A painting of Chief Wabaunsee, by Charles Bird King

Wabaunsee County

Native Americans

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Wahbahnse, Warrior Chief Of The
Pottawatomie Nation

 (1760's? - 1845?)

The Potawatomi peoples first started coming to Kansas in the 1830s, settling in present-day Linn and Miami counties. In 1848 they moved to new lands west of present-day Topeka. Part of that land is now known as Wabaunsee county, named for the Potawatomi leader Wahbahnse (Nah-Ke-ses).  Wahbahnse was a respected leader among the Potawatomi for whom a village in Iowa was named. One Potawatomi band took its name from that village. Wahbahnse earned his name for exhibiting his bravery. As a young man Wahbahnse set out to avenge the death of a close friend. He used the cover of a misty morning to sneak into an Osage village where he is said to have single-handedly killed several fierce Osage warriors before they could sound an alarm. Wahbahnse's name meant the dawn of the day, or the causer of paleness. He was to say 'When I kill the enemy he turns pale, resembling the first light of the day.' 

Wahbahnse never made it to Kansas. He died in a carriage accident in Washington, DC, while negotiating the treaty that would bring the Potawatomi to Kansas. This overturning of a stage occurred in Ohio. The treaty councils in Washington, D.C., had ended on November 24. The accident probably happened in December, 1845. 

Wahbahnse is the only Native American tribal leader for whom a county in Kansas is named. Within Wabaunsee county a township, a town, a creek, and a lake are also named for the Potawatomi leader.

It is difficult to ascertain the exact spelling of his name.  In several sources you will see it appear as, Wabansi,  or Wabaunsee and even Waubonsie. The above spelling appears in the book "The Life of Wah-bahn-se: The Warrior Chief of the Pottawatamies",  by J. N. Bourassa, a Pottawatomie,  Summer, 1972
 

	TRACKING NATIVE AMERICAN FAMILY HISTORY Curt B. Witcher and George J. Nixon - Extracted from The Source, a publication of Ancestry.com, Inc. and used by permission. Copyright Ancestry.com, Inc., all rights reserved.
	Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, .compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler - Seven volume compilation of U.S. treaties, laws and executive orders pertaining to Native American Indian tribes. The volumes cover U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883 (Volume II) and U.S. laws and executive orders concerning Native Americans from 1871-1970 (Volumes I, III-VII)

The Oregon Trail through Pottawatomie County, by William E. Smith Reprinted from Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1926-1928, Vol. XVII. - THE POTTAWATOMIES page 15-18

In 1837 the United States Government entered into a treaty with five bands of Potawatomi living in the State of Indiana by which it was agreed to convey to them by patent a tract of country on Osage River, southwest of the Missouri, in the present State of Kansas.  TREATY WITH THE POTAWATOMI, 1837 Page 1, Page 2.

	This was set apart the same year and the Indians, the Potawatomi of the Woods, moved into it in 1840, but they ceded it back in 1846 and were given a reserve between the Shawnee and the Delaware, in the present Shawnee County, which they occupied in 1847. By a series of treaties, culminating in the Treaty of Chicago, 1833, the Potawatomi west of Lake Michigan surrendered their lands and received a large tract in southwestern Iowa. Treaty of Chicago, 1833, Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
	They were accompanied by a few Chippewa and Ottawa. In 1846 this reserve was receded to the United States Government and in 1847-48 the Indians, now known as the Prairie Potawatomi, moved to lands in Kansas just east of the lands of the Potawatomi of the Woods. Michigan Potawatomi did not come to this place until 1850. About the end of the Civil War some of the Prairie band moved back to Wisconsin but the greater part of them remained and accepted lands in severalty. In 1869 the Potawatomi of the Woods began a movement to secure lands in Oklahoma, and by 1871 most of them had gone thither.  Treaty With The Potawatomi, 1867  Images:  1   2 | 3 | 4|  5
	Map of the Potawatomi "Trail of Death"  march