Kansas tribe competes for ownership of former boarding school to cement Native perspectives

By: Anna Kaminski

Outlets: Kansas Reflector

Published: March 9, 2026

Words: 1,052

Last Updated: 4 months, 4 weeks ago

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TOPEKA — Kansas acquired land nearly a century ago that is home to some of the state’s oldest buildings, but the state now faces an ownership challenge from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, raising questions about how history is preserved and who is represented.

The Shawnee Indian Mission State Historical Site was a Methodist boarding and manual labor school for hundreds of Native American children from across the country from 1839 to 1862. The site …

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