EXPLORATION OF THE KANSAS COUNTRY BY THE UNITED STATES
=President Jefferson Sent Explorers.= When the United States bought
Louisiana the country from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean
was a vast unknown area. President Jefferson was eager to learn
something about the great West, and sent out several exploring
parties.
=Lewis and Clark.= The first expedition, sent in 1804, the year
following the purchase of Louisiana, was in charge of Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark. They were instructed to move up the Missouri River
and on to the Pacific Ocean. After a difficult journey lasting two and
a half years the party returned to St. Louis and brought to the people
of the United States much important information concerning the West.
It is the part of their journey along the border of what is now Kansas
in which we are most interested.
=The Journey.= With about forty-five men and three boats Lewis and
Clark started up the Missouri River in the spring of 1804. Two
horsemen rode along the bank to hunt and bring in game, which was to
go far toward supplying provisions for the expedition. After a five
weeks’ journey they reached the mouth of the Kansas River, and
encamped that night on the present site of Kansas City, Kansas. From
there they continued up the Missouri River where it forms the present
boundary line of Kansas, along the border of what has since become
Leavenworth, Atchison, and Doniphan counties. Their account of the
journey describes the country through which they passed and the
different Indian tribes and villages they saw. It speaks of an Indian
tribe as “hunting on the plains for buffalo which our hunters have
seen for the first time.” Again we read, “Pecan trees were this day
seen, and large quantities of deer and wild turkey.” By July 4 they
had reached a point not far from the present city of Atchison. They
did not have the means for much of a celebration, but their observance
of the day included the firing of “an evening gun” and the naming of
two streams, Fourth of July Creek, and Independence Creek.
Independence Creek still retains its name. A week later they passed
the fortieth parallel, which afterward became the northern boundary of
Kansas, and continued on their way to the Pacific.
=Pike’s Expedition.= In 1806 another exploring party was sent out in
command of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a young lieutenant in the army. He
was instructed to ascend the Missouri River, visit the various Indian
tribes in the Kansas country, go west until the frontier of New Mexico
was reached, then south toward the source of the Red River which he
was to descend to the Mississippi, and thence to St. Louis, the
starting point. The journey did not, however, follow just this route.
=Pike Visits the Osage Indians.= The Osage Indians lived in the
eastern part of Kansas, south of the Kansas River. At their villages
Pike purchased supplies for the overland journey. From there he went
west and then northwest toward the Pawnee village which is believed to
have been within the bounds of what is now Republic County.
=Pike Among the Pawnees.= About the time he crossed the Solomon River
he came upon the trail of Spanish troops. It seems that the
authorities in Mexico had in some way heard of the Pike expedition and
had sent an army of five hundred men to intercept him. These forces
missed each other, but when Pike reached the village of the Pawnee
Indians he found them in possession of many blankets, bridles,
saddles, and other things which they had received from the Spaniards.
After having been visited with much ceremony by the mounted and lordly
army from Mexico, the Indians were not inclined to be courteous to
Pike and his score of dusty, bedraggled footmen. After much
unpleasantness and delay a council attended by four hundred warriors
was held. In his opening address Pike spoke, among other things, of
the numerous Spanish flags in the village. Pointing to one which
floated above the tent of the head chief, he demanded that it be
lowered and that an American flag be put in its place. Several Indians
made speeches without mentioning the flag. Pike again told them they
must choose between the Spanish and the American governments. The
Americans awaited the answer in anxious suspense. Finally an old chief
arose. He slowly hauled down the Spanish flag, laid it at Pike’s feet,
and received the American flag in return. This he unfurled above the
chiefs tent, and for the first time, so far as is known, the Stars and
Stripes floated over Kansas.
=Pike in Colorado.= From this place Pike and his men moved southwest
to the Arkansas River, where the party divided, some of them going
down the river and on home. Pike and his remaining men, instead of
searching for the Red River according to instructions, followed the
Arkansas River into what is now Colorado. They pushed westward, and
after many days of travel sighted a mountain, which appeared at first
like a small blue cloud but which proved to be a great bald peak of
the Rocky Mountains. This peak has since been named Pike’s Peak in
honor of the explorer. By this time it was winter and their supplies
were low. Pike and his men suffered terribly from cold and hunger
while wandering among the mountains. Hoping to better their condition
they moved toward the southwest, only to find themselves taken
prisoners in Spanish territory. Later, however, they were escorted
across Texas to the American frontier in Louisiana and released.
[Illustration: THE EXPEDITION OF PIKE, AND THE LOCATION OF THE
ORIGINAL INDIAN TRIBES.
There were no clearly defined boundaries between the tribes.]
=The Return of Pike.= A whole year had passed before they found
themselves again in St. Louis, a year of hardship for them, but well
worth while, nevertheless, for Pike brought back a great deal of
valuable information. That he was a better soldier than farmer may be
seen from this passage taken from his journal:
“From these immense prairies may rise one great advantage to
the United States, viz., the restriction of our population
to certain limits, and thereby a continuation of the union.
Our citizens, being so prone to rambling and extending
themselves on the frontiers, will, through necessity, be
constrained to limit their extent on the west to the borders
of the Missouri and the Mississippi, while they leave the
prairies, incapable of cultivation, to the wandering
aborigines of the country.”[3]
=The Great American Desert.= Another explorer, Major Long, who came in
1819 and 1820, likewise expressed the idea that most of the country
was unfit for cultivation, and therefore uninhabitable by an
agricultural people. He even went so far as to say the country bore a
“resemblance to the deserts of Siberia.” Washington Irving, the great
writer, said of this region: “It could be well named, the Great
American Desert. It spreads forth into undulating and treeless plains
and desolate sandy wastes, wearisome to the eye from their extent and
monotony. It is a land where no man permanently abides, for at certain
seasons of the year there is no food for the hunter or his steed.”
[Illustration: AN INDIAN VILLAGE.
The tribes that lived in permanent homes built lodges
consisting of an embankment of earth topped with a row of
poles brought together at the center and thatched with bark
and grass.]
The views of these men largely molded public opinion concerning the
West. The country out of which has been carved such prosperous
agricultural states as Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska was, a hundred
years ago, known as the “Great American Desert,” and was so named on
the maps of that time.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF AN INDIAN LODGE.]
=Indian Tribes in Kansas.= The western prairies had for untold ages
been occupied by Indians. At the time of Pike’s expedition there were
four tribes living within the present bounds of Kansas. These were the
Kanza, the Osage, the Pawnee, and the Comanche tribes. The Kanza, or
Kaw, Indians lived in the northeastern part of the State and were the
ones seen by Lewis and Clark in their expedition up the Missouri
River. It is from this tribe that Kansas probably received its name.
The Osage Indians were located in the eastern part, south of the
Kansas River. The Pawnee tribe lived north and west of the Kanza
Indians. It was in the Osage village that Pike secured supplies for
his journey, and in the Pawnee village that he caused the Spanish flag
to be lowered. The Pawnees were once called the Quiviras. The first of
their tribe that we know anything about was “Turk,” who led Coronado
into the wilderness. These three tribes lived in permanent homes and
had their tribal villages, but the fourth tribe were wanderers. They
were the Comanches, sometimes called the Padoucas, and they roved over
the western part of Kansas and adjacent territory, hunting buffaloes
and following the herds as they grazed from place to place. They were
fine horsemen, and brave, but very fierce and warlike.
=The Kansas of a Century Ago.= This was the Kansas of a century ago.
At that time it had received neither name nor boundaries. For the
first fifty years that this region was a part of the United States,
that is, from the purchase of Louisiana until Kansas was organized as
a territory in 1854, the country was little used by the white people
except as a pathway to the West.
SUMMARY
President Jefferson, wishing to learn something of the unknown
western country, sent out two exploring expeditions. The first,
in 1804, was in charge of Lewis and Clark, who were to follow the
Missouri River and to go on across the mountains until they
reached the Pacific coast. They passed along the northeast border
of Kansas. The next exploring party was in command of Pike. His
route was somewhat in the form of a circle. Beginning at St.
Louis it was to pass through Kansas, then south, then east, and
up the Mississippi to St. Louis. He visited the Osage Indians in
eastern Kansas, the Pawnee Indians in northern Kansas where he
raised the American flag, and then marched into Colorado where he
discovered Pike’s Peak. From Colorado he went into what is now
New Mexico, where he was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. They
took him nearly to the Mississippi River and released him. On his
return he reported this country as unfit for settlement, and his
opinion was shared by later explorers. At the time of Pike’s
expedition there were four tribes of Indians in Kansas, the
Osages, the Kanzas, the Pawnees, and the Comanches.
REFERENCES
Prentis, History of Kansas, pp. 31-41.
Andreas, History of Kansas, pp. 49-53.
Coues, Expedition of Zebulon Montgomery Pike.
Blackmar, Kansas, vol. II.
Historical Collections, vol. IX, p. 574; vol. VII, pp. 261-317;
vol. VI, p. 325; vol. X, pp. 15-159.
QUESTIONS
1. What was known of the Louisiana Purchase at the time it was
acquired by the United States?
2. Who were Lewis and Clark? Give an account of their expedition
as it related to Kansas.
3. What route was Pike instructed to take?
4. Describe Pike’s visit to the Osages. His visit to the Pawnees.
By what other name do we know the Pawnees?
5. Give an account of the remainder of Pike’s journey.
6. What was Pike’s opinion of the Kansas country? Long’s opinion?
Washington Irving’s opinion?
7. How much of Kansas did the Louisiana Purchase include?
8. What Indian tribes lived within the present bounds of Kansas?
Locate and tell something of each.
9. When was Kansas Territory organized? How long was this after
the Louisiana purchase?
10. What use did the white people make of Kansas during this
period?
[Illustration: THE SANTA FE AND OREGON TRAILS, AND EARLY LINES OF
RAILROAD, THROUGH KANSAS.]