Shokhí : A Kanza Relative, a Monument, and Rematriation

An enduring story of how Kanza people (Kaw Nation citizens) and other collaborators worked together to bring a grandfather rock home, told through essay, poetry, oral history, and art.

For almost a century, the city of Lawrence, Kansas displayed a 28-ton red quartzite boulder as a memorial to the town’s founders. However, this boulder, Iⁿ‘zhÚje‘waxÓbe (EE(n)) ZHOO-jay wah-HO-bay), had a centuries-long relationship with Kanza people (Kaw Nation citizens). In this powerful collection of imagery, analysis, and reflection, Land is telling the story and the contributors explore narratives of place, how a grandfather rock became a monument, and how Kaw Nation citizens reunited with their relative, facilitating Iⁿ‘zhÚje‘waxÓbe shokhÍbe (return of he/she/it home, to Kanza people/Land).

In ShokhÍ, scholars, poets, activists, and artists explore the organizing and collaboration that brought Iⁿ‘zhÚje‘waxÓbe home to Kaw Nation-owned Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park in 2024. Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors chronicle the winding path a group of people took to dismantle a monument, understand intersecting forgotten histories, rematriate a grandfather rock, and confront our ongoing colonial history.