Kaw Mission, Council Grove, Kansas Photo Print

"Kaw Mission, Council Grove, Kansas" by Catherine Sherman. A sycamore tree and a white oak shade the historic Kaw Mission in Council Grove, Kansas. Kaw Mission is a historic church mission at 500 N. Mission Street that was home, school and church to 30 Kaw boys from 1851–1854. It is near the Santa Fe Trail in the Flint Hills. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The site is now administered by the Kansas Historical Society as Kaw Mission State Historic Site. The state of Kansas was named for the Kaw (or Kansa). The Santa Fe Trail operated as a commerce route between the Missouri and Mexico. The area that is now Kansas was the western limit of American settlement. Trail traffic headed for the Spanish town of Santa Fe (New Mexico), passed through what is now Council Grove. Situated on the Neosho River, the community was a natural stopping place, with water, grass, and timber. the U.S. government removed the Kaw to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) where they now have tribal lands.