198:). The immense land grab in the 1825 treaty, plus a similar treaty signed by the government with the Osage, opened up Kansas to the relocation of eastern Indian tribes. The U.S. would squeeze the Kaw into ever smaller territories. In defense of White Plume, much of the land he ceded was already lost to the Kaw and was being occupied by eastern Indians or White settlers. White Plume probably also foresaw that the Kaw would have to learn to live on much reduced territories and change their emphasis from hunting and fur trading to agriculture. Thus, he chose cooperation as his policy.
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210:. The favoritism, however, shown by the United States to White Plume and the mixed bloods contributed to rivalries for leadership. In the 1820s, the Kaw split into four factions. Not accepting White Plume's leadership, the three conservative factions continued to live in villages near Manhattan. White Plume and his supporters settled downstream near the Kaw Agency headquarters established near
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was a pittance of land thirty miles wide extending westward into the Great Plains from the Kansas River valley. To win support for the treaty from the increasingly important mixed bloods, each of 23 mixed blood children of French/Kaw parents received a section of land on the north bank of the Kansas River. (See
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A grateful U.S. government built a stone house for White Plume near the agency, but he lived in a traditional lodge because he said the house had "too much fleas." Many of the mixed bloods also lived near the agency, as did a number of French voyageurs who were accustomed to life on the frontier. As
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A Methodist missionary, William
Johnson arrived in 1830 at the Williamstown agency to begin a school for Kaw and mixed-blood children. The Kaw Agency was a microcosm of the "careless, indeed illusive" efforts of the U.S. government's efforts to make Christians and farmers of Indians such as the Kaw
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In 1825, White Plume was the principal Kaw chief signing a treaty that ceded 18 million acres (73,000 km) to the United States in exchange for annuities of 3,500 dollars per year for 20 years plus livestock and assistance to convert the Kaw into full-time farmers. What was left to the Kaw
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described him as "a very urbane and hospitable man of good, portly size, speaking some
English, and making himself good company for all persons who travel through his country and have the good luck to shake his liberal and hospitable hand." Catlin regretted that he did not have the opportunity to
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White Plume was first written about as one of the Kaw signatories to an 1815 treaty with the United States. With his daughters married to French traders, White Plume was identified by
American officials as more progressive—in their minds—than his leadership rivals among the Kaws. In 1821 he was
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who had little desire to be either. Indian Agents, appointed by the government were often corrupt or incompetent. Most agents found reason to be absent from the agency for extended periods of time. Also, in accordance with the treaty, White farmers, teachers, missionaries, both
237:. His son, born here August 22, 1828, was the second white child born in Kansas. The Chouteau family established a trading post across the river from the Agency to provide goods to the Kaw in exchange for buffalo robes and furs. An illicit whiskey trade flourished.
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family, to acquire
European goods such as guns. White Plume lived to see the traditional lifestyle of the Kaws become increasingly unsustainable. He attempted to meet the challenges facing the Kaws by cooperation with the U.S. government.
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White Plume came back from
Washington convinced that the future of the Kaw, and his own future, was accommodation with the United States. Already eastern Indians were being expelled from the east and squatting on Kaw lands. The
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In his last years, it appears that White Plume, perhaps disillusioned with the results of his accommodation policy, "returned to the old Indian habits." A missionary reported in 1838 that he died while on an autumn hunt.
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tribe. He signed a treaty in 1825 ceding millions of acres of Kaw land to the United States. Most present-day members of the Kaw Nation of
Oklahoma trace their lineage back to him. He was the great-great-grandfather of
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White Plume had five children. His three sons all died when young men. His two daughters, Hunt Jimmy (b. ca. 1800) and
Wyhesee (b. ca. 1802) married the French traders Louis Gonville and
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in 1803, the Kaw subsisted primarily on buffalo hunting with only limited agriculture. They were dependent on selling furs and buffalo robes to French traders, such as the powerful
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said, "the old French houses engaged in the Indian trade had gathered round them a train of dependents, mongrel
Indians, and mongrel Frenchmen, who had intermarried with Indians."
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When George Sibley visited the Kaws in 1811, they were living in a single prosperous village of 128 two and three-family bark lodges on the site of present-day
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epidemics that swept through the tribe in 1827-1828 and 1831-1832 killing nearly 500 members of the tribe including White Plume's wife and two of his sons.
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as a sign that the U. S. government accepted him as the principal Kaw chief. In reality, however, he never had authority over most members of the tribe.
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Mixed Bloods and Tribal
Dissolution: Mixed-Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Charles Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity
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Mixed Bloods and Tribal
Dissolution: Mixed-Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Charles Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity
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White Plume was a prominent personality on the frontier in the 1830s and travelers often called on him. The painter
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White Plume was born about 1765. The Kaw tribe at that time occupied lands in what became the states of
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Luttig, John C. "Journal of a Fur-Trading expedition on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813". St. Louis:
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Letters and Notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians.
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and numbered about 1500 persons. White Plume married a daughter of the
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Lutz, Rev. J.J. "Methodist Missions Among the Indians of Kansas."
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289:"June 28, 1804 | Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition"
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Lawn and at the residence of the French Minister. The artist
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painted a portrait of White Plume. He was given two silver
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was a highway to fur trappers and traders heading for the
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The increasing problems of the Kaw were amplified by
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Smithsonian Institution Research Information System.
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Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society
327:. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, pp. 17-18.
425:Vol. 2. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1841, p. 23
301:Genealogical research of Larry Clinton Thompson.
450:. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1989.
273:"Monchousia (White Plume), Kansa, (painting)."
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61:, 31st Vice President of the United States.
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138:and other American officials, visited
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502:Native American people from Kansas
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497:Native American history of Kansas
312:Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
122:invited by Indian Superintendent
492:Pre-statehood history of Kansas
36:(ca. 1765—1838), also known as
253:paint White Plume's portrait.
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357:Missouri Historical Society
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372:Vol. 9, 1905-1906, p. 195
323:Unrau, William E. (1989)
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24:Monchousia (White Plume)
487:Native American leaders
399:(retrieved 27 Oct 2010)
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394:"Kansa Indian Agency."
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65:Early life and family
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310:Kappler, Charles J.
212:Williamstown, Kansas
102:Louisiana Territory
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16:Kaw chief (d. 1838)
446:Unrau, William E.
342:2008-05-09 at the
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243:Washington Irving
208:Manhattan, Kansas
196:Half-Breed Tracts
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477:1838 deaths
241:the author
214:, in 1827.
188:Isaac McCoy
156:White House
130:) to visit
42:Manshenscaw
34:White Plume
482:Kaw people
466:Categories
441:References
231:Protestant
202:Leadership
180:New Mexico
164:epaulettes
152:war dances
46:Monchousia
346:, 222-225
144:Baltimore
100:acquired
340:Archived
219:smallpox
117:Treaties
110:Chouteau
83:Pawhuska
75:Missouri
410:Astoria
337:Kappler
182:on the
154:on the
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106:France
81:Chief
71:Kansas
44:, and
261:Notes
104:from
87:Osage
79:Osage
452:ISBN
229:and
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50:Kaw
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