Taking it's name from a Native American tribe. A stream in the East Region of Kansas, and the principal stream in Anderson County, has two branches. The N fork starts in the SW corner of Anderson County, about 2 Mi. S of the village of Westphalia, and flows in a N and NE course through the townships of Westphalia, Reeder, Jackson, Monroe, Putnam and Walker. The S fork starts in Richland township of the same county, about 2 miles west of Selma, and flows NW into Washington township, where it turns toward the NE and forms a junction with the north fork not far from the town of Greeley. From that point the course of the main stream is NE until it empties into the Marais des Cygnes River, (Osage River}, just below the town of Osawatomie, Miami County.
The first white settlers arrived to establish homesteads near Greely in the Spring of 1854.
