KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas House Committee on Federal and State Affairs has scheduled a hearing next week that could decide the fate of a long-running dispute over who should control the historic Shawnee Indian Mission site in Fairway.
House Bill 2208 was introduced in the committee in January 2023 but stalled there for the remainder of the session.
The bill will come up for committee discussion at a hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 24, in the Kansas Capitol.
At issue is who should control the land of the site. Currently, the state of Kansas owns the land. The legislation proposes conveying the land to one of three Shawnee Tribes based in Oklahoma.
Fairway and the Shawnee tribe have gone back and forth in recent years over who best can preserve the site, which is the only National Historic Landmark in Johnson County and a Kansas State Historic Site.
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On Friday, the City of Fairway sent a “special announcement” regarding next week’s hearing.
Fairway has maintained its opposition to convey the land to the tribe during course of the debate. In Friday’s e-mail, the city cited concerns on if the tribe would continue to make the site’s history available to the public, what the tribe might do with the land in the future, and a lack of “fact-based educational opportunities for future generations.”
In a statement to KSHB 41 News, Shawnee tribe Chief Benjamin Barnes said he looks forward to sharing the tribe's plans to "protect and preserve" the site as part of Wednesday's committee hearing.
"The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School is an important National Historic Landmark that should be a place where visitors can learn about the site's history as a Native American boarding school and its unique contributions to Kansas history," Barnes said. "Unfortunately, years of mismanagement have left the site in deep physical distress, with only one of three historical buildings open to the public and minimal educational offerings."
“If the Kansas Legislature gives the site away, they are giving away educational opportunities for generations to come,” Fairway wrote in the letter. “The consequences of a potential conveyance of the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark would be immediate and likely everlasting.”
Barnes says the Shawnee tribe is "fully committed" to restoring the site and "expanding the historical exhibits to ensure that the public benefits from a wide range of rich historical education opportunities for generations to come."
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