Herring's The Enduring Indians of Kansas recounts
the struggle of these determined survivors. For them, the "end
of Indian Kansas" was unacceptable, and they stayed on the
lands that they had been promised were theirs forever.
Offering a good counterpoint to Craig Miner's and William
Unrau's The End of Indian Kansas, Herring shows the reader
a shifting set of native perspectives and strategies. He argues
that it was by acculturation on their own terms--by walking the
fine line between their traditional ways and those of the whites--that
these Indians managed to survive, to retain their land, and to
resist the hostile intrusions of the white world. The story of
their epic struggle to survive will place a new set of names
in the pantheon of American Indian heroes.
"An engaging account of displaced Indian peoples' struggles
to maintain their respective identities in eastern Kansas."--American
Historical Review
"Concise, yet well-documented and thoroughly researched.
. . Herring portrays Indian leaders as active participants in
this drama, with strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures."--Kansas
History
"Herring offers a set of compelling stories, each detailing
the struggles of relatively small groups of people against corporate,
religious, and bureaucratic forces. The tales have drama, memorable
characters, and relevance for our own time."--James Ronda,
author of Lewis & Clark among the Indians
"Herring shows that surviving Indian groups were not
the helpless victims of events; rather, they made careful, deliberately
chosen decisions to accommodate to the values of neighboring
settlers. This theme of choice is central to the 'new Indian
history' and Herring writes it very well."--Michael Green,
author of The Politics of Indian Removal
JOSEPH B. HERRING, author of Kenekuk,
The Kickapoo Prophet, is director of the University of Utah Press. He has been an archivist at the National
Archives and Records Administration and has taught at Kansas
Newman College in Wichita. He has received both the Walter Rundell,
Jr., Fellowship sponsored by the Western History Association
and Westerners International and the Bert Fireman Prize awarded
by the Western History Association. His articles on Native American
history have appeared in the American Indian Quarterly, Western
Historical Quarterly, Kansas History, and Great Plains
Quarterly.
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