The wetlands at Haskell Indian Nations University now have interpretive signage to help visitors learn about and engage in the history and significance of the lands.
Community members gathered Friday to view the four signs that Courtney King and Iris Cliff collaborated over the past year to create, with a goal of promoting environmental education on Haskell lands.
King, Peoria and Miami, is a lab and field research assistant at Haskell. Part of her job is restoring the land at Haskell’s prairies, woodlands and wetlands.
“We really wanted to tell the stories of the land first, because a lot of that has kind of gone under the radar over the years,” she said.
“When you come to Haskell you learn little bits of the Haskell history, but there’s no class about it,” said Cliff, who is excited to “finally get these foundational facts out there for people.”
Cliff, Assiniboine and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is a local illustrator and designer.
The signs showcase photos, maps and information “to encourage a deeper appreciation and awareness of the cultural heritage intertwined within the landscapes,” according to the project’s booklet.
The team hopes to include more information about ecology in future signage. Cliff said they look forward to adding a boardwalk and “really make this place feel welcoming and easier to navigate.”
Assimilation and land loss
Haskell was founded in 1884 as the United States Indian Industrial Training School during the assimilation era of federal Indian policy. The Native American children forced to attend the institution were managed militaristically with the explicit goal of eradicating their tribal identities, family bonds, and cultures to assimilate them into the dominant society.
The pioneer of Indian boarding schools, Richard Henry Pratt, made his philosophy of assimilation clear: “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” At least 103 children are buried in the campus cemetery.
As part of its mission of forcefully assimilating Native children, by 1902 Haskell acquired and disrupted 1,011 acres of the Wakarusa Wetlands to establish a farm to be used for agricultural training. The native marshlands were tilled, fertilized and compacted, and “much of the area was converted to non-native grasses for pasture,” according to the “From Wetlands to Woodlands” sign.
Before the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, many aspects of traditional Native American spirituality and ceremonies were prohibited by law, despite First Amendment protections on other groups’ religious and spiritual freedoms.
Children in Indian boarding schools suffered severe punishment for practicing their spirituality, so they would risk sneaking into the wetlands for ceremony. The wetlands also served as a place where parents could secretly visit with their children, as family visits were not allowed by the institution.
A recent survey showed that the wetlands are still a spiritually significant place for Lawrence’s intertribal community, with ceremony and prayer being among the top three reasons for visiting the wetlands. One respondent said that the wetlands are “the only place as an Indigenous woman that I can go and pray.”
In 1933, Henry Roe Cloud, Winnebago, became the first Indigenous superintendent of Haskell. During his tenure, he shifted the institution’s mission “away from assimilation and towards the celebration of Native culture,” according to the “Transformation and Resilience” sign. Haskell’s agricultural training program ended in 1934, and the federal government began leasing the land to farmers and other institutions. By the 1960s, the federal government had given away almost 70% of Haskell’s land to local governments and institutions.
The self-determination era of federal Indian policy began around 1968, which is also when Baker University signed a 30-year quitclaim deed to receive more than 500 acres of the Haskell Wetlands for free.
Since then, the Haskell Board of Regents has sought information about the transfer and have made several requests to have the land returned. However, Baker University retains ownership of the lands to this day.
The “Past and Present” sign is placed on the original location of 31st Street, prior to the development of the South Lawrence Trafficway, which “has negatively impacted a sacred and sensitive ecosystem, demonstrating a disregard for Indigenous Peoples and their heritage,” according to the sign.
Baker transferred 56 acres to the Kansas Department of Transportation for the construction of the South Lawrence Trafficway in 2012. In exchange, KDOT funded Baker’s Discovery Center, along with tools, equipment and funding for maintenance of the facility. Baker’s website says that the “much-needed SLT was completed” thanks to KDOT and Baker University.
In 1993, the school became Haskell Indian Nations University. Around this time, the remaining field drainage from the agricultural program was removed and the Wakarusa River floodplains began to heal. The university now aims to be a place of Indigenous empowerment, built up from a place of literal and cultural death.
The “From Wetlands to Woodlands” sign marks the spot where the Haskell woodlands restoration began. Volunteers removed the invasive honeysuckles that had taken over, and this time last year the ground beneath the trees’ canopy was “completely bare soil,” King said.
King began restoring the lands at Haskell in 2022 and said she’s excited to see how the ecosystem keeps responding to the restoration efforts.
Get involved
The Haskell Greenhouse collaborates with Native Lands Restoration Collaborative, KU Field Station and the Haskell Cultural Center to promote conservation, preservation, and restoration of the land. They hold volunteer workdays where community members can learn and reconnect with culturally significant species.
Email hinugreenhouse@gmail.com for more information.
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Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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