Prior to European settlement of this place called Kansas, native tribes were very aware of tribal locations and the boundaries that divided them. Those boundaries began to change as settlement from the east pressed against tribal territory in 1825.

Four years earlier, the attraction of trade in Santa Fe brought the first penetration of an established “road” across the prairies. President James Monroe authorized $10,000 to mark a road from Missouri to the New Mexican border on March 3, 1825.

Two weeks later, March 16, under the administration of President John Quincy Adams appointed Santa Fe Road Commissioners Benjamin H. Reeves, Pierre Menard, and George C. Sibley. Menard later resigned and was replaced by Thomas Mather.

Establishing an official road meant gaining “right-of-way” from the Osage and Kansa tribes over which the road passed. Apparently, the territories of the wild western tribes were not recognized by the government. The border with New Mexico had been established at the 100th meridian by a treaty with Spain in 1819, but never officially marked. That was somewhat accomplished by U. S. surveyor John C. Brown during the Santa Fe Road Commission during the 1825 survey.

Unfortunately, the longitude measurement of Fort Osage, Brown’s starting point, was incorrect. He was 35 miles west of the actual 100th meridian (present-day Dodge City), but the error was shortly corrected.

Meanwhile, the government was planning the removal of eastern tribes to make way for developing settlement. Reverend Isaac McCoy envisioned an “Indian Canaan ... beyond the frontiers of White settlement,” where they could become farmers and Christians through government funded “civilization programs.”

To make room for the resettled tribes, the Kansa and Osage, through treaty negotiations, were moved west to open the eastern portion of “Kansas” for the incoming eastern tribes. Lands in present-day Oklahoma were included in the plan.

Angus L. Langham began the necessary survey in August of 1826. New boundaries for the Kansa and half-breed reserves were his first objective. Langham and his assistant Thomas Swearingen spent the summer surveying onemile square section lines to establish order to the reserve system. “Old Bill” Williams who had been with the Santa Fe Road Commission served as guide and interpreter. A team of eight workers supported the project. The survey team spent the winter on Heart River (four miles north of present-day Topeka) with “a small guard of infantry.” Heart River thereafter became known as Soldier Creek.

With the arrival of the spring of 1827, Langham’s survey party crossed over to the south side of the Kansas River to complete the survey of the Kansa reserve. On May 14, 1827, the northeast corner of the Osage reserve was determined. From that point south they intended to survey fifty miles along the east line. But a few days into the survey “a large party of naked, painted, yelling Osages” charged through the camp on horseback. Much of the equipment was destroyed, and following a terrifying war dance the Osage demand for withdrawal was obeyed.

Rev. McCoy’s envisioned Indian Canaan began to take shape in 1828 with two expeditions. Tribal delegations accompanied him to locate potential reserves in the new territory. That same year Langham returned to survey lands for small bands that were already relocating from southwest Missouri.

The surveys were falling behind. Even before President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830, tribes were shifting homelands like so many dominoes. Rev. McCoy had hoped that he might be chosen to guide the resettlement program. The best interest of tribal people was at stake, but he was passed over for the position of commissioner. Instead, McCoy was charged with completing the survey between the Missouri state line on the east and the Kansa and Osage reserves on the west.

McCoy returned to Kansas in late August, 1830. The survey party including two sons, Rice and John C. McCoy, Their tasks included marking the boundaries of Cantonment Leavenworth, as well as the survey of Indian lands. The survey would have been a routine exercise, if not for an “outlet’ across Pawnee territory. The outlet was planned to allow the Delaware hunting free access to the great buffalo range of the plains.

Unfortunately, Angus Langham had mislocated the northeast corner of the Osage reserve in his 1827 survey. The Osage recognized the mistake at the time and as it turned out that was the reason they had run Langham’s survey party out of the territory. Lanham’s mistake meant that the Delaware outlet, as surveyed, led the Delaware and other new tribal hunters into the middle of traditional Pawnee hunting lands. The mistake resulted in many years of conflict between the Pawnees and the new tribes from the east.

McCoy’s goal of a separate Indian state faltered from the beginning. The reserves would prove to be only a temporary solution instead of the independent Indian Canaan Rev. McCoy had hoped for on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st RD Geneseo, KS. Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@ kans.com.