Contact: Chris Howell, Vice-Chair
Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission
(785) 368-6547
chris@arts.state.ks.us

Leavenworth, Kans., June 24, 2004 - R epresentatives of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma will present the Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission with official flags from their tribes. The flag presentation ceremony will be held at Landing Park in Leavenworth, Kansas on July 2 nd at 1:00 pm.

During this historic event, tribal representatives will present their flags to the Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission as part of the Lewis and Clark commemoration in Kansas. The tribal flags will be added to the sets of Lewis and Clark Encounter Tribes flags that will be on display at various Lewis and Clark commemoration sites in Leavenworth, KS, Atchison, KS and the Greater Kansas City area.

The Encounter Tribes flag set currently includes twenty-nine flags of the tribes encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804. This collection of flags represents those Lewis and ClarkEncounter Tribes that have since adopted flags in the last few decades of the twentieth century. The Kansas collections of Encounter Tribes Flags will be the first sets on the Lewis and Clark trail to include the flags of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma.

The American Legion WE-TA-SE Post #410 Color Guard of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has been invited to participate. Tribal Ambassadors from the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma will be in attendance. Other tribal dignitaries from the Kanza(Kaw) Nation of Oklahoma, the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska have also been invited to attend. Karen Seaberg, Chair of the Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission and Scott Allegrucci, Kansas Director of Travel and Tourism, have been invited to accept the tribal flags on behalf of the Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission.

The Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission was established on March 28, 2000, by former Governor Bill Graves. The commission has been preparing for the four-year Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration, with projects in the areas of trail development and interpretation, educational programming, Native cultural awareness, and marketing.

Leavenworth Landing Park is located on Esplanade Street along the Missouri River between Seneca and Choctaw Streets.

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