Lyda Conley & the Fight to Preserve a Wyandot Cemetery in Kansas

For 50 years, Lyda Conley and her two older sisters, Helena and Ida, protected their Wyandot relative's burials in the Huron Indian Cemetery in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. Lyda became the first Indigenous woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court when she took this fight to Washington in 1910. As she pursued this years-long battle, she and her sisters also built a shack ("Fort Conley") in the cemetery and provided around-the-clock surveillance to prevent vandalism and sale of the cemetery's land. In this session, Tai S. Edwards, co-editor of a recent book on Conley, will discuss this inspiring story. We'll engage with Wyandot Nation members' oral histories, see photographs and maps, and learn about the legacies of this ground-breaking fight in the 21st century.

Instructor Bio: Tai S. Edwards is a history professor and director of the Kansas Studies Institute at Johnson County Community College. In additional to teaching, she has collaborated on many projects, including recording veterans' oral histories, preservation of the Quindaro Ruins in Kansas City, Kansas, and the Kansas Treaties Project, which provides resources for the public and teachers on Kanza history, the treaties that removed the state's namesake from their homelands, and short documentary films. She is the co-editor of "Lyda Conley and the Fight to Preserve Huron Indian Cemetery" and "Shokhí: A Kanza Relative, a Monument and Rematriation."

An Osher membership fee of $25 is required to enroll in this class. If you have not paid your membership fee, please click Osher Membership Fee - Shopping cart under "course accessibility" to add the membership fee to your shopping cart. Then continue shopping to select your courses and/or events. If you have questions about whether or not you have paid your member fee, please call 785-864-6779.
Course Accessibility: Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend University of Kansas-sponsored events. If you require reasonable accommodations in order to participate in an event, please email [email protected] or call 785-864-6779 at least three weeks before the first day of the event.