By Emma Swinney, Public and Media Relations Coordinator
The Kansas Studies Institute (KSI) at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) was recently named a sub-awardee of a Humanities Initiatives grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities. $150,000 was awarded to Kansas State University (K-State) and its project partners to develop educational materials to teach Kansas’ indigenous history.
The project is co-led by Dr. Tai Edwards, Director of the Kansas Studies Institute at JCCC; Dr. Lisa Tatonetti, professor of English and Coffman Chair for University Distinguished Teaching Scholars at K-State; Dr. Mary Kohn, Director of the Chapman Center for Rural Studies at K-State; and Alex Red Corn, associate professor of educational leadership, executive director of the Kansas Association for Native American Education and co-chair of K-State’s Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance.
The Kansas Land Treaties Project
The idea for the project started in 2020 when the Chapman Center for Rural Studies at K-State launched an initiative to educate Kansans on the state’s indigenous history. Many Kansans and Kansas Citians do not know that the word their state and city are named for comes from the Kanza people, now known as the Kaw Nation.
“It’s vitally important that students and the general public in Kansas know who our state is named for and how Kaw people and Kanza resources informed the development of this state,” said Dr. Tai Edwards. “This project collaborates with Kaw citizens to help tell that story.”
The Kansas Land Treaties project researchers will annotate the treaties that resulted in the United States dispossessing the Kanza of their ancestral homeland. This grant funding will develop this research and free, open-access teaching resources for use by educators across the state.
This project is especially important to K-State; it was one of the country’s first land-grant universities and the entirety of K-State’s land grant was Kanza land. In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Land Grant Act which gave the federal government authority to redistribute indigenous land to higher education institutions. Many of the institutions then resold the land for profit. The college’s campus in Manhattan, Kansas, sits on the ancestral land of the Kaw Nation.
The teaching resources developed as part of the Kansas Land Treaties project will cover the 1825, 1846, and 1859/1862 land cession treaties between the Kanza and the U.S. government and the impact of the Morrill Land Grant Act on the people of the Kaw Nation. These resources will first be used in classrooms at K State and JCCC. Over the course of the grant period teaching resources will be available for teachers across the state. Eventually, the general public can download or interact with these classroom resources, too. For more information on the project visit kansastreaties.com.
The Kansas Studies Institute at JCCC
JCCC’s KSI is also collaborating with the Kaw Nation on a two-and-a-half-year grant project to develop educational materials on “Iⁿ‘zhúje ‘waxóbe/Sacred Red Rock.” I Iⁿ‘zhúje ‘waxóbe has been used in prayer for centuries by the Kaw Nation. Members of the Kaw Nation, the City of Lawrence, the University of Kansas, the Kanza Heritage Society, and others will relocate Iⁿ‘zhúje ‘waxóbe, a 28-ton red Siouxan quartzite boulder, from Robinson Park in Lawrence to the Kaw Nation’s Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park on the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway. The public is invited to Allegawaho Park on June 22, 2024 at 2pm for the celebration of Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe’s return to Kaw Nation.
Founded in 2009, JCCC’s Kansas Studies Institute promotes research and teaching on the culture, history, economics and natural environment of our state. KSI collaborates with individuals and organizations at JCCC and across Kansas. Much of KSI’s research can be accessed through the KSI digital archive, available through JCCC’s Billington Library and on the KSI playlist on JCCC’s YouTube channel.
KSI also hosts a variety of lectures on Kansas-related topics for students and the community, including annual programming on Kansas Day (January 29), the anniversary of statehood.
Finally, KSI offers internships for students that provide a wide range of research opportunities. Past student projects have included:
- Researching and designing installations in celebration of JCCC’s 50th anniversary
- Publishing peer-reviewed scholarship
- Assisting the Johnson County Trails Project in developing historic signage for the county’s hiking trails
Dr. Edwards said, “The Kansas Studies Institute is a great example of JCCC’s community partnerships and how we work with institutions across the state to educate people of all ages.”
Learn more
For more information on past and ongoing projects of the Kansas Studies Institute, visit JCCC’s website. For more information on the Kaw Nation, visit kawnation.gov.
