Kansas planning $13k ground radar study for potential unmarked graves at Shawnee Indian Mission

By Matt Flener

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    FAIRWAY, Kansas (KMBC) — Kansas state leaders have drawn up plans to spend more than $13,000 on a ground penetrating radar study to search for unmarked graves of Native children at one of the oldest and most significant historical landmarks in the state, according to a partially signed contract obtained by KMBC 9 Investigates.

That study, however, has drawn recent scrutiny from the Shawnee Tribe, whose chief says state officials planned the search for potential human remains without proper consultation with Native tribes.

“All we’re insisting upon is consultation,” Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes told KMBC 9 Investigates.

For the past year, Barnes has called for a ground-penetrating radar study and a federal investigation to search for answers on what happened to children on the site and in other boarding schools across North America.

But, Barnes said he did not know about the state’s potential contract for the work until late August when he met with the acting director of the Kansas Historical Society. Barnes said the state’s proposal to use federal funds to study a national historic landmark required tribal input.

After questions from KMBC 9 Investigates last Friday and this week, acting Kansas Historical Society executive director Patrick Zollner said the ground-penetrating radar work to look for potential unmarked graves would not move forward without consultation with all interested tribes.

“We will complete the consultation process before beginning the project,” Zollner said in a statement emailed to KMBC 9 Investigates.

Shawnee Tribe concerned with Thomas Johnson’s past leadership of Shawnee Mission, Manual Labor Boarding School

Barnes raised his concerns about the proposed contract last week at a ceremony calling for a more accurate depiction of stories from children at Native American boarding schools across North America, including the Shawnee Methodist Mission.

Thomas Johnson founded the mission in 1839 and later turned the site into the Shawnee Manual Labor Boarding School. The school eventually ceased operation in 1862. Barnes has maintained he is concerned with Johnson’s ties to slavery and Native children providing manual labor on the original 2,000-acre plot of land.

The school is one of 408 listed in an investigative report outlining potential consequences for federal Indian boarding school policies between 1819 and 1969 released by the Department of the Interior this year.

Twelve acres and three original buildings remain at the National Historic Landmark, managed by the city of Fairway and owned by the Kansas Historical Society. Johnson County is named after the former Methodist missionary, slaveholder and landowner.

Barnes told KMBC 9 Investigates last week that he was concerned about how state historical society officials drew up the project agreement with the University of Kansas Center for Research to look for unmarked graves on site without proper consultation with tribes. 23 tribes or nations, including the Shawnee Tribe, had children that attended the school, according to records held on site.

The records do not show if any of those children remain buried in unmarked graves at or around the Fairway location.

“Kansas has to consult with the tribal nations about how we look for these children,” Barnes said. “Because if we find a body, what next?”

On Wednesday, the Kansas Historical Society’s Patrick Zollner told KMBC 9 Investigates the state has started consultation with multiple tribes and nations regarding the ground penetrating radar study.

He listed the following tribes and nations on the list for consultation based on the KSHS website and HUD’s Tribal Directory Assessment Tool.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Kaw Nation Wichita and Affiliate Tribes Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma Delaware Nation, Oklahoma Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Kansas Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma Delaware Tribe of Indians Osage Nation Zollner said the consultation started after the Shawnee Tribe’s historical preservation officer sent him the first letter outlining the tribe’s concerns with the ground-penetrating radar proposal. That letter came September 8, according to a copy of an email provided by the Shawnee Tribe to KMBC.

Zollner also testified to a legislative committee the same day about the study.

“We actually have a contract underway for that very project,” Zollner told the state legislature’s joint committee on building construction on Sept. 8.

Zollner told KMBC this week that the contract is not fully executed and will not start until he signs the agreement. The proposed agreement shows a digital signature from a director for research administration at the University of Kansas on Sept. 30.

Zollner did not respond to a question about when he would sign the agreement.

Ground penetrating radar study director says she is committed to transparency, consultation, input with Native tribes

The $13,172 project agreement between the University of Kansas Center for Research and the State of Kansas, Kansas Historical Society and State Historic Preservation Office originally proposed to start on Sept. 1, with research and fieldwork within 60 days.

That timeline is now pushed back.

The project agreement calls for a geophysical survey at the Shawnee Indian Mission site led by Kansas Geological Survey researcher Blair Schneider.

Schneider on Wednesday told KMBC she recently heard the Shawnee Tribe’s concerns. She said she wants full input from the tribe before moving forward with any fieldwork.

“I’m not going to do anything unless the tribe agrees to it,” Schneider said. “I wanted to talk with them first and make sure we’re supporting them.”

Schneider said she would perform the ground penetrating radar study and electrical conductivity work to look for targets or differences in the subsurface beneath the mission grounds.

“That could be potential burials,” she said. “It could also just be rocks. We will be able to tell that there’s something under the ground, but I could never tell you exactly what it is. And my job is never to dig anything up.”

Schneider said she has recently done work on other Native burial grounds, including a potential mass burial site with ties to the Potawatomi reservation west of Topeka. Schneider also said there is a meeting scheduled with the Shawnee Tribe to discuss the scope of the work.

“I’m trying to make sure I’m doing this in the most appropriate way,” Schneider said.

KMBC plans to continue reporting developments at the Shawnee Indian Mission in the coming weeks and months. If you have any stories to share about the site, the history, or the property’s future, email investigative reporter Matt Flener at investigates@kmbc.com.

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