The Kansas/Nebraska Debate: Finding where Zebulon Pike visited the Pawnee

This Day in Kansas History

Drawing of Zebulon Pike presenting the Pawnee with an American flag.

If you have ever traveled through the Kansas town of Republic, then you have no doubt seen the Pawnee Indian Museum and the white granite monument just outside the city. The monument was erected in honor of an event that didn’t even happen in the state. However, it was so widely believed that it had occurred here that it has become a Kansas legend. This event is the visit of renowned explorer Zebulon Pike to a Pawnee Indian village in 1806. Pike’s exploration of Kansas was part of his second expedition. In July 1806 he set out from St. Louis, MO on what would become known as his “Arkansaw Journey”. His route would take him west along the Missouri River to the Osage River. The party traveled overland through Kansas until they reached a Pawnee Indian village near what is today the Kansas-Nebraska border. To the white man it was known as the Republican Pawnee, the Kitkechahki band inhabited several of the Historic Villages near the border area. Just days before Pike arrived the village was visited by Spanish Lieutenant Facundo Melgares and over 300 Spanish soldiers. He left many gifts including the Spanish flag. During his visit on September 29, 1806, Pike saw these gifts and when he saw the Spanish flag flying, he demanded that it be lowered, and the flag of the United States raised. According to his journal entry from that day: