The Kansa Indians, also called Kaw, came to this region from the forested southeast. They lived in permanent longhouses covered with bark, cultivated corn, beans, and squash, and in their western hunting grounds captured buffalo and other large animals. By the mid 18th century, the Kansa considered most of northern and eastern Kansas their home. Through contact with Europeans and Americans, they contracted foreign diseases that had a devastating effect on their population. In 1825, they were forced to agree to a treaty that reduced their land to 10 percent of its original size. Two years later, the government established an agency 2.5 miles southeast of here to protect the interests of the United States, as part of a policy aimed at changing the Kansa into American farmers and stripping them of their traditional way of life. In 1846, they were again forced to move, this time to an even smaller reservation near Council Grove. After the death of his mother, U.S. Vice President Charles Curtis lived on the Kansa reservation with his mother’s family. Today, the Kaw Nation is headquartered in Oklahoma, and the state of Kansas is named for the Kansa Indians.