Floyd Schultz was born in Texas in 1881, but grew
up in Junction City, Kansas, where his father was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. His interests in history and Native Americans
began in childhood and continued throughout his adult life. He began collecting artifacts from local
archaeological sites in the 1920s and excavated many sites in the lower valley of the Republican River, primarily in Clay
and Geary counties, Kansas. During the 1930s and 1940s, he became interested in living Native American culture, especially
that of the Prairie Band of the Potawatomi, who were then living on a reservation in Jackson county, Kansas.
Floyd’s interests, enhanced by the
support of his first wife, Adah Jane, and of his second wife, Marguerite, resulted in the recovery and documentation of
over 3000 archaeological artifacts, and in his creation of documentary films of various Potawatomi activities. In 1948,
Floyd Schultz donated his extensive archaeological collection, and its associated field notes and maps, to the University
of Kansas. Following his death in 1951, his widow, Marguerite, donated the associated documentary films and ethnographic
records to the University of Kansas.
