THE KANSAS INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN
AND NATIVE-AMERICAN FAMILY HISTORY
This website
concerns: African American history -- especially historic and current
connections with Native Americans-- and social history of the American
Mid-West, family history, and commemorating Kansas history.
(NOTICE: For viewers using a computer, all the links
should open, perhaps in “a new frame,” But, for any that does not open, try using
a control+click procedure. Then, look at the
top of your screen for that new frame and click on it. These links should also
open on an I-Phone.
To join the KIAANAFH download and fill out this form
and send any now voluntary dues and/or contribution
($25/yr is has been our dues in the past) to our
Treasurer.
Make checks payable to “KIAANAFH” -contributions & membership
payments are tax deductable!
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FEATURED ITEMS
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The National Museum of African American
History and Culture (NMAAHC) is proud to present the
next page from Our American Story, an online series for Museum
supporters. We offer these stories to honor and
celebrate the African American experience, share an immensely rich history
and culture, and inspire and sustain our community as we move toward the
future together. The Second Great Awakening, an early
19th-century religious revival in the United States, marked an era of
transformation for America and a new path forward for Jarena Lee. Born into a
free Black family in Cape May, New Jersey, in 1783, Lee navigated the intense
religiosity and social reformation of her time to emerge as the nation’s
first African American woman preacher and the first woman to be recognized as
an evangelist in the male-dominated African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. |
WEBLINK TO THE MUSEUM (copy the following into
your browser)
https://nmaahc.si.edu
OTHER FEATURED STORIES
and LINKS
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In memory of our
beloved Vice-President, the late Rev. Robert L. Baynham:
Rev. Robert Louis Baynham
May 29, 1936 ~ January 23,
2022 (age 85)
Obituary Reflections of Life
Dr Robert L. Baynham, a native of
Kansas City, MO, passed away January 23, 2022. He was God’s servant that was
very passionate about winning the lost and educating people about God’s word.
He was born on May 29, 1936, at General Hospital to Samantha M. Barnes and
shared this special day with his twin sister Roberta L. Baynham.
Dr Baynham attended school in the
Kansas City, Missouri school district and graduated from R.T. Coles Vocational
School. He furthered his education, attending Western Baptist Bible College
Kansas City, Mo, Allen County Community College Iola, KS where he received his
AA Degree, Ottawa University Ottawa, KS where he received his Bachelor’s
Degree, Central Baptist Seminary Kansas City, Mo where he received his Masters
of Divinity, University of Central America Kansas City, MO where he received
his Doctor of Religious Education and he received an Honorary Doctorate of
Divinity Degree from the Western Baptist Bible College Kansas City, MO.
Dr Baynham married Joanna L Jackson on
July 22, 1956, and to their union five daughters and one son were
born: Pamela, Denise, Robert Jr, Rebecca, Nina, and Rachel.
OTHER
FEATURED KIAANAFH
supporters, members & past Board members.
Dr. Amber Reagan-Kendrick
Online Instructor for
English/Subject Matter Expert --Lawrence, Kansas
Dr. Amber Reagan-Kendrick says: “If most of
your stuff is in the wash, wear pajamas, but
accessorize.”
She has an interesting mix of AA and NA ancestors, and
reports the following about this: “My DNA ancestry exhibits only 3 percent of
Native ancestry, which is disappointing. My cousins have more than I. My family’s history
is not as rich as … other folks I have researched. According to my DNA
ancestry, I am also 41 percent African and 56 percent White. My father was a
White man who acknowledged and loved me (I was the “favorite”)…
I have two half brothers (one Black and still
living), another full Black brother deceased, and three half-sisters. That makes
seven of us by my Dad. My mother’s people were poor and uneducated. My
grandmother got as far as fifth grade and my mother had to drop out of high
school. She retired from domestic service. I grew up in South Central LA and
Orange County. I finally realized that there are class differences among us
Black folk, and I am in the lower class. My
mother-in-law pointed out this to me since I had to learn social skills as I
grew as a person. The amazing thing about me is that my mother taught me to
read at age four. Even more amazing is that I achieved my doctorate. I am an
example of a first-generation college graduate.
My great grandmother was the American Indian mixed with White
blood, hence that six percent from my mom’s side, and
this is probably why I have less Native blood since my cousins are not infused
with as much White blood in their veins. I do have regrets, however, that I
could never really write or publish my research. Life happened for me.”
Exerpts from her University of Kansas biography : Amber Reagan-Kendrick earned her bachelors in English and
Spanish from Sam Houston State University. She went on to earn both her masters
in English and her doctorate in American Studies from the University of Kansas.
She was Dean of Student and Community Services at Donnelly College before
working at Ottawa University as assistant professor in English and a senior
adviser at the Adawe Life Plan Center.
