Shawnee Methodist Mission, also known as the Shawnee Mission, which later became the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School, is located in Fairway, Kansas, United States. Designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 1968, the Shawnee Methodist Mission is operated by the city as a museum. The site is owned by the

Kansas Historical Society The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas. Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kan ...

and administered as the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site. The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School served briefly as the second capital of the

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the free state of Kansas. ...

, when the legislature was controlled by pro-slavery advocates. The building held that designation from July 16 to August 7, 1855. The Shawnee Methodist Mission is the origin of the Shawnee Mission name used by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

to refer to the

Kansas City Metropolitan Area The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

suburban communities in northeastern Johnson County. The

Shawnee Mission School District Shawnee Mission USD 512 is a public unified school district headquartered in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, United States. As of 2018, the district comprises five high schools, five middle schools, 34 elementary schools, and six instructional centers ...

serves those communities.

History

In July 1830, Shawnee tribal leadership formally requested that the US government establish a mission on tribal lands for their children's education. Day schools were established by several Christian denominations, The first Methodist school was established by

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

in 1830 in

Turner, Kansas Turner is a neighborhood within Kansas City, Kansas, United States. It was formerly an unincorporated community of Wyandotte County, similar to Piper, Kansas. Turner has its own school district, Turner USD #202. History The Prophet (Tenskwat ...

to educate children of the

Shawnee tribe The Shawnee Tribe is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma. Formerly known as the Loyal Shawnee, they are one of three federally recognized Shawnee tribes. The others are the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and t ...

, who had been removed to Kansas from east of the Mississippi River by federal law. In June 1838, the Methodist Mission Society, led by Thomas Johnson, requested and received authorization and financial support from the U.S. government to build a large boarding school “mission,” consolidating the training of Indigenous children in manual trades from different tribes, thereby reducing costs through an economy of scale. In 1839, with approval of Shawnee leadership, the Shawnee and others labored to build and establish the school along with supporting infrastructure of almost in the heart of the Shawnee Reservation. (The site is within the boundaries of the City of Fairway in northeast Johnson County). A substantial portion of the construction costs were drawn from the Shawnee Tribe’s treaty funds. In addition, Shawnee treaty funds were used at this school to educate Shawnee children, even if they wanted to go to a different mission school on the tribe’s reservation. The site contained the three large buildings and thirteen smaller ones, with a maximum enrollment of nearly two hundred Indian boys and girls. Although the Shawnee were the only tribe to provide land for the school, children from all the tribes in the region could attend it. What became known as the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School was one of the first residential boarding schools established in the territory acquired by the United States in the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

. For 23 years (1839-1862) it functioned as a boarding school for numerous indigenous children until the federal government ultimately revoked the Methodists’ education contract in response to strong criticism regarding how the school was being administered.

The Shawnee

The "Fish" Shawnee tribe had been removed from its traditional

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

home to the unorganized territories set aside for Native Americans (in the future state of

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

) under the terms of the

Treaty of St. Louis (1825) The Treaty of St. Louis is the name of a series of treaties signed between the United States and various Native American tribes from 1804 through 1824. The fourteen treaties were all signed in the St. Louis, Missouri area. The Treaty of St. Loui ...

. The mission was initially built on land near the American Shawnee Indian Tribe reserve in Turner by

Reverend The Reverend is an style (manner of address), honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and Minister of religion, ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and c ...

Thomas Johnson. He hoped to convert the recently relocated tribe to Christianity. During the 1830s, some of the Shawnees' most venerated men, including Tenskwatawa, "the Shawnee Prophet", frequently visited at the mission. The Prophet was the younger brother of

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

, who had led a war against the United States earlier in the century. Tenskwatawa led the Shawnee in Tecumseh's absence at the

Battle of Tippecanoe The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecums ...

in 1811. Following defeat in this battle, Tenskwatawa took his men to the British Canadian colonies. He was placed under virtual house arrest for years following the end of the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. Tenskwatawa was eventually allowed to return to the Shawnee to help them remove from Ohio to Kansas; he died in 1836 at his village (the present site of

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

New mission

The mission was located at its original site from 1830 to 1839. In 1839, the mission was moved and built at its present-day Johnson County location, and an

Indian boarding school American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Na ...

was opened there. From 1839 until its closure in 1862, the Shawnee Mission served as a manual training school for Native Americans, principally from the Shawnee and

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

(Lenape) tribes. The Shawnee Mission also served briefly as the second capital of the

. The capital was moved to the mission on July 16, 1855, after pro-slavery delegates to the Territorial Legislature voted to depart the

first Territorial Capitol of Kansas The First Territorial Capitol of Kansas (officially named First Territorial Capitol State Historic Site) is the sole remaining building of the ghost town of Pawnee, Kansas. The city served as the capital of the Kansas Territory for five days be ...

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

. It served as territorial capital until August 8, when the seat of government became

Lecompton Lecompton (pronounced ) is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 588. Lecompton was the ''de jure'' territorial capital of Kansas from 1855 to 1861, and the Douglas County seat f ...

. While the capital was located at Shawnee Mission, the legislature promulgated the controversial pro-

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

laws that sparked

Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...

violence. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the site served as a camp for Union soldiers.

Administration

The Shawnee Mission is managed by the City of Fairway through an agreement with the Kansas Historical Society, which owns it. It was declared a

in 1968.

Gallery

Image:ShawneeMission East bldg front.jpg, East Building, front Image:ShawneeMission East bldg back.jpg, East Building, back File:NorthBldgShawneeMethodistMissionKS.jpg, North Building Image:ShawneeMission West bldg.jpg, West Building Image:ShawneeMission Conestoga.jpg, Conestoga wagon Image:ShawneeMission East sign.jpg, East Building sign Image:ShawneeMission North sign.jpg, North Building sign Image:ShawneeMission West sign.jpg, West Building sign

References

External links

Official websiteJohnson County Museum
relocating and closed until June 10, 2017
Shawnee Indian Mission history1975 photos of North, East, and West Buildings1940 HABS photo collection
from

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. (

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

) {{Johnson County, Kansas Museums Churches completed in 1839 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Pre-statehood history of Kansas Shawnee history Methodist churches in Kansas Museums in Johnson County, Kansas National Historic Landmarks in Kansas Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Native American history of Kansas Former colonial and territorial capitals in the United States Kansas state historic sites History museums in Kansas Native American museums in Kansas 1830 establishments in Indian Territory Historic American Buildings Survey in Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Johnson County, Kansas Methodist missions Capitals of Kansas Capitols of Kansas