The hunting grounds of the Kaw (Kansa) and Osage Indians were located here when Americans and Mexicans began hauling trade goods over the Santa Fe Trail in 1821. In 1825, as traders and merchants sought trade with Mexicans, the U.S. Congress authorized a road to be surveyed and marked from the western frontier of Missouri to New Mexico. In this oak grove, U.S. Commissioner George C. Sibley met with Pa-hu-ska (White Hair), head chief of the Great Osages, and Ca-he-ga-wa-ton-ega (Foolish Chief), head chief of the Little Osages. On August 10, 1825, they signed a treaty granting passage through Osage territory for citizens of the United States and Mexico in exchange for $800 in cash, plus ribbons, tobacco, calico, and other goods. Sibley named the site Council Grove. Traders kept using that name for the site and later for the small settlement present here by 1847. The community grew, and the town was incorporated in 1865. The Kaw (Kansa) Indians were west hunting buffalo when the treaty was signed, and Sibley caught up with them at Turkey Creek, near present-day McPherson, and signed an identical treaty with them six days later.