Every month during the school year, the Bird City Historical Association, Inc., is putting together a Newsletter to give to the school so that the teachers may use this in their classrooms, to help them understand the history of this part of Kansas where they reside.

We have divided this into different categories, and each member of the Association has chosen the categories with which they would like to work.  This newsletter is called, "The Mystery of the Past," and we have finished our second issue for the month of November.

Here is a picture of our first issue:

In this issue, we talked about Cheyenne County as we know it today, was part of the hunting grounds of the Southern Cheyenne tribes, and then that the French and English traders and trappers came in and then how our Federal Government tried to deal with the Indians and the other peoples coming here. 

We also have a craft corner in our newsletter and in this issue, we put in the Native American Calendar and encouraged the young people to make one for themselves with specific instructions.

In the Photo Place, we wrote about the most familiar symbol associated with the Native Americans - the tomahawk.  We also had pictures of the various tomahawks that they used.

The Mystery Sleuth talked about the different smoke signals that the tribes used, and how they made them.

Fragments of Indian pottery were pictured in the Keepsake - Artifacts section of our newsletter.

The Map Quest is another category of our newsletter and in this issue there is an article about the stage route for Northwest Kansas.  In the Poetry of the Land, Helene Landenberger, has written a poem, "L&PP Stage Line - 1859."

The Book Corner contains information about Mari Sandoz and some of her writings about this area, including a passage from Mari Sandoz's, Love Song to the Plains.

The last section of our newsletter is about Items of Historical Interest.  In the first issue, we find out about the soil here in Cheyenne County, Paleo-Indian occupation and Clovis points and pre-Clovis points in Cheyenne County.

This issue of 13 pages is available for a donation to the Bird City Historical Association, Inc. and can be obtained by contacting: 

      Dorthy Mast, President, at 785-734-2750
 or  Wanda Dowdy, Treasurer, at 785-734-2383.