Читать книгу A History of Kansas онлайн

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The Great American Desert.

An Indian Village.

The tribes that lived in permanent homes built lodges consisting of an embankment of earth topped with a row of poles brought together at the center and thatched with bark and grass.

The views of these men largely molded public opinion concerning the West. The country out of which has been carved such prosperous agricultural states as Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska was, a hundred years ago, known as the “Great American Desert,” and was so named on the maps of that time.

Interior of an Indian Lodge.

Indian Tribes in Kansas.

The Kansas of a Century Ago.

SUMMARY

President Jefferson, wishing to learn something of the unknown western country, sent out two exploring expeditions. The first, in 1804, was in charge of Lewis and Clark, who were to follow the Missouri River and to go on across the mountains until they reached the Pacific coast. They passed along the northeast border of Kansas. The next exploring party was in command of Pike. His route was somewhat in the form of a circle. Beginning at St. Louis it was to pass through Kansas, then south, then east, and up the Mississippi to St. Louis. He visited the Osage Indians in eastern Kansas, the Pawnee Indians in northern Kansas where he raised the American flag, and then marched into Colorado where he discovered Pike’s Peak. From Colorado he went into what is now New Mexico, where he was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. They took him nearly to the Mississippi River and released him. On his return he reported this country as unfit for settlement, and his opinion was shared by later explorers. At the time of Pike’s expedition there were four tribes of Indians in Kansas, the Osages, the Kanzas, the Pawnees, and the Comanches.