Neysa Page-Lieberman, Chief Judith Manthe and project collaborator Madeline Easley standing by the Conley family graves in the Wyandot National Burying Ground, December, 2023. (photo by Stuart Carden)
Opening in Fall 2025, the public art project commemorates the extraordinary efforts of three Wyandot women to protect the tribe’s burial ground in KCK
Since the public art project, “Trespassers Beware! Fort Conley and Wyandot Women Warriors” began taking shape, it has changed considerably.
According to Neysa Page-Lieberman, founder and artistic director of Monumenta, a public art initiative dedicated to presenting the nation’s collective stories as monuments in public spaces, “When we first started talking, we were thinking this would be a permanent monument somewhere, not something that would keep moving and moving.”
But when the installation opens at the Wyandotte County Historical Museum in fall 2025, visitors will encounter a fully mobile multimedia production whose journey is just beginning.
Monumenta and the Wyandot Nation of Kansas have partnered to create the exhibit, which commemorates an important, but underappreciated piece of local history. It took place in Kansas City, Kansas, in the early 1900s, when three Wyandot women — sisters Lyda, Helena and Ida Conley — built and lived in a 6 x 8-foot structure they dubbed Fort Conley. Why? To stand guard at the tribe’s burial ground, which came perilously close to being bulldozed and sold for new developments.
“They marched up those cemetery steps. They shut those gates. They hung signs,” Judith Manthe, Chief of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas says proudly. “They moved into that hut, and they stayed there for a solid two years. The coldest winters, the hottest summers … and they started taking care of the cemetery.” The Conleys’ determination, Chief Judith says, generated newspaper articles and national attention, even a marriage proposal. But their efforts didn’t stop there.
Lyda, the oldest sister, graduated from law school. In 1910, after suing the Secretary of the Interior, she argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled against her. But plans to uproot the Wyandot Burying Ground were ultimately scrapped, and the land (known by many as the Huron Indian Cemetery), was eventually named a National Historic Landmark. It’s an incredible story. But finding a way to tell it without disrupting the tribe’s sacred space presented a major challenge.
“Every public art project is pretty much custom designed,” Page-Lieberman says. “You just have to find the right artist.” Or in this case, three of them. The Omakyehstih Collective, as they’re calling themselves, are all enrolled members of the Wyandot Nation of Oklahoma. Betty (BZ) Zane is an award-winning storyteller and arts producer. Justine Smith has an extensive background in video production and multimedia installations. And Rane Wilson, who will craft the re-creation of Fort Conley, is a painter, set builder and musician.
The trio’s proposal calls for weaving audio and video into an immersive visitor experience both inside the tiny house and around its perimeter. “We wanted artists to have their own take on it,” Page-Lieberman says. But until this collective came forward, we didn’t know what we were going to get.”
The collective will have plenty of raw materials to work with, thanks to the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library and Wyandotte County Historical Museum. Their collections include everything from photos, letters and newspaper clippings to a rattlesnake necklace and the rifle the Conley sisters were known to sometimes brandish.
The Kansas City Repertory Theater is a key player in this equation too. Its production crews will build the soundstage for filming scenes to be used in the exhibit. Meanwhile, through its Four Directions Playwright Residency, the Rep has been developing a play about the Conleys called “Representatives for Those at Peace,” by Madeline Easley.
Not surprisingly, as “Trespassers Beware!” has grown increasingly ambitious, so has the budget. Funding from sources including the Kansas Arts Commission and Humanities Kansas helped get the project off the ground. But the biggest boost came last summer, when the National Endowment for the Arts awarded one of its ArtsHERE grants to the project. “We couldn’t believe we actually got it,” Chief Judith says, adding that perhaps the toughest part was “holding it all in” until the NEA’s formal announcement a few months later.
After the exhibit debuts this coming fall, it will spend a few months in storage before heading to Johnson County Community College in spring 2026. That’s followed by a fall booking at the KCK Public Library, just a few blocks from the site of the original occupation. As the project’s profile continues to rise, its itinerary may too. Organizations around the country have already begun expressing interest. Chief Judith hopes it might someday travel to Washington, D.C., where Lyda Conley made legal history more than 100 years ago.
Page-Lieberman believes that “Trespassers Beware!” aligns perfectly with Monumenta’s goal to tell the kind of great American stories that are often overlooked. “When you come across something like this, it’s extraordinary,” she says. “Why do we not know about the first Indigenous woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court? Why did I not learn it in first grade? That’s where my excitement comes from. That and working with collaborators like Chief Judy and these other amazing people she’s brought onto her team. You get to bounce ideas off each other. You get to evolve.”
For more information, visit www.monumentaart.org/fortconley.
