Tag: Delaware Tribe

By The Herald Staff  |  The Ottawa Herald

The Munsee Tribe of Kansas ancestors endured many hardships fighting for their lives and land.

The Munsees were nearly driven to Cherokee Nation 153 years ago.

In 1868, a treaty was proposed by Kansas Sen. Samuel Pomeroy initiating removal of the Chippewa and Munsee tribes to Indian Territory.

The Chippewa people, being Anishnabek relatives to the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes, were going to join the Ottawa Tribe in Indian Territory on reservation lands acquired from the Seneca Shawnee Tribe as gratitude for the Ottawa Tribe hosting the Seneca Shawnee Tribe on their lands when the  Civil War forced the Seneca Shawnee people to flee violence. This Ottawa removal occurred in 1867 and the the Chippewa people were going to move there.                                                                                 

The Christian Munsee Treaty of June 1, 1868, was signed by

Edward McCoonse, Louis Gokey, Ignatius Caleb, and Moses A. Kilbuck and was read and interpreted by Chippewa interpreter Antoine Gokey and Munsee interpreter Moses A. Kilbuck. It wasn’t ratified by the U.S. Senate though.

Mike Ford, historian and researcher for The Munsee Tribe in Kansas, said the ratification did not come because the Senate was involved in impeachment hearings of President Andrew Johnson.

“Much of that year politically was spent on the impeachment and unsuccessful removal of President Andrew Johnson, who became President after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 9, 1865.”

President Johnson’s impeachment trial took place from Feb.24, 1868, to May 26, 1868. He was acquitted by the vote of Kansas Sen. Edmund Ross of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The Northern Republicans felt that the Democratic…

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Staff Reports

Work on a portion of the construction site of the new Bartholomew County Court Services building has halted after human bones were found by workers using an excavator to try to locate an old sewer line.

The workers, who were trying to locate a 1940s-era clay sewer line as part of the building project, stopped work May 18 after the excavator brought up a number of bones from a depth of 6- to 7-feet at the construction site at 555 First St., said Heather Pope, Columbus city redevelopment director.

The area where the bones were found was underneath a drive and partially underneath a grassy area that would have been near the previous building on the site. The contractors working on the site believe the clay sewer line would be from the 1940s and the bones would have pre-dated that. No other artifacts such as clay pots or Native American items were found with the bones, Pope said.

Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting was called to the scene as per protocol and took some photos after determining some of the bones, but not all of them, were human, Pope said.

The state’s historic preservation archeology department was then called and investigators looked over the site and determined bones were likely Native American remains — and concurred that not all the bones were human.

The city contacted the University of Indianapolis, whose archeological researchers recommended roping off and securing the area where the bones were found and calling the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ historic preservation and archeology division.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has jurisdiction over remains that are found that are believed to pre-date 1939. DNR archeologist Rachel Sharkey, a research archeologist with the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology, was called in to investigate.

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