KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As families seek answers, the Kansas Historical Society is moving forward with plans to search the grounds of Johnson County’s Shawnee Indian Mission to discover whether children were buried there.
The Shawnee Tribe and others have been calling on federal and local leaders to investigate the former boarding school in Fairway, which is now a state historic site, at 3403 W. 53rd St., off Mission Road. The mission housed students from several tribes and forced them to perform manual labor, stripping children away from their families with the intent of assimilating them into white American culture and Christianity.
Historical records, city leaders say, show that four Native American students were reported to have died while attending the school. But records are sparse, and some believe there are likely other unreported deaths and unmarked graves.