Dr. A. R-K PERSONAL PAPERS This collection
consists of dissertation interviews conducted by Amber Reagan-Kendrick while
studying at the University of Kansas. It contains responses from approximately
66 alumni discussing life as African American students at the University of
Kansas through the decades. Questions center on
topics from extracurricular activities to Greek life, athletics, housing,
academia, and awards. Graduation dates of participants began in 1928 and ended
in 1995
Related Materials Reagan-Kendrick, Amber.
"Ninety Years of Struggle and Access: African American History at the
University of Kansas." PhD. dissertation, University of
Kansas. American Studies, 2004. Located at
Spencer Research Library and Anschutz Library at Diss
2004 R2879.
Other Featured items:
Recent
CSPAN program on the history of the
U.S. NativeAmerican Boarding Schools programs
Program from Aug. 21 2022: click on the link in the program
title below, for access to the posted online recording of this important
program:
Interior
Secretary & Native Leaders Testify on Indian Boarding Schools 2 hours, 5 minutes
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Indian
leaders testified about the damage done by federal Native American boarding
schools created to acculturate native children starting in the 1870s. The
witnesses told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee how the schools resulted in
a loss of culture and language for tribes across the U.S., and they spoke about
ways Congress could better assist tribal nations in sharing this history and
repairing the damage done by removing native children from their parents.
========= For a general listing of CSPAN programs, go onlineto the CSPAN webpage.
Email
re current tribal membership issues;
TO: AAHGS-NE Members
From: Beverly Hector-Smith Sent: Mon, Jul 18, 2022 6:29 pm
Subject: When Tribal Nations Expel Their Black Members | The New Yorker
"Last year, the Cherokee Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee
Nation must remove the phrase “by blood” from its constitution and its laws. In
the court’s opinion, Justice Shawna Baker wrote, “Freedmen rights are inherent.
They extend to descendants of Freedmen as a birthright
springing from their ancestors’ oppression and displacement as people of color recorded and memorialized in Article 9 of the 1866
Treaty.” The ruling followed a 2017 U.S. district-court decision that affirmed freedpeople’s rights under the same treaty. Despite
continued controversy, many heralded the change as a manifestation of Cherokee
sovereignty, expressing an Indigenous political will to attend to a troubled
past. Certain members of the Five Tribes have quietly voiced similar
sentiments, and a comparable decision may lie in the Muscogees’
future. Such a reversal can no longer provide solace to Johnnie Mae Austin, but
there are others who share her experience of exclusion—others who still check
their mailboxes for the return of a tribal newsletter."
Other
newspaper stories!
from
NewYork Times Dec. 28, 2021 :
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ALSO, another aspect of NA history that needs
to be remembered:
From Boston Globe 5/2/2021 Tribes grapple with their role in slavery
By Sean Murphy,
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — As the
United States faces a reckoning over its history of racism, some Native
American tribal nations that once enslaved people also are reckoning with their
mistreatment of Black people.
When Native American
tribes were forced from their ancestral homelands in the southeastern
United States to what is now Oklahoma in the 1800s — known as the Trail of
Tears — thousands of Black slaves owned by tribal members also were removed and
forced to provide manual labor along the way. Once in
Oklahoma, enslaved people often toiled on plantation-style farms or were
servants in tribal members’ homes.
Nearly 200 years later,
many of the thousands of descendants of those enslaved Black people, known as
Freedmen, are still fighting to be recognized by the tribes that once owned
their ancestors. The fight has continued since a Minneapolis police officer
killed George Floyd last year and spurred a re-examination of the vestiges of
slavery in the United States.
The Cherokee,
Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole
nations were referred to historically as the Five Civilized Tribes, or Five
Tribes, by European settlers because they often assimilated into the settlers’
culture, adopting their style of dress and religion, and even enslaving people.
Each tribe also has a unique history with Freedmen, whose rights were
ultimately spelled out in separate treaties with the United States.
Today, the Cherokee
Nation is the only tribe that fully recognizes the Freedmen as full citizens, a
decision that came in 2017 following years of legal wrangling. “I think that we
are a better tribe for having not only embraced the federal court decision but
embraced the concept of equality,’’ said Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., a longtime supporter
of citizenship rights for the Freedmen.
The Cherokee Nation,
among the largest Native American tribes, has about 5,800 Freedmen citizens who
have traced an ancestor on the tribe’s original Freedmen rolls in the late 19th
century. When the federal government sought to break up tribal reservations
into individual allotments after the Civil War, they created two separate
tribal rolls — one for members with American Indian blood and one for Freedmen.
In many cases, tribal citizens who appeared Black were placed on the Freedmen
rolls, even if they had blood ties to the tribe.
