Kiwiktaka Chief of Pawnee

Kiwiktaka, Chief of Pawnee

The Barber County Index, September 29, 1927.
KANSAS PIONEERS
Kiwiktaka, Chief of Pawnee, Deserves Place in History(By Bliss Isley in Wichita Beacon)

Kiwiktaka was a Pawnee chief, whose name cannot be found in the histories taught in our schools, but who by a bold stroke annexed Kansas to the United States. It is commonly said that Kansas was acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, but three years later Thomas Jefferson did not know he had acquired it; neither did the king of Spain know it, nor did Kiwiktaka. Kiwiktaka ought to have known about it if anybody did. He was an old man and the young folks used to ask him about events of past history in Kansas, just as today they ask David D. Leahy or Kos Harris. On a hot day in July, 1806, Kiwiktaka sat in front of his earthen lodge in the sun, glumly watching Spanish troops go through evolutions on the prairie in front of the town where he lived.
The town was known as Pawnee Republic and it was near the site of the present Republic City on the Republican River in what is now Republic County.
Kiwiktaka had all his life held the Spaniards in deep disdain. His earliest recollections were hearing his father and the other old men tell how the Pawnees had whipped the Spaniard under Villazur on the Kansas plains in 1720. Yet despite the whipping, Spaniards continued to come to Kansas where they posed as overlords of the Plains by virtue of the fact that Coronado had discovered Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle and Kansas back in the sixteenth century. While the Spaniards did not actually govern the Plains they traded with the Plains Indians - and claimed the country as theirs.
By the terms of the Louisiana Purchase Napoleon had given the Unites States a quit claim deed to the west bank of the Mississippi River and as much more land as President Jefferson could take from Spain. No boundaries are defined in the treaty and Napoleon told his commissioners not to fix any limits as he hoped in time there would be war over the matter between Spain and the United States and then Spain could not fight France.
Early in 1806 the Spaniards learned an expedition was being planned by the United States government to explore the Plains.
That was the reason for the Spanish troops performing drills in front of the Pawnee village.
The commander of the Spaniards, Don Facundo Malgares, had set out from Santa Fe with 600 men. He moved down the Red River, treating with Comanches, Tonkawas, Wichitas and other tribes on the way and then coming north moved across Kansas to the Pawnee Republic. He left 250 men at the great bend of the Arkansas to recruit the worn out horses.
When he arrived at Kiwiktaka's home town he had 350 men mounted on the best horses and they made a glittering show to the Pawnee.
They impressed every Indian in the town except old Kiwiktaka who was too old to count Sarecherish, a young chief, had shouldered the old man out of first place in council, and what Sarecherish said was the latest word.
After three weeks of feasting and palaver and military evolutions of the prairie, in which the Spaniards showed off to the best advantage, Malgares departed. In departing he presented to Sarecherish a commission as an officer of the Spanish king. It was done on parchment, with a gold seal and ribbons. Sarecherish had never before seen anything half so grand. Then Malgares presented a Spanish flag.
The flag as raised the top of a flag pole which the Spaniards erected, in front of Sarecherish's lodge. As the Spaniards departed, Sarecherish swore that the King of Spain was his great white father and that when the Americans came he would drive them out of the country or kill them.
In September the Americans came - only 22 of them - travel worn, without shinning lances, pennants or armor. But after a few days of palaver, Kiwiktaka was roused to admire these dauntless 22 men.
On September 29, 1806, while in council, Lieut. Zebulon Pike commander of the Americans had pointed to the Spanish flag and demanded its removal.
The demand was astounding in view of the fact that the Pawnee warriors, 400 in number, many of them openly displaying their weapons, were waiting at the council for the signal from Sarecherish which was to have started a massacre.
Pike had been sent west to find the Rocky Mountains, map the country and take possession of it for the United States. In going into the council, he told his men that he was putting up a bold front in the hope that he could overawe the Indians. The men were all resigned to sell their lives, but they had promised Pike that if they died that they would take 100 Pawnees with them.
"You cannot have two fathers," argued Pike to Sarecherish. He ignored the fact that the Pawnees were not trying to have two fathers.
Had Sarecherish given the signal to start the killing the argument with Pike would have been over in a hurry, but he chose to talk some more. For an hour or more Sarecherish and the other chiefs harangued. Once more Pike rose in council and pointing to the flag of Spain, ordered it removed.
Then up rose old Kiwiktaka. His blanket fell from his shoulders and he stood naked grandeur. Going to the flag pole he tugged at the rope. An aspiring young Indian who wanted the favor of Sarecherish made a move as though he would stop Kiwiktaka, but in the council were many old men who in other days had fought with Kiwiktaka in the wars with the Kansas and Osages, and had stolen horses from the Comanches and mules from as far off as the Spanish settlements.
They sprang to the old chief's side, throwing down their blankets ready for war. In the council were sons and grandsons of the old men, who, in case of trouble, would side with the old men. Sarecherish and his followers did not know what to do.
Down came the flag.
Kiwiktaka carried it to Pike who received it and handed the Stars and Stripes to the old chief. Back walked the aged warrior to the flag pole. He attached the flag to the rope, pulled it to the top of the pole and soon it was fluttering to the breeze.
Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States had been recognized by the Pawnees as their Great White Father.
In 1819 as a result of that day's work in 1806, for the sum of $5,000,000 Spain conceded that the western boundary of the United States should be the crest of the Rocky Mountains as far north as the 42nd parallel and then west to the Pacific. Texas, alone of all the Plains country, was retained by Spain. Florida, too, was ceded to the United States as part of the property for which the $5,000,000 was paid.
Following the flag raising at Pawnee Republic. Pike marched southwest to the great bend of the Arkansas, where he decided his little band, sending five men under lieut. James B. Wilkinson to explore the Arkansas down to the settlements. Wilkinson camped at the junction of the Big Arkansas on November 10 of that year.
The Arkansas at that time was a shallow stream full of sand bars just as it is today. Wilkinson attempted to float down the river in a skin boat, which drew only six inches of water, but after several days of carrying it across one sandbar after another he gave up the attempt.
As for Pike he marched west to the Rocky Mountains. Pike's Peak is named in his honor, and the State of Kansas has erected a monument where Kiwiktaka raised the American flag. Pike was killed while leading his troops during the war of 1812.

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