The Failure of the Missionaries

The Failure of the Missionaries. . , Following the treaties of 1825, the U.S. government expected the Kansa Indians, under the watchful eye of Indian bureau agents, to abandon hunting, trapping, and intertribal warfare, and instead become farmers. Several factors worked against the success of this plan. First, the agency location was too far away from the Kansa villages to effectively enforce it. Further, commercial practices of French traders had served to break the Kansa tribe into contending political factions. Special consideration given the half-bloods by treaties of 1825 further contributed to factionalism. These issues, in combination with continued pressure from the Pawnees, led to a major withdraw of the Kansas rom the Blue Earth site. By 1831, there were at least three new, distinct Kansa villages, all located near the confluence of Mission Creek and the Kansas River just west of what is now Topeka. , Differences between competing clans were also aggravated by the arrival of Christian missionaries, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists, all in their turn attempted to convert the tribes to Christianity. The various denominations were in part motivated by anticipated income from the sale of Kansa education lands in the Big Blue Valley. Totaling 23,040 acres and worth nearly $30,000 at minimum government price, these heavily timbered sections represented an attractive means for Christian leaders to finance their missionary work. The federal government was not then opposed to supporting organized religion, especially since the various denominations took the position that "civilization and Christianity were inextricably connected.", In the end, the missionaries were no more successful in their attempts to convert the Kansas than had been the U.S. government. The Kansas, while initially presenting a docile and agreeable appearance to the missionaries, firmly refused either to locate in one village or to abandon their hunting life. Adding to the difficulties was the problem of securing reliable interpreters, which in the case of the Kansas, with a powerful French influence as part of their tribal tradition, was particularly acute., For a time, the Methodists held great hopes for their cause among the Kansas because they found them to be talkative, expressive of their opinions, and more serious and better informed than many other tribes. But the Methodists' optimism was eventually squashed by a series of tragic events. In 1839, a major epidemic hit Kansa villages. In its wake, Kansas were convinced the tribe was in bad favor with the great spirit and that satisfaction against the Pawnees was the only way forward. In late 1840, Kansa warriors attacked a Pawnee village left defenseless by the departure of the men on a hunting trip. The Kansas killed and scalped sixty women and children and raided the camp., Disillusioned missionaries eventually retreated from the Kansa villages in 1846. Nearly fifteen years of work with the Kansas had accomplished very little. No converts could be reported.