Chief Judith Manthe, of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, has spent a lifetime collecting family stories, books, and newspaper articles about Lyda, Helena, and Ida Conley, and their battle to protect a tribal burial ground threatened by development in the early 1900s.
“The Conley sisters were amazing,” Manthe said. “They didn’t put up with anything — and my husband says I’m a strong Wyandot woman, just like them.”
Manthe is co-director of “Trespassers Beware: Fort Conley and Wyandot Women Warriors,” a new art installation that opens Aug. 30 at Wyandotte County Historical Museum. It’s a collaboration between the Wyandot Nation of Kansas and Monumenta, an initiative that commemorates unsung stories in public art…