Of the Five Tribes,
only the Chickasaw Nation never agreed to adopt the Freedmen as citizens,
according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The Wewoka-based
Seminole Nation in particular faces fierce criticism after several Black tribal
citizens were denied COVID-19 vaccines at a federally operated American Indian
health clinic. The Seminole Nation says the decision about whether to provide
vaccines to Seminole Freedmen rests with the IHS, not the tribe.
“To be clear, the
Seminole Nation does not operate the Wewoka Indian Health Services clinic, has
absolutely no policy oversight and was in no way involved with administering
COVID-19 vaccines,’’ Seminole Nation Chief Greg Chilcoat
said in a statement. The agency said in a statement that it was reviewing
eligibility of Seminole Freedmen and will be working with the tribe to
determine what services IHS will provide. Seminole Freedmen say they are also
unable to receive services other tribal citizens get, including health care,
tribal license plates and housing subsidies.
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Implication for general
U.S. race-relations of some of the history of relationships between Blacks and
Indians – click on this website link
MIT Panel on
Minorities in the US
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African Native
American Genealogy Forum for all topics on Black/Indian
connections, especially the recent controversies regarding restoration of
historic citizenship rights for "Freedman"
Freedmen
Descendants of the 5 Tribes website
OTHER IMPORTANT BOOKS ON THESE
RELATIONSHIPS
Professor ROSALYN HOWARD was an Associate
Professor of Anthropology at the University of Central
Florida (UCF). She specializes in Cultural Anthropology and her primary area of
research is ethnohistorical studies of the African
Diaspora with a focus on the interrelationships formed by African and
Indigenous peoples in the Americas and the Caribbean. Dr.
Howard has conducted extensive research among mixed Native-African populations
in The Bahamas and Bermuda. Among her publications is the book entitled Black
Seminoles in the Bahamas, an ethnographic study of the Black Seminole
descendant community of Red Bays, Andros Island, Bahamas.
Dr. Howard is also a member of a public
anthropology research project entitled “Looking for Angola” currently compiling
archaeological, cultural, and archival evidence of an early 19th century
Florida maroon community, formerly located near present-day Sarasota, Florida,
which has a direct connection to Red Bays (www.lookingforangola.org). Prof. Howard is also a consultant to
the Cultural Heritage tourism project (co-sponsored by the State of Florida and
The Bahamas Ministries of Culture and Tourism) that connects the Red Bays
community to the Gullah corridor of South Carolina and Georgia, and Fort Mose near St. Augustine, Florida.
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ANOTHER FEATURED BOOK:
NEARING PALENQUE: Reflections on Native
America
– New and Selected Poems
by Tom Jones
(ISBN 978-0-931053-95-5) $16.00
published by FootHills Publishing
P.O.Box 68
Kanona, NY 14856
www.foothillspublishing.com
This marvellous book contains many unusual poems by
Tom Jones, some inspired by his family history.
Here is one, titled “UNCONQUERED AMERICANS”
“Great-grandmother shared the Salt Clan’s hideout
during Kit
Carson’s war on Navajos, their land,
bluecoats
torturing, murdering Diné:
torching peach
orchards in Canyon de Chelly
Great-grandfather learned trails to secret pools
and grottos,
hidden caves and ambush spots
in the ancient,
sacred source Anglo-named
Grand Canyon, warrior with a free band”
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OTHER featured NEWS
US Supreme Court favors
Muscogee Creek land
claims
(click on NYTimes link BELOW for story)
Among its last rulings, the court handed Native Americans
their biggest legal victory in decades when it ruled that much of eastern
Oklahoma had long been a reservation of the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation. For the Muscogee citizens, the win
was deeply personal For for the NYTimes story, click here.
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FEATURED FAMILIES
CHARLES MCAFEE
“Considered one of the most important African American
architect in the United States, Charles McAfee of Wichita, Kansas, has used
architecture to create opportunities for African Americans and make social
commentary about racial inequality.” (The History Makers) To visit several websites featuring Charles McAfee, open this file, CLICK HERE
and if links don’t open with control-click, copy webaddresses
into your browser address
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Edith Walker’s Kansas
pioneer family
click
Here for
Matin's introduction of Edith Walker,
and click here
for Edith Walker's presentation.
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Some HARDIN and JOHNSON
FAMILIES of Leavenworth, KS background
Johnson
and Hardin families
“The
Leavenworth Johnsons” descend from a “Madagascar woman” enslaved in Vicksburg
Mississippi, whose daughter “Betty” (from Elizabeth) had a son Joseph, and a daughter Carrie (from Catherine), fathered
perhaps by a member of the owner Butler
family headed by the slave-owning physician to local Native Americans.
