"1838: United States sends 7,000 soldiers to remove 16,000 Cherokee by force. Whites loot their homes. The largest Trail of Tears begins, eventually taking 4,000 Indian lives. The removal act opens 25 million acres to white settlement and slavery. Upper Sandusky’s traditionalist Wyandot go to Washington to try to promote a separate removal agreement. They retum home, and their chief pulls a knife at a tribal council and lands in jail."

Wyandot Timeline

1826: More than 250 Shawnee and Seneca move to Kansas at the encouragement of their Indian agen. No federal monies are provided, leading to hardship and misery on the route.

1828: Seneca of Sandusky region ask for removal to avoid the evils of the white population around them.

1830: Indian Removal Act passes, with a vote of 102-97 in May. The bill scuttles treaties and does not define the Indians’ constitutional rights but promises to “forever secure and guranty (sic) to them and their heirs or successors, the country so exchanged with them.” President Andrew Jackson says it will be good for them to be away from whites. “They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of imporvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.”

1831: The Seneca of the Sandusky River area leave Ohio for Oklahoma, the first tribe in the state to be officially removed. A grueling nine month journey through winter claims more than 30 lives. Rep. David Crockett bucks President Jackson and the Tennessee legislature and speaks against Indian removals. An Ohio Wyandot inspection committee checks out lands being offered in the West. They turn them down.

1832: In mid-September, several hundred Shawnee and Seneca leave logan County for Oklahoma. The unwieldy caravan is 80 miles long. In late September, Ottawa and Shawnee leave Wapakoneta for Kansas. The Wyandot Indian agent claims the tribe in Upper Sandusky won’t move because they are under the sinister influence of whites who are missionaries and family members. Christian Indians remain opposed to removal; others are for It. The tribe gives up its smaller reservation, Big Spring.

1833: Remaining Shawnee leave Hog Creek for Kansas.

1834: United States declares land west of the Missouri River as Indian Country. A second Wyandot inspection party looks at and rejects land offered in Kansas.

1836: Second Seminole War, one of the longest and costliest in American history. Tricked into an illegitimate removal treaty, 15,000 Cherokee in Georgia sign a petition in protest. Wyandot give up a small portion of their main reservation to the federal government; pressure for removal continues.

1837: Ottawa near Toledo are removed to Kansas. Michigan becomes the 26th state.

1838: United States sends 7,000 soldiers to remove 16,000 Cherokee by force. Whites loot their homes. The largest Trail of Tears begins, eventually taking 4,000 Indian lives. The removal act opens 25 million acres to white settlement and slavery. Upper Sandusky’s traditionalist Wyandot go to Washington to try to promote a separate removal agreement. They retum home, and their chief pulls a knife at a tribal council and lands in jail.

1839: Ohio’s remaining 150 Ottawa are removed to Kansas. A third Wyandot inspection party arrives in Kansas and is impressed. Three months later, a fourth inspection party arrives. They sign a preliminary land purchase with the Shawnee.

1840: Ohio becomes the third most populous state. The U.S. Senate rejects the Shawnee-Wyandot treaty. American public opinion generally accepts Indian removal. The Seminole say settlers value possessions and use people; Indians value people and use possessions. William Henry Harrison is elected president

1844: Wyandot build their first Kansas church and start a debating society.

1845: Wyandot build their first Kansas school. Methodist Episcopal Church splits over the topic of slavery.

1846: Mexican War begins; some Wyandot enlist in U.S. Army.

1847: Wyandot William Walker Jr. purchases a slave, outraging many in the tribe.

1848: Tribe splits over slavery issue. Indian territory is overrun with settlers and gold rushers heading west. Some Wyandot join the search for gold.

1850: Wyandot relinquish all claims to land, getting cash payments instead.

1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act opens the territory to white settlers who take over Indian land through seizure, fraud or purchase.

1855: Wyandot become the first tribe offered citizenship by federal treaty. The Wyandot cemetery in Kansas City, Kan. , is deemed a permanent public cemetery for the tribe. Abolitionist John Brown arrives in Kansas.

1856: A group of Wyandot create Quindaro, a refuge for anti-slavery settlers. United States falls behind in payments, and many tribe members lose their land.

1857: U. S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision says Negroes cannot be citizens. About 200 Wyandot, disillusioned with Kansas, move to Seneca reservation in Oklahoma. They later flee the Civil War violence there and return to Kansas.

1859: John Brown executed for his raid on Harpers Ferry in West Virginia.

1860: Led by Cochise, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and others, Indians resist settlers and their governments. Wyandot are counted in the “white ” category of the U. S. census. Wyandot receive land deeds. Abraham Lincoln elected president.

1861: Civil War begins.

1863: Slavery abolished in the United States. Quindaro ministers tutor children of escaped slaves.

1864: Kansas state legislature wants to remove all Indians.

1865: Civil War ends.

1867: Wyandot in Oklahoma get part of the Seneca Oklahoma reservation and federal recognition. Kansas Wyandot still fight for federal status.

1871: Congress rules that tribes are no longer nations, removing much of their political power.

1876: Some agents ban traditional Indian rituals on reserva tions. They also hold final sway over Indian courts.

1890: A Kansas senator proposes to sell the Huron Indian Cemetery in Kansas City. He is met with a storm of protests.

1899: Wyandotte of Oklahoma, now with a new spelling of the tribal name, agree to sell the cemetery to real estate speculators. Local Wyandot protest again, and the land is never sold.

1906: Congress authorizes the sale of the cemetery and removal of bodies to another Wyandot cemetery.

1908: Secretary of the Interior declares it a private cemetery.

1909: Lyda Conley, a lawyer and Wyandot, argues against the sale before the Supreme Court.

1918: City of Kansas City, Kan. , is contracted by the federal government to “forever maintain, care for and preserve ” the cemetery.

1924: Indians allowed to vote.

1940s and 1950s: Oklahoma Wyandotte try on more than one occasion to sell the cemetery again. Opposition comes from local Wyandot, the city ’s historical society and President Harry Truman.

1959: Wyandot Nation of Kansas corporates as a nonprofit.

1971: The Kansas Wyandot Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1983: Leaford Bearskin is elected chief of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma.

1994: Kansas City ficials and the Oklahoma Wyandotte portedly agree to move the 600 to 1,000 bodies in the cemetery so that the tribe can build a casino there. Wyandot Nation of Kansas protests.

1999: Oklahoma Wyandotte agree not to build a casino on the cemetery but are still looking for another location in the area. All Wyandot tribes agree to preserve the cemetery. In a ceremony, Wyandot from Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan and Canada agree to reconcile.

2003 : Wyandot Nation of Kansas, about 600 strong, still waiting for federal recognition.