A Kansas Memory Podcast

Indian Removal in Kansas

The documents used in the Indian Removal podcast are available on

• Letter, Pierre Menard to William Clark
  Pierre Menard wrote this letter to William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, regarding the cost of relocating Indian tribes in new lands to the west. This letter describes the actual removal process and the hardships of the Indians' journey, including harsh weather and the theft of their horses.
• Letter, Richard W. Cummins to William Clark
  This letter, written by Richard Cummins, an agent to the Shawnee Indians, updated Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Clark on the Delaware Indians who had recently relocated in Kansas (then called Indian Territory). The Delaware had moved to Kansas in the late fall and early winter of the previous year and, due to lack of provisions, were in "a suffering condition." Many of their horses had died and so Cummins gave them some provisions to ease their suffering. The Delaware chiefs wanted the provisions guaranteed them by their treaty with the U. S. government, which they had been told was not yet ratified. They argued that it must have been ratified, because after they signed the treaty white settlers immediately took possession of the Delaware lands east of the Mississippi.
• Letter, William Clark to John H. Eaton
  This letter contains a copy of a petition from Illinois settlers who were displeased that the Sac and Fox tribes, who ceded their lands in 1804 and 1816, had not moved to their new lands west of the Mississippi River. The settlers admitted that most of the Fox tribe and some of the Sacs had indeed relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Kansas), but a large group at Rock River (led by the warrior Black Hawk) refused to leave. These white settlers feared that tension between these natives and their white neighbors would lead to conflict, and that the government should force this group at Rock River to move west with the rest of their tribe.
• Letter, William Clark to Lewis Cass
  This letter contains a copy of a petition from Illinois settlers who were displeased that the Sac and Fox tribes, who ceded their lands in 1804 and 1816, had not moved to their new lands west of the Mississippi River. The settlers admitted that most of the Fox tribe and some of the Sacs had indeed relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Kansas), but a large group at Rock River (led by the warrior Black Hawk) refused to leave. These white settlers feared that tension between these natives and their white neighbors would lead to conflict, and that the government should force this group at Rock River to move west with the rest of their tribe.