January 29, 2018
You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County
Historical Society.
Today is the
birthday or anniversary of when Kansas became the 34th state to
enter the Union in 1861. The state was named for a tribe of Native Americans,
which occupied a large part of what is now the eastern half of the state. The tribe was of the Dakota group, which was
a subculture of the Sioux. The Dakotas came down from the north-central part of
the continent.
Early French explorers called them the Kansa. The first maps
and early workings of French explorers who visited the Louisiana Territory,
spelled the tribe’s name as C-A-N-S-E-Z.
Other spellings included K-O-N-Z-A, K-A-N-Z-A-S, C-A-N-Z-A and
others. The letter K at the beginning of
the word marks the dropping out of the French influence in the writing of the
name. Since 1803, the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the spelling with the C
practically never appears.
It is true that Kansas (spelled
K-A-N-S-A-S) was named for the dominant Indian tribe of the territory when it
was first traversed by white men and it is spelled as it is today, because
somebody made an error and wrote it that way using an S instead of a Z. It is
possible that the letter Z was included in early spellings to best express the
sound made to correctly pronounce the name of our state as Kansas.
Anyway, no matter how Kansas WAS
spelled, today marks the 157th anniversary or birthday of becoming a
state. Happy Birthday, Kansas – from the
Geary County Historical Society.
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