Geography and Landforms:

Kansas is bordered by Nebraska on the north and Oklahoma on the south. To the east is Missouri and to the west is Colorado. It is the 15th largest of the 50 states.

Kansas is almost rectangular in shape is lies mostly in the Great Plains. The land consists of rolling plains and can be divided into three geographic regions: the Dissected Till Plains in the northeast, the Southeastern Plains to the west, and the Great Plains covering the western half of the state. Mount Sunflower is the highest point in Kansas and is located in the Great Plains near the Colorado border. Major rivers include the Arkansas River, the Kansas River and the Missouri River.

The eastern part of the state receives the greatest amount of rainfall, and occasional dust storms plague farmers and ranchers in the west.

History:

Spanish explorer Francisco de Coronado is believed to have been the first European to explore what is now Kansas in 1541.

Sieur de la Salle's extensive land claims for France (1682) included present-day Kansas, and between then and 1739, a number of explorers from Spain and France came to this area in search of gold and to trade with the Indians. Ceded to Spain by France in 1763, the territory reverted to France in 1800 and then was sold to the U.S. as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, and Stephen H. Long explored the region between 1803 and 1819. The first permanent white settlements in Kansas were outposts—Fort Leavenworth (1827), Fort Scott (1842), and Fort Riley (1853)—established to protect travelers along the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike declared the land unsuitable for farming, which discouraged white settlers. Instead, in 1830 the government passed the Indian Removal Act which designated Kansas as part of “Indian Territory” and relocated native people to the area from their home lands further east.

Kansas became a United States Territory in 1854 with the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, at a time which the country was bitterly divided by slavery. When the state was admitted as a territory, the U.S. government determined that the people who lived there should vote on whether slavery should be permitted. People who didn’t want slavery quickly moved to Kansas hoping they could outnumber those moving from Missouri, who did want it. At stake was both the status of slaves in the state, and the political leanings of any legislators to be elected once the Territory became a state. There were many fights among these people, but eventually those against slavery won, and Kansas became a “free state” in 1861. Because of the great violence during this time, Kansas became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

After the Civil War expansion of the rail system to Kansas and the increasing number of immigrants lured to the state by offers of cheap land, Native Americans were forced into smaller and smaller reservations. Ultimately their removal to Indian Territory forced the final confrontation in the late 1870's that ended the independent life of the Native Americans. The army established military posts along the railroads and the trails used by those traveling west. Such towns as Dodge City, Abilene, and Wichita became known as “cow towns” because of their prominence along the routes used by ranchers to move cattle for sale.

First Inhabitants:

Archaeologists tell us that people have been living in the area now known as Kansas since 12,000 BC, during the end of the Ice Age. Huge animals such as mammoth and mastodon lived in the area until climate change made it too warm for them to survive. It is believed that the first people who migrated to Kansas were descendents of people from Asia who crossed into North America through Alaska. These people were known as Paleo-Indians and were nomadic hunter-gatherers. These people hunted the mammoth and mastodon as well as eating berries, seeds, roots, and other small animals. They used spears tipped with stone points for hunting.

The Archaic Period (7000 BC—1 AD) began with continued warming of the climate and the ending of the Ice Age. Because the big game they had been hunting had died out, their diet changed to include more small game, and more plant foods. In order to grow enough food, they became less nomadic, and gradually established settlements. The people in these settlements began to grind seeds into meal. There is evidence that by about 3500 BC these people began to make ceramic objects.

The Woodland Period (1 AD—1000) brought great change to the people living in the area. Use of pottery increased, and hunters began to use bows and arrows in place of the atlatl (a kind of spear thrower). Toward the end of the period, agriculture began in earnest and the people began to grow corn. Archaeologists have also found evidence of ceremonial burial and the building of burial mounds.

Between 1000 and the time of “first contact” with white explorers, the people of Kansas depended upon two main food sources: bison hunting and the cultivation of corn, squash and beans. They also practiced small-scale hunting and gathered wild foods. People lived in rectangular earth lodges in the northern part of the area; in the south, they built houses covered with thatched grass. The population grew, and people lived in villages. We also know that the people began to trade more extensively with groups around them, particularly with the Puebloan Indians of the Southwest.

By the time European explorers arrived, we are able to identify the people living in Kansas with tribes such as the Pawnee, Kansa, Wichita, and Apache. There is evidence of contact between the Indians and Europeans, including fragments of Spanish chain mail armor found among the grass huts of the Wichita people.

After brief visits by the Spanish explorer, Coronado, in the area, the French arrived around 1750, and formed an alliance with the Kansa Indian tribe. Europeans were interested in the lucrative fur trade with the native people, and began to travel through the area with more frequency. However, widespread settlement did not happen until Kansas became a territory in 1854, because prior to that time the state was part of the large area known as “Indian Territory” where displaced tribes from further east were forced to relocate.