Kaw People Vs Absentee Landowners

Battle over land ownership and the movement of the Native American’s off of their land is part of the American story. As whites moved across America, the Indians were moved to less desirable land. In the two essays that I wrote for this class, Kaw People and Absentee Landowners the interesting connection between both essays is that not only were the Indians moved off the land but settlers and their descendants who wanted the land were priced out of the land in Chase County. Both essays are connected by the simple fact that as land became more valuable only the most powerful or richest could own the land and as a result both the Kaw and people of Chase County have became more dependent on others for support. First the Native Americans were moved off the land and then eventually the settlers were priced out of the land. Kansas started out as a large reservation in the 1825 Indian Removal Act. The tribes moved to Kansas included the Delaware, Kickapoo, Miami, Sac, Fox, Ottawa, and Peoria, who were moved out of Missouri into Kansas land held by the Kaw Nation. The land in Kansas was seen at the time as useless and undesirable. Overtime with the white settlers wanting more and more land. The settlers began to invade the Kaw territory. The government moved the Indians West in the Treaty of 1859, giving them 80,000 acres of what was considered the poorest land in Kansas. Each Native American family got 40 acres of land which was not enough to support a family making the Kaw even poorer and more dependent on the government. Eventually in 1872, the Kaw Nation was permanently moved out of Kansas to Oklahoma. The white settlers who moved into Kaw land were given 160 acres of free land in The 1862 Homestead Act but as the land became more and more valuable eventually they would be priced out of Chase County PrairyErth. The government started to take land away from settlers through land grants for the railroads. In the 1870s, railroads were given odd numbered land leaving the area a series of unconnected plots of land. Nearly 38 percent of Chase County land was railroad land. Just like the Native Americans the 40 to 60 acre plots left for private ownership after the railroad claims were only enough to sustain a farming family and not enough for profit PrairyErth. Eventually the railroads sold large plots of land that the farmers used for free grazing to large corporations. The plots of land were so large only the richest could afford them not the average Kansas farmer. Farmers with the smaller plots of land lost the ability to have larger herds due to the loss of free grazing land. The large corporations were not residents of Chase County and were only interested in big profits and buying even more land. The settlers of Chase County although not forcibly removed from the land like the Native Americans, found themselves unable to make a profit off their land or priced out of the land PrairyErth. The Native Americans and the settlers did not have the ability to earn a living off of the land and found themselves dependent on others. …show more content…
The Native Americans became impoverished because the land given to Native Americans is some of the worst land which cannot sustain crops. Unemployment on reservations can be as high as 85% (The Poverty Cycle). Native Americans are dependent on the government because they do not own their land, economic growth is controlled by the government, there is a complex legal network making it difficult for economic growth and energy development on the land, and the government has had a history of mismanaging Native American assets by under evaluating them (Five Ways the Government Keeps Native Americans in Poverty). The settlers and current residents of Chase County found that they could not make a living off of their land and either had to sell their land or work for the large land ranching corporations or for the tourism industry. The jobs provided by the large corporate ranchers were few and the typical ranch hand only earns on average $11.12