William Walker (1800–1874) was a

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wya ...

Native American Indian leader and the first provisional governor of

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

Territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

which also encompassed the present-day 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 th ...

Background

Walker was born March 5, 1800, in Wayne County, Michigan. He was the son of William Walker, Sr., a white man who was captured by

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 ...

Indians in 1777 in Russell County, Virginia. Walker, Sr. was later sold to the Wyandot and grew up among them. William, Sr. married Catherine Rankin, one-fourth Wyandot Indian. The couple had ten children. Walker was educated in a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

school in

Worthington, Ohio Worthington is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, and is a northern suburb of Columbus. The population in the 2020 Census was 14,786. The city was founded in 1803 by the Scioto Company led by James Kilbourne, who was later elected to ...

, and spoke English, French,

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

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, and Potawatomi; and read

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and

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. He was described as an eloquent speaker and forceful writer on political and literary subjects. He married Hannah Barrett (d. Dec 7, 1863) on April 8, 1824. She was a student in a Christian mission school at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and probably part Indian. and served as Private Secretary to Lewis Cass the Governor of Michigan Territory. He became chief of the Wyandot in 1835. After the death of his first wife, Walker married Evelina J. Barrett, a widowed sister-in-law of his first wife, in 1865. She died on August 28, 1868.

The move to Kansas

Despite their adaption to American mores, political pressure increased on the Wyandot in the 1830s to exchange their lands in Ohio for land in what would become the state of

. In 1832, Walker headed a delegation of five Wyandot to explore their proposed new lands. The report of the Wyandot, written by Walker, was highly unfavorable toward the land they saw and the white people they encountered on the frontier, an "abandoned, dissolute, and wicked class of people," many of whom were "fugitives from justice." The murder of a Wyandot chief and his family finally persuaded the Wyandot that the American government would not protect them in Ohio and, in 1843, 664 Wyandot left Ohio by steamboat for their new home in Kansas. Their new lands, purchased from the

Delaware people The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

, another Indian tribe in Kansas, encompassed the present

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 ...

. Kansas historian William E. Connelley described the Wyandot. "When the Wyandots came to Kansas no member of the tribe was more than one-fourth Indian. The tribe was Indian; the people three-fourths white. They brought with them their church, their schools, their Masonic lodge, a code of laws for their government. They set up their institutions here. They enforced the law."

Provisional governor of Nebraska Territory

On July 26, 1853, Walker was elected provisional governor of the territory of Nebraska at a meeting at the Wyandot Council house. The group that elected him consisted of Wyandot, white traders, and others with outside interests who wished to preempt the federal government's organization of the territory and benefit from the settlement of Kansas by white settlers. Walker and the others were also promoting Kansas as the route for the proposed transcontinental railroad. Walker's election as provisional governor was not accepted by the federal government, but it prompted Congress to hasten the official organization of the future states of Kansas and Nebraska by passing the

Kansas–Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, passed by the 33rd United States Congress, and signed into law by ...

1854. This opened the territory to white settlement and allowed settlers to determine if slavery would be allowed in their territories. The Wyandot people were divided on the issue of slavery, although some, Walker included, owned slaves. Walker, however, opposed secession. A few Wyandot benefited in the 1850s and 1860s by selling their lands to white settlers, but for most the influx of Whites proved disastrous and they soon moved to Oklahoma and new lands there. Walker, however, remained in Kansas where he died on February 13, 1874.NEGenWeb project, "The Walker Family, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/Walker/wlkr011.html , accessed, 30 Aug 2011.

Walker's legacy

Walker's political efforts had the objective of preventing the Wyandot from being dispossessed of their lands in Kansas as they had been in Ohio. As a member of the Wyandot elite, he believed that the Wyandot could survive and prosper alongside white settlers. He was wrong, although some of the Wyandot, including himself, continued to be respected and to be known as important citizens of the territory and state of Kansas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, William 1800 births 1874 deaths 19th-century Native Americans Governors of Nebraska Territory Native American history of Kansas Native American leaders Pre-statehood history of Kansas People from Upper Sandusky, Ohio People from Wayne County, Michigan Wyandot people