A sacred boulder taken to honor white settlers is leaving Lawrence and returning to the Kaw...

It's been 150 years since the federal government forced the Kaw from the last of their tribal land in Kansas, sending them on a journey to what is now Oklahoma.
LAWRENCE – A massive sacred rock is leaving downtown Lawrence Wednesday on a trip to its new home at the site of the Kaw Nation’s last village in Kansas near Council Grove.

This summer marks 150 years since the federal government forced the tribe’s last residents in Kansas from the state, sending them on a two-week journey to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

The ceremony marked the return of a 28-ton red quartzite boulder to the Kaw people. Descendants of white settlers took the boulder nearly a century ago, placed it in Lawrence and turned it into a monument to the city’s founders.

“White settlers that came into this area were leaving their homelands to escape oppression and suppression — and coming here for freedom,” Kaw Nation Vice Chairman Jim Pepper Henry said after a ceremony in Lawrence on Tuesday. “But we were truly free people and we had our freedom taken away.”