Among the Native American tribes who lived in what is now Kansas were the Apache, Arapaho, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Comanche, Delaware, Fox, Illinois, Iroquois, Kansa, Kiowa, Osage, and Pawnee.

Francisco de Coronado of Spain was the first known European to arrive in the Kansas area, rolling through in 1541 on a search for gold. Spain didn't claim the territory, and subsequent explorations were few.

The first European to lay a territorial claim to Kansas was René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle of France, who arrived in 1682 and announced that his king, Louis XIV, now owned the territory.

Further European explorations were brief, as were settlements. Ownership of the entire Louisiana Territory transferred to Spain in 1762 and then to Great Britain in 1763 and then to the U.S. in 1783.

The Kansas area was largely unsettled by Europeans when it became part of the Louisiana Purchase and, thus, part of the United States. The American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled through the area in 1804, on their journey west. They mapped part of the area and included their findings in their final report to President Thomas Jefferson. Another well-known explorer, Zebulon Pike, passed through Kansas on his way west and labeled it "the Great American Desert" on the maps he drew.

After the War of 1812, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. When Missouri became a state in 1821, Kansas was an unorganized territory, which then became Indian Territory, which was closed to settlement by non-Native Americans. A series of treaties between the U.S. Government and Native American tribes resulted in the emigration of many Native Americans. In 1852, Congress began a set of actions that would result in the Kansas Territory.

Settlers seeking homes further west traveled through Kansas in greater numbers as the 19th Century progressed. These settlers increasingly came into conflict with Native Americans, with many tribes forced to cede to settlers. Two of the most popular trails, the Oregon Trail and the Santa Fe Trail passed through Kansas territory. The federal government set up forts along the way to help keep travelers safe. The more well-known of these forts were Fort Leavenworth (1827), Fort Scott (1842), and Fort Riley (1853). Many travelers liked what they saw in Kansas and settled there. The first railroad reached the territory in 1860, and settlement boomed. As well, the short-lived Pony Express traveled throughout northeast Kansas.

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