BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 89 
KANSA. 
To quote from the Handbook: “Their linguistic relations are 
closest with the Osage, and are close with the Quapaw. In the tra- 
ditional migration of the group, after the Quapaw had first separated 
therefrom, the main body divided at the mouth of Osage River, the 
Osage moving up that stream and the Omaha and Ponca crossing 
Missouri River and proceeding northward, while the Kansa ascended 
the Missouri on the south side to the mouth of Kansa River. Here 
a brief halt was made, after which they ascended the Missouri on 
the south side until they reached the present north boundary of 
Kansas, where they were attacked by the Cheyenne and compelled 
to retrace their steps. They settled again at the mouth of Kansas 
River, where the Big Knives, as they called the whites, came with 
gifts and induced them to go farther west. The native narrators 
of this tradition give an account of about 20 villages occupied suc- 
cessively along Kansas River before the settlement at Council Grove, 
Kansas, whence they were finally removed to their reservation in 
Indian Ter. Marquette’s autograph map, drawn probably as early 
as 1674, places the Kansas a considerable distance directly- west 
of the Osage and some distance south of the Omaha, indicating that 
they were then on Kansas River. . . It is known that the Kansa 
moved up Kansas River in historic times as far as Big Blue River, 
and thence went to Council Grove in 1847. The move to the Big 
Blue must have taken place after 1723.” 
Thus it would appear that for many generations the villages of 
the Kansa had stood near the eastern boundary of the great plains, 
a region where buffalo were plentiful, one suited to the wants and 
requirements of the native tribes. 
On June 26, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the 
mouth of the Kansas and encamped on the north side, where they 
remained two days. In the journal of those days they referred to 
the Kansa, and said: “ On the banks of the Kanzas reside the Indians 
of the same name, consisting of two villages, one at about twenty, 
_ the other forty leagues from its mouth, and amounting to about three 
hundred men. They once lived twenty-four leagues higher than the 
Kanzas [river], on the south bank of the Missouri . . . This nation 
is now hunting in the plains for the buffaloe which our hunters have 
seen for the first time.” (Lewis and Clark, (1), I, pp. 18-19.) A 
few days later, July 2, after advancing a short distance up the 
Missouri, above the mouth of the Kansas, they arrived at the site of 
an ancient village of the tribe. In the journal (p. 20) is this ac- 
count: “Opposite our camp is a valley, in which was situated an 
old village of the Kansas, between two high points of land, and on 
the bank of the river, About a mile in the rear of the village was a 
