Kanza Cessions Map

Kanza (Kaw Nation) Land Cessions 1825-1847:
U.S. Indian Policy and the Creation of Kansas State University

This map was created by Chester Hubbard, senior in Geography, K-State University and Prairie Band Potawatomi member, using data from the “Morrill Act of 1862 Indigenous Land Parcels Database,” a publicly- available database available at: https://github.com/HCN-Digital-Projects/landgrabu-data. This map documents land cessions that were later used to support the Morrill Act of 1862, funding institutions of higher education in the US, including K-State.

Chester Hubbard describes this map as follows: “The representation progressively shows how much land was lost between 1825 and 1847 due to treaty cessions. It also shows the land parcels that were later given to Kansas State University through the Morrill Act of 1862. The data that I used to create this representation were shapefiles and tables acquired from the Morrill Act of 1862 Indigenous Land Parcels Database which documents the amount of land that was taken from Indigenous nations and given to universities like Kansas State University, as well as the USDA Forest Service. The software that I used to make the map from that data was ArcGIS Pro. My design choices for the map were to keep the map basic and easy to read for the user without overwhelming them. This map is important to show the magnitude of the land loss experienced by the Kanza.”

The following pages are a beta release of a larger project. Please stay tuned as we update these pages!

 

^{Partial funding for this program is provided by Humanities Kansas, a nonprofit cultural organization connecting communities with history, traditions, and ideas to strengthen civic life, as well as the College of Arts and Sciences at Kansas State University and the Kansas Studies Institute at the Johnson County Community College.
The findings, conclusions, etc., are not necessarily those of HK or the National Endowment for the Humanities.}