The Kaw Indians, once known as the Kansa or Wind People, were compelled by an 1872 law to move from their homes in Kansas to a new reservation in the Indian Territory of present-day Kay County, Oklahoma. Within a few years the authority of the Kaw tribal government had been undermined by federal policies such as the Dawes Act of 1887, which gave land to heads of Indian families who were willing to relinquish their tribal affiliation for U.S. citizenship. In 1902, the Kaw Allotment Act distributed the remaining lands and put an end to the legal identity of the Kaw tribe. In 1959, however, the Department of the Interior recognized a reconstituted Kaw Nation, which today numbers nearly 2,000 and is headquartered at Kaw City, Oklahoma. This book is a detailed and clearly-arranged guide to the Kaw Indian census of 1887 and the Kaw Indian allotments of 1902-1929. The census entries include the Indian and English names, the relation to head of family, and the age for each of the 193 Kaw enrolled. The allotment records are divided into two sections: (1) farming and grazing leases and (2) oil and gas leases. The allotment records include the names of allottees, lessors and lessees, the lease numbers, the dates of transaction, and legal descriptions of the land tracts. Many of the lessees are companies or non-Indian settlers who did business in the Kay County area of north central Oklahoma. All of these names are included in the more than 700 entries of the index. A synopsis of Kaw history and two maps of the area involved are included. Mr. Koplowitz is the assistant curator of the University of Oklahoma's Western History Collections and the author of Guide to the Historical Records of Oklahoma.
Bradford Koplowitz
(1996), 2012, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 100 pp.
ISBN: 9780788405624
101-K0562
