In response to your question about the Kaw. Both Kansa and Kaw are old
terms used by early French traders. Through most of the 19th century the
"official" designation was Kansa but shortly after the Civil War, the BIA
started using Kaw in its documents, apparently to avoid confusion between
the Kansa people and the "Kansas Indians"...ie any other groups out on the
Kansas plains. When the tribe incorporated, it did so under the name of
the Kaw Tribe.
I also know that the Kaw used to live on the Kaw River, from which it got
its present name, where it meets the Blue Earth River. The Kaw had a
village there called Blue Earth Village around 1800. After the 1845 treaty,
the Kaw gave up their homes in Blue Earth Village and moved to Neosho Valley
around Council Grove, Kansas. White folks started moving into Council Grove
which was ON the Kaw Reservation and refused to move off when the Kaw
protested. After the Civil War, pressure was on to get the lands so in 1873
the Kaw sold the reservation and brought 100, 000 acres from the Osage (who
are also Dhegiha speaking peoples like the Kaw, and long time allies) in
Indian Territory (read Oklahoma) along the Arkansas River. At the time of
removal to the Territory, there were about 500 Kaw on the rolls but due to
illness and misery, the population dropped to about 200 by the turn of the
century.
The Cherokee Commission tried to talk the Kaw into allotment but this was
blocked by the full-bloods...unfortunately, in 1902 the Kaw agreed to
allotment and in 1904 the Kaw Reservation was abolished and the became part
of Kay County, Oklahoma.
Yosah