Land area
Land of the Delaware in Kansas, ceded 1858 (area 317)
- 1854
Set aside as a reservation
- 1858
Earlier terms confirmed
The 1899 record: “Christian Indians sell four sections purchased of the Delawares under treaty of May 6, 1854, and sale confirmed by Congress”
In the record
Inside the 1854 Delaware cession, four sections were confirmed to the Christian (Munsee) Indians, who sold them in 1857; Congress confirmed the sale in 1858. The area covers about 0 thousand acres in what is now Kansas.
The 1899 record names Delaware (Lenape) as the people of this land.
How it was taken: a treaty or agreement. The OSU treaty text records a negotiated cession and payment; the Kansas Historical Society says tribes were 'convinced' to cede in 1854 but does not describe coercion at this treaty.
Today, Delaware Nation (Oklahoma), Delaware Tribe of Indians and Stockbridge Munsee Community carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Working with these nations
- Stockbridge-Munsee Community (Band of Mohican Indians) Nation government 372 acres on Monument Mountain's north slope (finalized Apr 2025; $2.5M, $2.26M state grant)
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 2
- Delaware (Lenape)as named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Delaware Nation (Oklahoma)matched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Agreements recorded for this land 1
- Delaware at Washington, DC (1854)1854suggested
Located in 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1854-05-06primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1854-05-06primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1858-06-08primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Kansas 2 (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 317
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1854-05-06; 1858-06-08
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Delaware
- States
- KS
- Counties
- Leavenworth
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Kansas 2
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium