Council Grove’s annual Wah-Shun-Gah Days celebration will begin this evening when a carnival opens at the ball fields on the north side of the city. A Kaw Inter-tribal Pow Wow, flea market, parade, street dances, a ventriloquist and other entertainment will follow on Friday and Saturday, as the community officially opens its summer season.
The festival celebrates a time when the Kaw Nation lived on the prairie in what is now Morris County and wagon trains lumbered through regularly. Some of the ruts from the wagon wheels remain visible today in pastures surrounding Council Grove. The area’s role in the settlement of the west is shown in its 12 registered historic sites that also can be viewed this weekend.
This year’s celebration will mark the 150th anniversary of a confrontation in town between Kaw tribal leaders and Council Grove residents that resulted in at least two deaths.
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