Passing of Last Kaw Full-Blood

[Horseshoe Man]

Last pure-blooded Kaw Indian dies

April 27, 2000
Web posted at: 11:34 AM EDT (1534 GMT)

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- The last pure-blooded member of the Kaw Nation,
the tribe that gave the state of Kansas its name, has died at age 82.

William Mehojah, who died Sunday, was one of only about 2,500 people on
Kaw Nation tribal rolls. Most have only a fraction of Kaw blood.

The tribe -- previously known as the Konza, Kanza or Kansa -- at one
time stretched over 20 million acres across northern Kansas into
Nebraska and Missouri. By 1825, westward expansion reduced that land to
2 million acres. The tribe moved to what is now the Kansas, or Kaw,
River valley in the early 1800s.

In 1873, the federal government moved the tribe to a 100,000-acre
reservation in northern Oklahoma. By this time disease had reduced the
number of Kaw to about 700, said JoAnn Obregon, a member of the Kaw
executive council. About 600 live on the former reservation land today.

Only four pure-blooded Kaw were left five years ago: Mehojah, his
brother and two nephews. Mehoja's last surviving nephew died two years
ago.

Mehojah served in the Army during World War II, then worked for 35 years
with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Montana, the Dakotas, Idaho and
Arizona, where he retired in 1976.

He and his wife, Fredericka, moved to Omaha a year ago to be closer to
their daughter, the Rev. Sandra Mehojah, project coordinator for the
Omaha School  District's Indian education office.

Survivors include his wife and three children.