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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

As part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, more than 25 Indian tribes were moved into the Kansas region. This was done to make way for increased white settlement in the East. These tribes included the Shawnee, Delaware, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Kickapoo, and Ottawa, among others. Later, when settlement of Kansas began in earnest, many of these tribes were again forced to move, this time to Oklahoma. By the late 1840s, interest in Kansas began to pick up. Two of the major transportation routes of the 19th century traveled through Kansas: the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon- California Trail. Thousands of wagons rumbled through, carrying settlers and goods westward. Some of these set- tlers decided to stay in Kansas, instead of traveling farther. As their numbers increased, there was a push to organ- ize Kansas into a U.S. territory. In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This created the two new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The bill also repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which

Atchison. They gave nearby Independence Creek its name in honor of the occasion. In 1806, a young army lieutenant named Zebulon Pike led a second

expedition through Kansas. Pike journeyed through southeastern, central, and western Kansas. He then followed the Arkansas River west into Colorado. In his reports, he described Kansas as dry, barren, and

Zebulon Pike

unsuitable for settlement. In large part because of Pike’s unfavorable reports, there was very lit- tle white settlement in the area until the 1850s. Instead, the area was des- ignated as “Indian Country.”

Henry Clay (1777–1852) was an influential politi- cal leader in the early 19th century. He repre- sented Kentucky in Congress, and ran for president several times. Clay helped to formulate the Missouri Compromise in 1820.