Date

Event

12,000-7,000 BC 

Paleoindian Period -- The first people to live in Kansas were descended from Asian immigrants who entered North America by crossing into Alaska.

1 - 1000

Woodland Period -- This time was marked by great changes in social systems and living practices, including the widespread making of pottery vessels and improvements in chipped stone tools, and bow and arrows.

1000 - 1500

Village Gardener Period - During this period most of the Native Americans began a dual economy, based on bison hunting and farming, supplemented by small-scale hunting and gathering of wild foods. Use of the bow and arrow became widespread. .

1500 - 1800

Protohistoric Period -  The time shortly before and after the arrival of Europeans in the New World.

1540s

Wichita and Pawnee Indians living in the region that would become  Kansas.

1540-1541

Spanish explorer, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, marched north from Mexico in search of the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. In New Mexico he was told about the Land of Quivira, and he turned northeast. By the summer of 1541, he had reached the Arkansas River in Kansas, crossing it near present Dodge City. Coronado found no gold in Quivira and returned to New Mexico.

1542

Father Juan de Padilla, a priest who had accompanied Coronado, returned to Kansas, hoping to bring Christianity to the Indians. However, he was killed by those he tried to help. Father Padilla is said to have been the first Christian martyr in America.

1600's

Kanza and Osage Indians arrive in Kansas.

French explorers & fur traders come down from Canada via the Mississippi River.

1601

Juan de Onate's expedition to Quivira.

1682

Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle reached mouth of  the Mississippi River and claimed all the territory drained by the river and tributaries in the name of France, calling it "Louisiana."

1650

Taos Indians irrigate lands along Beaver Creek in Scott County.

1719

Charles Claude du Tisne explores upper "Louisiana" territory; he visits Osage Indian villages near the mouth of the Osage River and crosses northeast corner of Kansas to Pawnee on the Republican River

1720

The French and Spanish fight a battle over the possession of Kansas 50 years before the Revolutionary War. Colonel Don Pedro de Villazur and his little Spanish army are massacred by the French and their Pawnee allies. The French gain the right to carry on their fur trade in Kansas.

1722

The French erect Fort Orleans near the mouth of the Osage River, under the command of M. Etienne Venyard, Sieur de Bourgmont.

1724

French explorer and trader, Captain M. Etienne Venyard de Bourgmont, led an expedition into what are now Atchison and Doniphan Counties to establish trade relations with the Indians of the Platte River region. He builds Fort Orleans near the mouth of the Kansas River.

The Otoe tribe of the Sioux also inhabit various areas around the northeast corner of Kansas.

1725

Fort Orleans is destroyed by Kanza Indians.

1739

Pierre and Paul Mallet lead a party of French traders through Kansas.

1744

French build Fort Cavagnial near present site of Fort Leavenworth; closed 1764

November, 1762

France ceded the province of "Louisiana" to Spain by  the treaty of Fountain bleu; "Louisiana" was ceded back to France by the secret treaty of St. Ildefonso.

1790's

The Chouteau family begins fur-trading with Kanza Indians.