Kaw Mission Council
The September Kaw Mission Council will be held at 2 p.m., Sunday, September 17, at The Carnegie, located at 303 West Main Street in Council Grove. The Program will be “Last Stand at Rebel Creek: The Osage as Union Allies in Civil War Kansas” The program will be presented by Isaias McCaffery. McCaffery earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Kansas in 1999. He is professor of history at Independence Community College and adjunct professor of history for Southern New Hampshire University. His current research interests include racial/ethnic communities on the Central Plains, including the Osage Nation, Low German-speaking immigrants, Greek Americans, and (See Kaw Mission Council, Page 4) African Americans. His most recent article in Kansas History is entitled “Before the Powwow: Native American Dance as Spectacle in Early Kansas, 1855 - 1910.” Mc-Caffery is a longtime member of the Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau and a board member of the Independence Historical Museum and Art Center As conflicts between states increased during the Civil War, both the Union and the Confederacy tried to use the Osage to achieve their own aims. Initially divided over how their people should respond in the face of escalating struggles, the Osage eventually emerged as important allies of the Union forces, thwarting an 1863 Confederate expedition tasked with reviving Southern resistance in Colorado and New Mexico territories. This presentation explores the Osage contributions to the Union cause in Kansas during the Civil War.




