Council Grove has long been a meeting place for Native Americans, explorers, soldiers, and Santa Fe Trail traders. Its name came from treaty negotiations held there in 1825 between Osage chiefs and U.S. commissioners to grant safe passage to white settlers along the Santa Fe Trail. The community is noted for historic and architecturally rich structures, and much of it is a National Historic District. The presence of the Kaw is highlighted at Al-le-Ga-Wa-Ho Memorial Heritage Park, where the ruins of government-built huts for the Kaw remain, their route can be retraced on the Flint Hills Nature Trail, and their culture is presented at the Heritage Center. The Kaw, or Kansa, lived in three villages southeast of Council Grove until they were moved south to Indian Territory in 1873. The Kaw Mission was a school built by the U.S. government to teach farming and the "White Man Ways" to the Kaw, with Methodist Episcopal missionaries retained as teachers, and today it is a state historic site depicting the heritage of the Kaw, the Santa Fe Trail, and early Council Grove.