“Living Sovereignty: Sustaining Indigenous Autonomy in ‘Indian Territory” Kansas” will be available for about five weeks, as the Tonganoxie Community Historical Society and Museum will host the exhibit through April 30.

Put simply, sovereignty is a group’s right to self-rule. As independent nations existing for generations before European and American settlement, America’s Indigenous peoples embodied sovereignty. Throughout the history of interactions between the United States government and Indigenous nations and tribes, maintaining sovereignty and self-government has been a challenge that continues today.

Living Sovereignty explores the histories of the tribal peoples that populated Kansas and the ways they found to express their sovereignty and maintain cultural identity.

It is fitting that this exhibit will premier in Tonganoxie, a town that was named in 1866 in honor of a Delaware man who lived here from the early 1830s into the early 1860s. Tonganoxie also is in the heart of the land that made up the last Delaware Reservation, which was eliminated in 1866.

The traveling exhibit is the result of a collaboration between Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, the Watkins Museum of History and the Museum Studies Program at the University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The museum is open regular hours but will accommodate groups at any other time. Call 913-845-2960 or email TCHSTonganoxie@gmail.com to arrange for a special tour. Regular hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays, 9 a.m.-noon Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays. For more about TCHS, visit tonganoxiehistoricalsociety.org.

Fourth Tuesday program

A public advocate for protection and preservation of the Kansas River was this month’s presenter at Tonganoxie Community Historical Society.

As was featured in a recent Mirror story, Dawn Buehler, Kansas Riverkeeper and executive director with Friends of the Kaw, spoke Tuesday at the barn on the TCHS campus for this month’s Fourth Tuesday program.

Coincidentally, March 22 was World Water Day.

In her role as the Kansas Riverkeeper, Buehler is a non-governmental public advocate who works to protect and preserve the Kansas River.

This is accomplished through holding the community accountable for the health of the river, working to resolve pollution concerns about the river, advocating for the Kansas River and its environs, educating the public and providing outreach activities to get people involved in the river.

Buehler holds a bachelor’s in natural resources, fish and wildlife conservation from Oregon State University and a bachelor’s in business administration from Baker University. Buehler is chair of the Kansas Water Authority and the Gov. Laura Kelly’s appointee for the Oil and Gas Advisory Committee. She also is active on the board of directors for the Kansas Land Trust and the board of directors for Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams. For those who missed the presentation, information about future events can be found at kansasriver.org.