The Chapman Center for Rural Studies and Manhattan Public Libraries hosted an interdisciplinary panel that brought together scholars and students to launch an online exhibit focused on our local history of land treaties.
Panelists included Mary Kohn, Chapman Center director; Lisa Tatonetti, professor of English; C. Huffman, poet, theologian, and Kaw Nation Citizen; Tai Edwards, associate professor of history and director of the Johnson County Community College Kansas Studies Institute; Chester Hubbard, senior in geography and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation member; Kinsley Searles, senior in English; and Haley Reiners, senior in English.
"Kansas without the Kanza" was created to discuss the findings of the Kansas Land Treaties research project. This project was a collaboration with the Chapman Center, panelists and April Petillo, former assistant professor. Humanities Kansas awarded the research team $3,500 earlier this year to create online educational resources about the treaties and complex histories that undergird K-State’s land grant.
During the panel discussion, the public learned about the treaties which cumulatively dispossessed the Kanza, the present-day Kaw Nation, of 18,233,620 acres of land. This land loss paved the way for the rapid settlement of the region by non-Native settlers and helped fund institutions of higher learning, including K-State.
Funding for this event is provided by Humanities Kansas, a nonprofit cultural organization connecting communities with history, traditions, and ideas to strengthen civic life.
