Hi, All. I saw this on the Kansas list and thought you might be interested. Harriette >http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Obit-Kaw-Indian.html > >April 27, 2000 > >Last Pure-Blooded Kaw Indian Dies > >Filed at 11:03 a.m. EDT > >By The Associated Press > >OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- The last pure-blooded member of the Kaw Nation, >the tribe that gave the state of Kansas its name, has died at age 82. > >William Mehojah, who died Sunday, was one of only about 2,500 people >on Kaw Nation tribal rolls. Most have only a fraction of Kaw blood. > >The tribe -- previously known as the Konza, Kanza or Kansa -- at one >time stretched over 20 million acres across northern Kansas into >Nebraska and Missouri. By 1825, westward expansion reduced that land >to 2 million acres. The tribe moved to what is now the Kansas, or Kaw, >River valley in the early 1800s. > >In 1873, the federal government moved the tribe to a 100,000-acre >reservation in northern Oklahoma. By this time disease had reduced the >number of Kaw to about 700, said JoAnn Obregon, a member of the Kaw >executive council. About 600 live on the former reservation land today. > >Only four pure-blooded Kaw were left five years ago: Mehojah, his >brother and two nephews. Mehoja's last surviving nephew died two >years ago. > >Mehojah served in the Army during World War II, then worked for 35 >years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Montana, the Dakotas, Idaho >and Arizona, where he retired in 1976. > >He and his wife, Fredericka, moved to Omaha a year ago to be closer to >their daughter, the Rev. Sandra Mehojah, project coordinator for the >Omaha School District's Indian education office. > >Survivors include his wife and three children. > ============================================================ Hoisington Family Web Site <http://www.genweb.net/~hoisington/index.htm> Sumner Co. KS <http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/sumner/index.html> Kay Co. OK <http://www.rootsweb.com/~okkay/okkay.htm> SURNAMES: HOISINGTON (w/28 variant spellings) anywhere, HATFIELD (OH>IN>IA> KS>OK), HARDIN (MO>OK), DAVIS (Posey Co. IN), MORRIS (KS), COMBS (KY,IN,KS,OK, CA), JONES (Brown Co. OH), PERKINS (VT>IA>KS>OK>TX), LATHAM (MO)