Our Native American Past and the Shawnee Mission

Kansas City is blessed with a lot of Native American heritage and many of our cities, streets and schools have Indian names. Obviously, not all Native American tribes were indigenous to this area (we probably never had some of them in the immediate vicinity), but the number of things named after all the tribes abounds. Think of Indian Creek and Indian Hills, Wyandotte County, the states of Missouri and Kansas. Perhaps the most prevalent of all of those in this area is SHAWNEE. There is a city, a large school district and a large geographical area described by that name. It all really evolves from the Shawnee Tribe of Native Americans who settled in this area many years ago. Initially, they were granted 160,000 acres of Kansas land, but that was winnowed down over the years as the federal government proved to be an “Indian giver.” When Europeans first came to Kansas, among them was a missionary who sought to minister to the youth of the local Shawnee Indian tribe. His name was Thomas Johnson and he eventually set up the Shawnee Mission in what is now Fairway, Kansas. Originally established in Turner in 1930, the school was moved to its present location in 1839. The Mission school also ministered to the Chippewa, Osage, Cherokee, Wyandot and others, but the greatest number of students were Shawnee. At its peak, the Mission itself comprised some 200 acres with 16 buildings. Only three of those still stand on Mission Road at 53rd street and remain open to the public from April through October as the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historical Site. When the territorial government of Kansas was established, the territorial governor had his office in the mission. Reverend Johnson, who was the first missionary to the school, eventually lent his name to a much broader area that we now know as Johnson County. Oddly, the Reverend was murdered in 1865 at his home in Missouri, of all places, by what are believed to be southern sympathizers who were upset because he pledged allegiance to the Union when the Civil War broke out. Eventually, the Mission property was deeded to the Johnson family and then to the State of Kansas. Vestiges of those times remain with names like Arrowhead, Tomahawk, Prairie Village, Mission, Johnson Drive, War Paint, Delaware and virtually every Native American tribe that roamed America. Of course the appellation Shawnee Mission comprises a very broad area of Johnson County, including a number of municipalities. In contrast, the city of Fairway, Kansas (about 4000 people strong), in which the Shawnee Mission reposes, was named of all things after a golf course which once adjoined the Mission.