Shawnee Methodist Mission
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Shawnee Methodist Mission was a camp established by missionaries in 1830 to minister to the Shawnee tribe of Native Americans. It was the second capital of the Kansas Territory, holding that designation from July 16, 1855, to the spring of 1856. It is today a museum located in the town of Fairway, Kansas.
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[edit] The Shawnee
The Shawnee tribe was moved from its traditional Ohio home to the unorganized territories set aside for Native Americans (in the future state of Kansas) under the terms of a treaty dated November 7, 1825.[1] The mission was initially built on land near the new Shawnee reserve, in the old Turner community, by Reverend Thomas Johnson, in order to convert the recently-relocated tribe to Christianity.
During the 1830s, the Shawnee's most venerated men, including Tenskwatawa "the Shawnee Prophet", were frequently at the mission. The Prophet was Tecumseh's younger brother and had fought with him against the United States earlier in the century, leading the Shawnee in Tecumseh's absence at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Following defeat in this battle, he took his men to the British Canadian colonies, where he was placed under virtual house arrest for years following the end of the War of 1812. He was eventually allowed to return to the Shawnee to help them move from Ohio to Kansas, and he died in 1836 at his village (the present site of Kansas City, Kansas).
[edit] The new mission
The mission was located at its initial site from 1830 to 1839. In 1839, the mission was moved to its present-day Johnson County location, where an Indian boarding school was opened. 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 tribes.
The Shawnee Mission also served as the second capital of the Kansas Territory. The capital was moved to the mission on July 16, 1855, after pro-slavery delegates to the Territorial Legislature voted to depart the first capital at Pawnee. It served as capital until the spring of 1856, when the seat of government was moved to Lecompton. While the capital was located at Shawnee Mission the legislature promulgated the controversial pro-slavery laws that sparked Bleeding Kansas violence. During the American Civil War, the site also served as a camp for Union soldiers.
