Descendent of U.S. commander apologizes for Wounded Knee Massacre
Nearly 130 years after hundreds of Native Americans were killed by U.S. troops, this descendant of a notorious military commander is apologizing for the Wounded Knee Massacre.
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The Kansas Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations had an information session Wednesday where tribal leaders requested the state not recognize tribes that aren’t recognized by the federal government.
There are four federally recognized tribes that reside in Kansas:
The Iowa Tribe of Kansas.The Kickapoo Nation of Kansas.The Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri.The Prairie Band of the Potawatomi Nation.
But there are at least eight other groups in Kansas that self-identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that haven’t been recognized by the government.
What does recognition do for tribal government?
Most tribal governments are recognized through treaties with the United States but can also be acknowledged by an act of Congress, a presidential executive order or going through a process with the U.S. Department of Interior that demonstrates their history as an entity. There are currently 547 recognized tribes in the U.S.
Federal recognition gives tribes sovereignty that allows tribes to assert independent nationhood, self-governance, enact laws, determine citizenship and control its own economy.
“Federal recognition is the legal acknowledgement of the sovereign and separate political status of tribes by the political government,” said Jancita Warrington, executive director of the Kansas Native American Affairs Office. “It establishes a political and legal relationship between a tribe and the U.S. which carries rights and responsibilities for both parties.”
The Munsee Tribe of Kansas
The eight unrecognized tribes have varying degrees of historical continuance. The Munsee Tribe of Kansas established a reservation in Kansas after being removed from their original homelands in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.
The tribe was forced from the northeast in the mid-19th century and settled in a reservation near Ottawa. In 1864, the Munsee dissolved their reservation and became U.S. citizens, but efforts to displace and assimilate the Munsee continued for almost a century.
Since the 1950s, Munsee groups have sought to regain federal recognition.
“Since at least as early as the 1950s, members of the tribe have sought to re-establish their rights,” a Munsee group said on its website. “We ask the US Congress to reverse the actions of the 55th US Congress in 1897 and re- acknowledge The Munsee Tribe in Kansas as a federally recognized sovereign nation.”
More: Munsee descendants strive for federal recognition
Wyandot Nation
The Wyandot tribe is federally recognized in Oklahoma and Canada, but a group in Kansas that didn’t accept the treaty that created the Wyandotte Nation in Oklahoma remained in Kansas and has attempted to petition the government to the state. A Wyandot group near Detroit is also seeking federal status.
In 1994, the Wyandot Nation of Kansas signed a letter of intent to seek federal recognition. In 2024 the 400 members of the Wyandot Nation renewed an effort to seek tribal recognition, according to Flatland KC.
United Tribe of Shawnee Indians
The federal government rejected a petition to be recognized by the United Tribe of Shawnee Indians as recently as 2018. The tribe joined with groups of Cherokees in 1869 to gain allotments in Oklahoma, but the federally recognized tribe said the Kansas reservation was never formally closed.
“The 1854 Shawnee Reservation in Kansas was never formally extinguished and some Shawnee families retain their Kansas allotments today,” The Shawnee Tribe said in a post about its history.
Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas
The Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas Band received a hearing in U.S. Congress asking for recognition in 1998 but received pushback as it was perceived as interfering with already recognized tribal governments in Michigan.
“The Swan Creek has not existed as a political entity for more than 140 years. They ceased to exist as a political entity after the 1855 Treaty of Detroit. To recognize them now would severely undermine the sovereignty of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe,” Congressional testimony said.
The congressional hearing described the history and describes a small group of Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas relocating to Kansas in the 1800s, and said some stayed in and around the “original small reservations.”
Kaweah Indian Nation
The Kaweah Indian Nation was a civic group and nonprofit that applied for recognition in the 1980s. The group was originally based in California, but formed a nonprofit in Wichita in 2005. It dissolved in 2008.
The group’s petition for recognition was denied, with the Office of Federal Acknowledgment finding that the organization didn’t exist before 1980, that it had no relation to the original Kaweah tribe and that none of its current members claim Kaweah ancestry.
The organization faced further setbacks when the so-called chief Malcolm Webber was convicted of felony charges for selling tribal membership to noncitizens, promising that it would allow them to get Social Security cards, a U.S. passport and other benefits for U.S. citizens.
Cherokee groups
Three unrecognized Cherokee groups exist in Kansas:
The Neutral Land Cherokee Group.The Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.The Red Nation of the Cherokee.
The federally recognized Cherokee Nation considers all three to be “fraudulent Cherokee groups.”
“Many of the would-be Cherokee ‘tribes’ are cultural societies or history clubs, whose members may or may not belong to any of the federally-recognized tribes. Still others are harmful, and some are even created for criminal purposes,” The Cherokee Nation’s taskforce on fraudulent tribes wrote.
Missouri Gov. Kit Bond acknowledged the existence of the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory in 1983, which the group claims gives them state recognition, but no recognition has ever been formalized for the three Kansas Cherokee groups by either a state or federal government.
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Publish date : 2024-09-12 22:15:00
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