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LAWRENCE -- Kansas' Native American heritage, oil and education will be topics Monday, May 20, for about 40 faculty and staff from the University of Kansas traveling on KU's annual Wheat State Whirlwind Tour of the Heartland.
This marks the sixth year that KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway has sponsored the tour to help KU faculty new to Kansas learn more about their new home state and the communities that are hometowns for many of their students.
On Monday, May 20, the KU faculty will have opportunities to meet presidents of two Kansas universities: Karen Swisher at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence and Donald Beggs at Wichita State University.
At Haskell, Swisher and Daniel R. Wildcat, sociologist and director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center, will meet with the KU tour in Haskell's new Cultural Center and Museum. Once a center to remove all traces of tribal identity, Haskell now is a center for advanced academic study and cultural preservation. The recently dedicated center and museum will preserve the history of Haskell's evolution from boarding school to university.
The KU bus next will travel west to Council Grove to visit the Kaw Mission. In 1848, the Kaw, or Kansa, Indian nation lived in villages southeast of Council Grove until their removal south to Indian territory in 1873. In 1851, missionaries built a school for Kaw children. When the missionaries failed at influencing the Kaw, they opened the school to white children. Diane Nusbaum, director of the mission museum, and Loretta Keller, museum guide, will meet the KU faculty.
At 11:30 a.m., the bus heads south through the Flint Hills to Cottonwood Falls to tour the Chase County courthouse, believed to be the oldest courthouse still functioning west of the Mississippi. Linda Maddox with the Cottonwood Falls Chamber of Commerce will meet the KU faculty during lunch at the Grand Hotel.
Driving farther west into the Flint Hills, the faculty will head to El Dorado's Oil Museum to meet with Rebecca Matticks, director of the Butler County Historical Society, and Debbie Amend, education curator for the museum. Board member Cliff Stone and John Prather, with Groendyke Transport Inc., will welcome the faculty to the museum.
The faculty concludes day two with dinner at the WSU McKnight Arts Center. WSU President Beggs; KU School of Medicine-Wichita Dean Edward Dismuke; Don Byrum, WSU art and design chair; and Wichita KU alumni Teresa and Travis Heying will welcome the faculty to Wichita.
Tuesday, the faculty will spend the morning touring Boeing, the Mid-America All-Indian Center and Museum, and Exploration Place, where they will have lunch before leaving for Medicine Lodge, Greensburg and Dodge City.
During the week, the KU faculty on the tour will visit more than 20 communities and learn about Kansas' history, cultures, economies and landscape as they go. Other communities on the tour include: Colby, Garden City, Greensburg, Hays, Logan, Lucas, Marienthal, Montezuma, Nicodemus, Palco, Russell, Salina, Sylvan Grove and sites in Gove and Logan counties.
The complete itinerary is available online at www.wheatstate.ku.edu or by calling KU University Relations news bureau, (785) 864-3256.
Wheat State Whirlwind Tour of the Heartland for KU faculty itinerary for Monday, May 20
6:45 a.m. Load bus at Kansas Union (coffee and pastries available in Union lobby)
7:15 a.m. Depart for Haskell Cultural Center and discussion on Native American heritage (Karen Swisher and Daniel R. Wildcat)
8:30 a.m. Depart for Council Grove
10:30 a.m. Arrive at Council Grove for tour and visit to the Kaw Mission
11:30 a.m. Depart for Cottonwood Falls
Noon. Arrive in Cottonwood Falls for lunch and tour of the town and the courthouse
2 p.m. Depart for El Dorado
3 p.m. Arrive in El Dorado for tour of the Kansas Oil Museum
4:30 p.m. Depart for Wichita
5:30 p.m. Arrive in Wichita and check in at Fairfield Inn, Marriott
6:15 p.m. Depart for dinner at the Wichita State University McKnight Arts Center. Welcome by WSU President Donald Beggs; Presentation by medical center Dean Edward Dismuke.
8 p.m. Return to Fairfield Inn
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