Joseph,
who married Hattie McClanahan, had many children, including Myrtle, who married
Carl Russle Hardin, from whom the Hardin family of
Michigan and California descend. Joseph
and Hattie’s son Willard (Sr.) married Dorothy Stovall (of Humboldt KS) from whom one
branch of the Pasadena Johnsons descend.
Carrie also married a Johnson, and had a son James who married Florence (? Family name) from whom Edward
Johnson and his Pasadena family descend.
The
Hardin descendants
have teamed with some of Edward Johnson descendants to
self-published an interesting photo book of
“The Leavenworth Johnsons,”
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OTHER FEATURED ITEMS
AND LINKS:
Key early Community-building African American organizations and
people of
North-East
Kansas City, KS:
by the late Rev. Robert L. Baynham,
former Pastor of the Metropolitan Church
for video, click here
The
"Bleeding Kansas Heritage Area Project"
now transformed into the
Freedom's Frontier National Heritage
Area (click here for its website)
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OTHER FAMILIES
Obituary about a
prominent member of a Wichita family
June Bacon-Bercey, pathbreaking TV meteorologist, dies at 90.
She was a pathbreaking meteorologist with
Wichita roots |
[From The Wichita Eagle, January 9 2020 , Local Obituaries, original copy from obituary
By Daniel E. Slotnik,
New York Times January 08, 2020] Undated photo provided via Dail St.Claire
June
Bacon-Bercey was the first African American woman to
deliver weather forecasts on American television as a trained meteorologist.
Before her marriage, she had studied math at Friends
University in Wichita before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
meteorology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in the mid-1950s.
After graduating, she worked at the National Meteorological Center
in Washington and then for the Atomic Energy Commission and the Sperry Rand
Corp. In 1979 she earned a master’s degree in public administration from the
University of Southern California’s journalism school. She was one of the African American pioneers on television, irrespective of gender.
In 1972, the American Meteorological Society
awarded Bacon-Bercey its “Seal of Approval,” given
for excellence in on-air meteorology. She was the first African American and
the first woman to receive that honor. A year later, she left WGR to become a public
speaker. She later worked for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. She has
also personally endowed a scholarship through the American Geophysical Union
for women to study atmospheric sciences. For the full obituary story click
here
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FEATURED FOR SUGGESTED
READING:
Quotes from Jack D Forbes book: AFRICANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS: The
Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples, University of
Illinois Press 1993
(p270-3) “By the nineteenth century it seems quite certain that Afroamericans, (sic) whether living in Latin America, the
Caribbean or in North America, had absorbed considerable amounts of Native
American ancestry. Similarly, many North
American and circum-Carobbean (sic) native groups had
absorbed varying amounts of African ancestry, from New England to the entire
rim of Central and South America... [they] might have varying amounts of
African and American ancestry derived at different intervals and from extremely
diverse sources – as from American nations as different as the Narragansett or
Pequot and the Carib or Arawak, or from African nations as diverse as the
Mandinka, Yoruba, and Malagasy.”
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OTHER FEATURED PREVIOUS
NEWS
Honoring Native American Heritage Month in Oklahoma
Tuesday, November 19,
2019 Re: Cherokee Nation items on this
commemoration, click on next link for
website of Cherokee.org November is a significant
time for the Cherokee Nation and other tribal nations across the United States.
This is the time that we commemorate (click > for online story) Native American Heritage Month.
FEATURED PREVIOUS
PROGRAM:
VIDEO of
the Humboldt, Kansas ceremony from June, 2000, commemorating "THE GREAT
ESCAPE" of Indians and Blacks over "The Trail of Blood on Ice"
from "Indian Territory" (now Oklahoma) to Kansas.
This
1861/2 flight was led by the Muskogee leader Opothleyahola
and reflected a "comrades in arms"
collaboration between many thousands of Native Americans and
hundreds of African Americans to escape slavery and/or the Confederacy.
Click here for the introduction to our
DVD
on
the complete ceremony. Please note that all the video footage on this ceremony
is under copyright protection by the KIAANAFH and may not legally be reproduced
without our permission. Click HERE
for video footage of the opening of the ceremony and the speech by the Muskogee
Creek Indian Nation's Principal Chief, Mr. R. Perry Beaver, and the first half
of the presensation by KIAANAFH President Prof.
Willard R Johnson. CLICK
HERE
for the completion of Johnson's presentation, and other speakers about the
experience of the refugees.
CLICK HERE for PART
THREE
to continue the presentations by descendants of the refugees and of some of the
principal figures in the story of the Great Escape.
CLICK
HERE for PART FOUR to complete the presentations by
descendants, including direct descendants of Opothleyahola
and other leaders of that time. (See near the very bottom of this web page for more
material on this event.)
More
information on the GREAT ESCAPE program is near the bottom of this website.
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OTHER FEATURED FAMILIES
The
Fort Scott KS family members for Mr. Lyle Gibson
