The Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum will hold a screening of a film and a panel discussion as part of an upcoming exhibit highlighting the consequences of Clinton and Kaw Lake to the Indigenous people displaced by their construction.
Claire Cox, museum assistant and historian, serves as project director for a Humanities Kansas grant called “Voices from the Valleys: A Parallel History of Clinton and Kaw Lake.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built hundreds of artificial lakes across Kansas and Oklahoma between 1940 and 1982, damaging ecosystems and forcing displacement of local residents, Cox said.
“Even though peoples of many communities share overlapping experiences with the Corps of Engineers, Indigenous nations have endured the most severe and repeated land losses,” Cox said via email. “The main goal of this project is to bring Indigenous voices, perspectives, and stories into the Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum.”
The event is “part of a larger, collaborative grant project that explores the impact of artificial lakes on Native and non-Native rural communities to highlight an unrecognized parallel history,” Cox said. “By parallel, we mean a history composed of separate, but similar, experiences that connect to each other through a common event, such as the construction of federal reservoirs.”
The screening of “Flooding Kaw Nation” and panel, “Flooded Communities: A Conversation about the Consequences of Clinton and Kaw Lake” are set for 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 23 at the museum, 716 North 1190 Road.
The panel will include the Curtis family, displaced by Clinton Lake; James Pepper Henry, citizen of the Kaw Nation; and Cox. Tai Edwards, professor and director of the Kansas Studies Institute at Johnson County Community College, will moderate.
The museum is open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment. Find more information at wakarusamuseum.org or call 785-783-4420.
The film is part of the Kansas Treaties Project, and it will be streaming for free later this year at kansastreaties.com.
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