How an Explorer's Sore Feet Named the Flint Hills, and Who Lived There First

The Flint Hills got their name from a complaint. In September 1806, Zebulon Pike passed through about ten miles south of the present-day park and wrote in his journal: "Passed very ruff flint hills. My feet blistered and very sore." The American explorer inadvertently coined the term, but people had known the land for thousands of years. A National Park Service article on Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve describes who was there first.

Kansa Chief Wa-shun-gah, c. 1902. Image from the National Park Service's page.

More than 10,000 years

Artifacts found in the Flint Hills region put a human presence there more than 10,000 years ago. By the time European explorers arrived in the mid-1500s, the Pawnee, Wichita, Osage and Kansa already had flourishing grassland cultures and knew the tallgrass prairie well. Many of their adaptations later influenced American settlers and present-day residents.

The hills were once a communal bison hunting ground for the Pawnee, Osage, Wichita and Kansa, who knew the area was good grazing for bison. Flint, or chert, lies close to the surface there, and knapping it (striking the stone to form sharp edges) made arrowheads and other tools.

Fire as a tool

These peoples noticed that bison and other grazing animals were drawn to the tender new growth that came up right after lightning set vast grass fires. They copied the process, setting grass fires of their own to bring grazers to their hunting grounds.

In some ways the Native peoples and the settlers who followed lived alike. Both settled near water. The settlers took up the practice of burning to improve plant growth and to encourage grazing by their cattle. Both cultivated gardens and cropland as extra food. The article says the differences dramatically overshadowed these similarities, often resulting in misunderstanding and violent confrontation.

The Kansa

The Kansa, also called the Kaw or "People of the Southwind," were already established in what later became Kansas as westward expansion continued. The establishment of the Santa Fe Trail increased travel and settlement, and in 1847 the Kaw were removed to reservation lands near Council Grove. Less than 30 years later, over the objections of Kansa Chief Al-le-ga-wa-ho, they were removed from Kansas to what later became Oklahoma, where they live today as the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Collage of two images showing Kansa Chief Al-le-ga-wa-ho, c. 1867 (top), and a group of Kansa (bottom). Image from the National Park Service's page.

Explorers and a name

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was one of the first Europeans to describe the interior of North America in written records, exploring into what is now central Kansas in the middle 1500s. Coronado found no large cities of gold and other riches, and Spain moved south and west into what is now Mexico, bringing the Spanish language, horses, cattle and the foundations of cattle culture to North America.

Today "Flint Hills" refers to a large area of east central Kansas, around 20 to 25 percent of the state. It supports a wide diversity of plants and animals, but early settlers, unaccustomed to its ways, called it part of the "Great American Desert."

Sources

• National Park Service, "Flint Hills First Peoples," Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/flint-hills-first-peoples.htm; rewritten in hubnx's own words.