Haskell Indian Nations University opened 133 years ago, on September 17, 1884, as the U.S. Training and Industrial School--one of three original tribal boarding schools funded by the United States Congress. Three years later the school changed its name to Haskell Institute in honor of Chase Dudley Haskell, a U.S. representative from the Second…

To seriously consider one's rights under the US Constitution, one must grapple with the realization that many rights are not absolute. Instead, they are contested. But how to introduce younger students to such a complex concept, given short attention spans? In this article, we discuss the opportunities, pitfalls, and planning logistics of the 2013…

After months of intense debate, Congress finally passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, largely along sectional lines. Over the next several years Kansas Territory became "Bleeding Kansas" as violence erupted between pro-slavery and free-state factions. While scholars continue to debate the true causes of the fighting in Kansas,…

This article is divided into three parts. The first examines specific fencing policies in Kansas, Nebraska, and other Plains states, highlighting the transformation from the "fence-out" to "fence-in" (herd laws) policies. The second part discusses the coming of the railroads to the Great Plains and the farmers and the ranchers…

As American settlement spread to the Midwest, college and university campuses came to symbolize some of the greatest achievements of public policy and private philanthropy. However, the expansion westward often ignored the cultural precedents of Native Americans and the diversity of the varied native landscapes. Today, campus planners and historic…

About 50 miles east of Topeka, Kansas, in what is now the suburban town of Merriam sits South Park Elementary School. Built in 1947 for white children at a cost of $90,000, the school at that time showcased eight modern classrooms, a multi-purpose auditorium, a lunchroom, and playground. Today, the building serves as a monument to a struggle for…

In the spring of 1540, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado led an "entrada" from present-day Mexico into the region we call New Mexico, where the expedition spent a violent winter among pueblo peoples. The following year, after a long march across the Great Plains, Coronado led an elite group of his men north into present-day Kansas where,…

Kansas is legendary for geographical monotony, for a landscape allegedly so absent of trees and relief that the state has become the butt of national jokes and a cultural synonym for flat. U.S. Forest Service researchers noted in 1999 that forests covered slightly less than 3 percent of the state. So prevalent is the idea of a treeless Kansas that…

For 10 months in 1929-30, subscribers to "The McCook (Nebraska) Daily Gazette" (a daily newspaper serving 33 towns in southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas) received their newspapers via air delivery with "The Newsboy," a Curtis Robin cabin monoplane. In an age when over-the-road travel was difficult and air travel was…

Wichita's [Kansas] war on the Chinese began in 1886. Although a small war in comparison to other anti-Chinese outbursts in the American West, the persecution and violence against the city's small Asian population was nonetheless terrifying and significant to those who were the focus of the racist demonstrations. In an attempt to follow the…

As a major social force throughout the nineteenth century, religion proved an important factor in the settlement of the American West. Yet the idea of a religious figure as a western hero has never emerged in the popular culture adaptations of the Western, since the clergy are usually portrayed as gentle, "soft," or even somewhat…

While the Old Order Amish are often thought of as the plain dressing religious sect that attracts millions of tourists annually to Pennsylvania Dutch country, this Anabaptist group also has a significant history in the Great Plains. The Amish who settled in the Great Plains share commonalities with the Old Order Amish who remained in more…

When she traveled to Kansas from New York in November 1875 to join a husband who had gone west six months earlier, Sarah Anthony faced bitter disappointment. What caused Anthony's discontent, at least in part, was an unfamiliar and alien landscape, as yet untouched by the hand of domesticity. With dedication and fortitude, however, the place could…

This article describes three women who hold prominent places in the history of the United States. They are: (1) Linda Brown, the symbol of "bringing down segregation" in U.S. schools; (2) Rosa Parks, the mother of the Civil Rights Movement; and (3) Coretta Scott King, an accomplished musician and singer. These women hold their places in…

As late as 1938 there were 200,000 one-room schools scattered throughout the United States. By 1978 there were little more than 1,000 in operation. Primary-source research on rural education has now been conducted by 23 researchers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, sponsored by the Mountain…