TOPEKA — Kansas acquired land nearly a century ago that is home to some of the state’s oldest buildings, but the state now faces an ownership challenge from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, raising questions about how history is preserved and who is represented.
The Shawnee Indian Mission State Historical Site was a Methodist boarding and manual labor school for hundreds of Native American children from across the country from 1839 to 1862. The site today hosts three historic buildings — one of which is a museum accessible to the public — surrounded by kept grounds, wooden benches, herb and native plant gardens, and a winding creek.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation wants the land conveyed to itself so it can create a site for cultural revitalization, language preservation and ceremony, said Joseph Rupnick, chairman of the nation…