County of site: Barber County
Location of site: US-160, Memorial Peace Park, 1 mile east of Medicine Lodge
"Before there was a Barber or a Pratt or a Kiowa County, before there were white settlers, Native Americans roamed southern Kansas. They didn’t give up their hunting grounds to the encroachers willingly.
"The most notable effort to bring about peace between the settlers and the five Plains tribes was at the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty in 1867. If it didn’t bring immediate or lasting peace, it did give rise to a tradition that began many years later and continues today.
"During the weekend of Sept. 25-27 a cast of hundreds will present the 25th re-enactment of the settling of the area and the signing of the treaty by the Peace Commission of the United States Government and the five tribes of Plains Indians: the Kiowa, the Comanche, the Kiowa-Apache, the Arapaho and the Cheyenne.
"The event was first commemorated in 1927, with a historical pageant that has been presented periodically since then. The community of Medicine Lodge (population about 2,000) and Barber County (just under 5,000) comes together to plan, present and attend the pageant and associated activities. Many have been involved for generations.
"The community does not, however, have the resources for all the parts — the U.S. Census for 2010 counts only six Native Americans in Medicine Lodge.
"Indians — real, enrolled tribal members — will be represented in activities, and many of them have been involved for generations as well.
"Susan Seal, of rural Sedgwick County, says her people’s motivation for coming to Medicine Lodge in a couple of weeks differs from that of other participants. Some will participate in the Peace Treaty pageant, but the big draw is the pow wow and the dancing.
"About 15 members of her family, descendants of the Kiowa Chief Satanta, will set up an Indian village in the Medicine Lodge City Park and many more will perform traditional dances in a newly-built pow wow pavilion.
"Seal has been coming to the pageant and pow wow since she was 10 years old and her family has been present at all but the first re-enactment.
'“I was excited, going to a strange place, getting to sleep in Grandfather’s teepee,” she said. “I didn’t pay much attention to the cowboys, the hoopla, and what was going on.”
"She recalls waking up before daylight and seeing her grandfather making coffee over an open fire in a little tin pot and the smoke escaping through a hole at the top of the teepee.
'“Everything I loved dearly was there.”
"As she grew older, she dressed in the ceremonial buckskin dress and participated in the dancing. It was an enjoyable time, with friends and family present.
'“Grandfather began telling stories of Medicine Lodge, that it is a sacred place and I needed to listen and pay attention,” she continued. “Our medicine comes from here (the Medicine River). I began to learn the reality of what it means to our people.”
"In a trip to Medicine Lodge just recently, she got to wash her face in the Medicine River — at earlier times when she visited, the bank was too sharp to walk down to the water. The landowner told her that she has the right to go there whenever she wants, she related.
"The pageant, according to the website, compresses 300 years of history into two hours. Coronado is represented, as are Lewis and Clark. The settlers moved west in their wagon trains and the Calvary protected them from Indian attacks. The setting is a natural amphitheater, near the actual site of the peace council.
"While the presentation is based on history, Seal asserts that, “Medicine Lodge was not about settlers, it was a treaty between the Native Americans and the government. That was all that was there.” The treaty was signed in three different places because the Indians didn’t get along. The Kiowa and the Comanche signed at the “sharp-pointed place,” where the Medicine River divides.
"It’s important to her that the history be preserved.
"In 1917, the community of Medicine Lodge first became interested in commemorating the signing of the treaty. World War I delayed progress, but in 1927, the first pageant was presented.
"Seal’s ancestors learned of the pageant, but were not able to be present. When plans were being made for the second performance, in 1932, her great-grandmother decided she was going.
"A tiny woman, the size of a child, according to Seal, she packed up her horse, travois and teepee, and walked, with two children in tow, from the Wichita Mountains near Lawton, Oklahoma, to Medicine Lodge, a distance of 350 to 400 miles.
"Mary Yeagtaupt Buffalo, whose name means “Shooting Both Ways,” was proficient with a rifle and a bow and arrow and knew which wild plants were safe to eat. She packed dried foods, but a lot of what they ate was what she killed or found along the way.
"When her great-grandmother passed, her grandfather and then her mother picked up the tradition to make sure the family attended the celebration.
"As a child, Seal said she did what she was told. Her mother was the one talking to the organizers.
'“We dressed, we went to the pageant, I didn’t butt in unless she beckoned to me,” Seal said.
"As her mother grew older and Seal helped her to walk to meet with organizers, she would be introduced. She knew then that she was being prepared to take over and keep the tradition going. Her mother, Betty Nixon, died in 2013.
"The Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Association has made her people feel welcome and a valued part of the weekend celebration — they’re helping Native Americans preserve traditions, Seal said. There has been some talk about establishing a Native American museum in Medicine Lodge, and of making the pow wow that is a part of pageant activities an annual event.
"Historically and now, a pow wow is a time of celebration — of introducing new members, recognizing birthdays and joining couples together in marriage.
'“It’s about bringing a group of people together to celebrate and embrace our heritage through dance,” Seal said.
'“We enjoy it,” she said. “When it’s all done at night, when the pow wow is over, we sit around the campfire and visit until 2 in the morning, then grab what sleep we can.”
"They will rest when it’s all over, she said.
"Susan Seal was born in 1946 on the Fort Sill military base and moved with her family to the Wichita area during the 1950 “boom years” when the aircraft industry began to take root. She graduated from Wichita State University, and she and husband Michael own an aircraft business.
"She said that her uncle, the artist Blackbear Bosin, aunt Ruby Williams and her mother are three of 15 people who got the Mid-America All Indian Center built in Wichita. Seal and her husband, who is Choctaw, travel and are known throughout the pow wow world." ~ Pratt Tribune, By Carol Bronson, Sept. 19, 2015