Main Gallery Exhibits
at the Kansas Museum of History
Native American History
Explore the stories of the Kansa, Osage, Pawnee,
and other native tribes at the Kansas
Museum of History in Topeka.
You'll see:
- Arrowheads and pottery from early cultures
- A 5,000-year-old human effigy head
- A grass lodge like those built by the Wichitas
- Cheyenne war lance and other
artifacts from the late 1860s
- Towering tipi in the Southern Cheyenne style (pictured)
People have lived in Kansas for thousands of years. The Osage, Wichita,
and Kansa are just a few of the tribes who made the Plains their home
for centuries.
Native American culture changed dramatically when Eastern tribes were
forced westward because European settlers moved onto
their lands. Tribes sometimes clashed with each other as they vied for
Plains hunting grounds. Making matters worse, the United States government
often didn't enforce treaties setting aside lands for tribes.
 Traffic
on the Oregon and Santa Fe trails, the slaughter of buffaloes by whites,
and construction of new railroads put many pressures
on Plains Indians. Some raided white settlements. By 1870 the federal
government had forcibly removed many Kansas tribes
to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
Today, over 20,000 Kansans claim Native American roots.
More than 20% live in Wichita. The Iowa, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sac
and Fox tribes own reservations in northeastern Kansas.
"Long before the Europeans found them, they had
named the animals, the fishes, the trees, the plants, and the birds,
and had named themselves, Ni-U-Ko'n-Ska, Children of the Middle Waters."
--John Joseph Mathews, Osage historian.
Hours and Admission Fees
Information
For information on our facilities, see Visiting
the Kansas Museum of History. Contact us at KansasMuseum@kshs.org.
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