The Shawnee Indian Manual Labor Boarding School served briefly as the second capital of the Kansas Territory, when the legislature was controlled by pro-slavery advocates.

A site was chosen just west of the Missouri border, where the Santa Fe, California and Oregon Trails passed through the Shawnee lands.

At the height of its activity, the mission was an establishment of more than 2,000 acres (810 ha) with 16 buildings, including the three large brick structures, which still stand, and an enrollment of nearly 150 Native American boys and girls from the ages of 5 to 23.

Native children from 22 different tribes were sent to this school to learn basic academics, including English, manual arts, and agriculture.

The Mission closed during the era of “Bleeding Kansas” and the “border wars” and served as a Union Soldiers encampment during the Battle of Westport until 1864.

[4] The "Fish" Shawnee tribe had been removed from its traditional Ohio home to the unorganized territories set aside for Native Americans (in the future state of Kansas) under the terms of the Treaty of St. Louis (1825).

[5] The mission was initially built on land near the American Shawnee Indian Tribe reserve in Turner by Reverend Thomas Johnson.

In 1839, the mission was moved and built at its present-day Johnson County location, and an Indian boarding school was opened there.

[7] While the capital was located at Shawnee Mission, the legislature promulgated the controversial pro-slavery laws that sparked Bleeding Kansas violence.