The Indian Removal Act made this faster. By a treaty on August 30, 1831, the Ottawa people were moved to a small part of Kansas. On October 24, 1832, the Kickapoo people were moved to Kansas. On October 29, 1832, the Piankeshaw and Wea people were moved to Kansas. To their east was the western border of Missouri, and to their west was the Kaskaskia and Peoria people. On September 21, 1833, the Otoe people were moved to Kansas.
By September 17, 1836, the Sac and Fox people moved to Kansas, north of the Kickapoo. By a treaty on February 11, 1837, the United States moved the Pottawatomi people to Kansas. They were moved to the Osage River, which is southwest of the Missouri River. The land was in the southwest part of what is now Miami County.
After a treaty in 1842, the Wyandot people were moved to an area between the Kansas River and the Missouri River. They shared the land with the Delaware people until 1843.
Even though there were plans made to settle Native Americans in Kansas, by 1850 white Americans were illegally squatting on their land. They really wanted the entire area to be opened for settlement. Several U.S. Army forts, including Fort Riley, were soon created deep in Indian Territory to guard travelers on the various Western trails.
Although the Cheyenne and Arapahoes tribes were still discussing with the United States for land in western Kansas (the current state of Colorado), they signed a treaty on September 17, 1851. Momentum was already building to settle the land.
Congress started the process of creating Kansas Territory in 1852. That year, petitions were given at the first session of the 32nd Congress to organize territory of the land west of Missouri and Iowa. Nothing happened at that time. However, during the next session, on December 13, 1852, a Representative from Missouri submitted to the House of Representatives a bill. This bill would organize the Territory of Platte: all the land west of Iowa and Missouri, and going west to the Rocky Mountains. The bill was given to the United States House Committee on Territories. It passed by the full U.S. House of Representatives on February 10, 1853. However, Southern Senators stopped the progress of the bill in the Senate. They did this to discuss how the bill would affect slavery and the Missouri Compromise. Arguments about the bill and other ideas would continue for a year. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was eventually created because of this. It became law on May 30, 1854, creating the Nebraska Territory and Kansas Territory.
By the summer of 1853, it was clear that eastern Kansas would soon be opened to American settlers. The Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs created new treaties that would give new reservations with yearly federal money for the Native Americans.
In the three months before the bill passed, treaties were written at Washington with the Delaware, Otoe, Kickapoo, Kaskaskia, Shawnee, Sac, Fox and other tribes, where the biggest part of eastern Kansas, which was within one or two hundred miles of the Missouri border, was suddenly opened to white settlement. The Kansa reservation had already been made smaller by treaty in 1846.) On March 15, 1854, Otoe and Missouri Indians gave all their lands west of the Mississippi, except a small strip on the Big Blue River, to the United States. On May 6 and May 10, 1854, the Shawnees gave away , keeping only for homes. Also on May 6, 1854, the Delaware gave all their lands to the United States, except a reservation defined in the treaty. On May 17, the Iowa gave away their lands, keeping only a small reservation. On May 18, 1854, the Kickapoo also gave away their lands, except in the western part of the Territory. In 1854 lands were also given by the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea and by the Sac and Fox.
The final step in making the Natives more American was taking land from tribes and giving it to Native households. This was so they could buy and sell as European Americans would. For example, in 1854, the Chippewa (Swan Creek and Black River bands) lived of land in Franklin County, but in 1859 the area was given to individual Chippewa families.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed on May 30, 1854, and it created the Kansas Territory. It went from the western border of Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. The southern border was the 37th parallel north, and the northern border was the 40th parallel north. Anything north of the 40th parallel was part of the Nebraska Territory. When Congress set the southern border of the Kansas Territory as the 37th parallel, they thought that the Osage southern border was also the 37th parallel. The Cherokees disagreed. They said that it was not the correct border. They said that the border of Kansas should be moved north to make room for the actual border of the Cherokee land. This became known as the Cherokee Strip controversy.
In the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it said that people living in the territories could vote on whether or not to have slavery. It undid the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which did not allow slavery in any new states created north of latitude 36°30'. This led to violence between people from the North and people from the South. They both tried to quickly move to Kansas to control it.
In a few days after the law passed, hundreds of people from Missouri moved to Kansas. These people wanted slavery. They created a group called the "Squatter's Claim Association" on June 10, 1854. They said that they were going to make Kansas a slave state.
The New England Emigrant Aid Company said they were going to make Kansas a free state. From 1854 to 1855, they sent many anti-slavery people (called "free-staters") to Kansas. They were important in creating Lawrence, Topeka, and Manhattan. Other anti-slavery people came from Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, and other states.
For a while, there was not much violence. This changed on March 30, 1855. The elections happened this day. Many pro-slavery people from Missouri came to Kansas to vote for pro-slavery people. Pro-slavery people won many elections that day. Pro-slavery people controlled the Kansas government.
From 1855 to 1858, there was a lot of fighting in Kansas. This was called "Bleeding Kansas," and it happened shortly before the American Civil War. Battles include the Wakarusa War, the Sacking of Lawrence, the Battle of Black Jack, the Battle of Osawatomie, and the Marais des Cygnes massacre.
On December 1, 1855, many pro-slavery people came to Lawrence. These pro-slavery people were led by Samuel J. Jones. These people had guns. They wanted to destroy Lawrence because it was anti-slavery. The people of Lawrence were ready to defend the city. Before any fighting happened, Territorial Governor Wilson Shannon made a treaty to stop the fighting.
On May 21, 1856, pro-slavery people came to Lawrence, and they attacked the city. They burned the Free-State Hotel to the ground, destroyed two printing presses, and robbed homes. Only one person died, but the city was destroyed.
The Pottawatomie massacre happened during the night of May 24 to the morning of May 25, 1856. In what seems to be a reaction to the Sacking of Lawrence, John Brown and a group of abolitionists killed five settlers. They believed these settlers were pro-slavery. This happened north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. Brown later said that he did not take part in the killings during the Pottawatomie massacre, but that he did approve of them. He went into hiding after the killings. Two of his sons, John Jr. and Jason, were arrested. While they were arrested, they were allegedly treated poorly. This made John Jr. mentally hurt. On June 2, Brown led a successful attack on a group of Missourians. The Missourians were led by Captain Henry Pate. This happened in the Battle of Black Jack. Pate and his men had went into Kansas to capture Brown and others. That Fall, Brown went back into hiding and did other guerrilla warfare activities.