Eudora Community Heritage of Our USA Bicentennial, 1776-1976
History Committee, Eudora Becentennial Committee, 1977

Pages 6-11

INDIAN LANDS

The Kanza Indians, who were the native inhabitants of northeast Kansas, were of Siouan linguistic stock, having permanent villages, cornfields and gardens along the fertile river valleys of the State of Kansas. They also hunted for meat.

The United States government adopted a plan by the mid 1820's to remove Indians from east of the Mississippi River to the "vacant" lands in the west. (The lands were not vacant but were less populated and the white man kept wanting more land, as more people came to America for freedom from persecution in Europe.) The government called it "for humanitarian and political reasons"!

A treaty with the Kanza and Osage Indians (in the southeast part of the state) in 1825 restricted their territory. This led to unclaimed land west of the Missouri river. President Jackson's Indian Policy proposed voluntary emigration of the East Indians to the land west of the Mississippi river, acted on by Congress May 28, 1830 with Indians north of Ohio to relocate in Territorial Kansas reservations which were offered to 27 Tribes, including the Shawnee.

THE SHAWNEE INDIAN TRIBE

The Shawnee Indian Tribes were settled in the eastern part of North America forested areas of Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, since the mid-1700's. They spoke the Algonquian language and were tribally related to the Sauk and the Fox Tribes.

Most Shawnees had migrated west to Ohio by 1786 when the Government moved the Indians west of the Mississippi river, by the Indian Removal Acto of 1830, when they were forced to the smaller reservation in Kansas.

Chief Cornstalk and Chief Tecumseh struggled to hold their land (Battle of Tippecanoe) but were defeated. The Shawnee Prophet, brother of Tecumseh, peacefully accepted the proposition.

The United Tribe of Shawnees started coming to Kansas in 1825 to the Shawnee Township, Wyandotte County. By 1828 most were moved, but much of the Tribe of the Fish came in 1831. The Fish Tribe had children educated in a Friend's Mission school in Ohio. The Shawnee Indian Chief, Paschal Fish, Sr., was white and raised with Indians.

The Shawnee Reservation was from the Missouri River on the east, to the Republican River on the west, south of the Kansas River, about 150 miles long and 20 to 30 miles wide. It was almost the same size as the Delaware reservation on the north side of the Kaw River. The Reservation included a quarter of Shawnee County and Geary Counties, one third of Morris County, half of Waubaunsee, one-fifth of northern Franklin and Miami counties and all of Douglas and Johnson counties.

The Fish Tribe settled near Kansas City before moving to Eudora. At Shawnee Mission, called Johnson's Mission at first, the Fish family helped at the school operated by the Methodist Church, 1830-1862, arriving with 40 Indians and five whites. Paschal Fish, Sr., died there in 1834.

THE FISH TRIBE

The namesake of Paschal Fish, Sr., assumed leadership of the Fish Tribe at age 33. Paschal, Jr., was also known by his white name of Andrew Jackson. Pashal is not an Indian name but means Easter or Passion, and could have been given him at the Friends Mission school he attended in Ohio. Paschal was also spelled Pascel, Pascal, Paschall, Pasqual and Pescel. He was listed on the 1854 Indian census rolls for the Shawnee Tribe as 50 years of age. He had a wife, Martha, age 40, son Obadiah age 12 years, Eudora (Udora) age 9, and Leander Jackson age 7. In 1860 Mary T. was listed as a member of the family of the original deed in Eudora, so may have been born after the census. Paschal also had a foster son, an orphan, who came here and received the same portion of land as his own children, according to an early deed and abstract. His first one or two wives apparently died and he married Mary Ann Steele (nee McClure). A daughter, Jane Q. was born, but died in 1873.

Paschal's brother Charles also lived here and was 41 years old on the census roll. He must have been married and had a child, as early city records list him paying a fine for a child in 1862 and 1864. A Jesse Fish paid $3.00 in 1863 and no mention of any relationship to Paschal or Charles. John also lived here and was an influential member of the Tribe. There was also a Julia Fish, who was the wife of Leander Jackson.

In 1837-38 Paschal was listed as a blacksmith and gunsmith assistant at Fort Leavenworth. In 1847-52 he served preaching assignments in Eudora, Shawnee Mission and the Kickapoo Mission (near Weston, Mo.).

Northern Methodist Church Shawnee Indian members of Shawnee Mission who came to Eudora area were the Fish family, James Captain, Wm. Rogers, Crane, Parks, (Joe and Wm.) and the Bluejackets (Chas., Geo. and Henry.)

Paschal and other prominent Indians kept open house for early day travelers to and through Eudora on the Westport-Fremont Trail from the northeast and from the Oregon trail on the southeast, going west to Lawrence, Oregon and California.

Paschal Fish has been described as kind, friendly, educated, speaking English well, but sometimes signed his name with an X. On the Eudora deed when he sold to the German Settlement Society he wrote legibly. He probably moved to this area in the 1840's, although the land here was not given to Tribe members until the Treaty of May 10, 1854, when the Government provided 200 acres to each member of the chief's family, to be selected from the Shawnee reservation. Paschal chose 1172 1/2 acres, where the Wakarusa river joins the Kaw. They were given the right to sell their land, and he sold 774 1/2 acres in 1857 to Chicago Settlement Company.

Pashal and brother Charles operated a ferry boat across the Kansas River near the mouth of the Wakarusa. The legislature licensed him to operate the ferry a mile up and a mile down stream. DeSoto had the next ferry to the east. In 1846 a portion of Doniphan's expedition to Mexico crossed the river at Eudora on a ferry. His home was said to be where the Bob Lothholz's live, 1 mile east. These ferry boats were large flat scows (or piroughs) manned by Indians dressed in colorful shirts, shawls and headbands.

In 1854 Paschal Fish built a thatched roof hotel (store, tavern, Inn), called the Fish House, located on the 1857 Territorial Map. It was about a mile south of the river in Block no. 154, Lot no. 9 at about 17th and Main St. on the property recently sold by Mrs. Francis Skinner, half to the Highway Department for the new no. 10 highway and half to a builder. The Fish House provided meager accommodations to travelers on the early trails. An early account of an overnight stay says the sleeping room was 16' x 16' with 32 people sleeping in a mass on the floor. There was one bed with prairie hay mattress, six chairs and a fireplace, and it was overcrowded! Bedding was buffalo hides or bedding from wagons. The Territorial Governor of Kansas, Andrew Redder had to go south to Blanton's Bridge to cross, due to high water on Wakarusa and a Company of pro-slavery men at Franklin. He reached the Fish House at daylight, hiding his horse and carriage and staying hid. He left the next day. The hotel was a polling place in 1855. Reports reveal a blacksmith shop and grocery or general store in connection with the hotel. The building was later enlarged.

City records state that Paschal Fish went to Washington D.C. for the city, after Eudora was settled. Also there was Chief Johnny Cake living in Eudora area who went to see "the Great White Father", according to an article written by Mary E. Mosher, who lived here in 1865-66. There was also an interpreter, Charlie King, who could have been Charlie Fish. She wrote that a number of the Indians lived in houses of the best class, spoke good English, being educated in Mission schools.

Under Other Flags / Indian Lands / Oregon Trail / Mission / Becomes a City / Sad Years / Railroads / Business / Education
Published by West Junior High, NEH project, with permission of the Eudora Community Heritage, History Committee, Eudora Bicentennial Commission, 1977.