Pre-colonization The Osage are descendants of cultures of Indigenous peoples who had been in North America for thousands of years. Studies of their traditions and language show that they were part of a group of Dhegihan-Siouan speaking people who lived in the Ohio River valley area, extending into present-day
Kentucky. According to their own stories, common to other Dhegihan-Siouan tribes, such as the Ponca, Omaha, Kaw and Quapaw,
they migrated west as a result of war with the Iroquois and/or to reach more game. Scholars are divided as to whether they think the Osage and other groups left before the
Beaver Wars of the Iroquois. Some believe that the Osage started migrating west as early as 1200 CE and are descendants of the
Mississippian culture in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. They attribute their style of government to effects of the long years of war with invading Iroquois. After resettling west of the Mississippi River, the Osage were sometimes allied with the
Illiniwek and sometimes competed with them, as that tribe was also driven west of Illinois by warfare with the powerful Iroquois. Eventually the Osage and other Dhegihan-Siouan peoples reached their historic lands, likely developing and splitting into the above tribes in the course of the migration to the Great Plains. By the 17th century, many of the Osage had settled near the
Osage River in the western part of present-day
Missouri. They were recorded in 1690 as having adopted the horse, a valuable resource often acquired through raids on other tribes. The desire to acquire more horses contributed to their trading with the French. They attacked and defeated indigenous
Caddo tribes to establish dominance in the Plains region by 1750, with control "over half or more of Missouri,
Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas," which they maintained for nearly 150 years. The Osage called the Europeans '''' (Heavy Eyebrows) because of their facial hair. As experienced warriors, the Osage allied with the French, with whom they traded, against the
Illiniwek during the early 18th century. The first half of the 1720s was a time of more interaction between the Osage and French colonizers.
Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont founded
Fort Orleans in their territory; it was the first European colonial fort on the Missouri River.
Jesuit missionaries were assigned to French forts and established missions in an attempt to convert the Osage, learning their language to ingratiate themselves. In 1724, the Osage allied with the French rather than the Spanish in their fight for control of the Mississippi region. In 1725, Bourgmont led a delegation of Osage and other tribal chiefs to
Paris. They were shown around France, including a visit to
Versailles,
Château de Marly and
Fontainebleau. They hunted with
Louis XV in the royal forest and saw an opera. During the
French and Indian War (the North American front of the
Seven Years' War),
France was defeated by
Great Britain and
in 1763 ceded control over their lands east of the
River Mississippi to the
British Crown. The
French Crown made a separate deal with Spain, which took nominal control of much of the
Illinois Country west of the great river. By the late 18th century, the Osage did extensive business with the French Creole fur trader
René Auguste Chouteau, who was based in
St. Louis. St. Louis was part of territory under nominal Spanish control after the Seven Years' War, but was dominated by French colonists. They were the
de facto European power in St. Louis and other settlements along the Mississippi, building their wealth on the fur trade. In return for the Chouteau brothers' building a fort in the village of the Great Osage southwest of St. Louis, the Spanish regional government gave the Chouteaus a six-year monopoly on trade (1794–1802). The Chouteaus named the post
Fort Carondelet after the Spanish governor. The Osage were pleased to have a fur trading post nearby, as it gave them access to manufactured goods and increased their prestige among the tribes.
U.S. interaction Lewis and Clark reported in 1804 that the peoples were the Great Osage on the
Osage River, the Little Osage upstream, and the Arkansas band on the
Verdigris River, a tributary of the
Arkansas River. The Osage then numbered some 5,500. The Osage and Quapaw suffered extensive losses from
smallpox in 1801–1802. Historians estimate up to 2,000 Osage died in the epidemic. In 1804, after the United States made the
Louisiana Purchase, the
U.S. government appointed the wealthy French fur trader
Jean-Pierre Chouteau, a half-brother of René Auguste Chouteau, as the
Indian agent assigned to the Osage. In 1809, he founded the Saint Louis Missouri Fur Company with his son
Auguste Pierre Chouteau and other prominent men of St. Louis, most of whom were of French-Creole descent, born in North America. Having lived with the Osage for many years and learned their language, Jean-Pierre Chouteau traded with them and made his home at present-day
Salina, Oklahoma, in the western part of their territory. After the Lewis and Clark Expedition was completed in 1806, Jefferson appointed
Meriwether Lewis as Indian Agent for the
Territory of Missouri and the region. There were continuing confrontations between the Osage and other tribes in this area. Lewis anticipated that the U.S. would have to go to war with the Osage, because of their raids on eastern Natives and European-American settlements. However, the U.S. lacked sufficient military strength to coerce Osage bands into ceasing their raids. It decided to supply other tribes with weapons and ammunition, provided they attack the Osage to the point they "cut them off completely or drive them from their country." For instance, in September 1807, Lewis persuaded the
Potawatomie,
Sac, and
Fox to attack an Osage village; three Osage warriors were killed. The Osage blamed the Americans for the attack. One of the Chouteau traders intervened and persuaded the Osage to conduct a buffalo hunt rather than seek retaliation by attacking Americans. Lewis tried to control the Osage also by separating the friendly members from the hostile. In a letter dated August 21, 1808, that President Jefferson sent to Lewis, he says that he approves of the measures Lewis has taken in regards to making allies of the friendly Osage from those deemed as hostile. Jefferson writes, "we may go further, & as the principal obstacle to the Indians acting in large bodies is the want of provisions, we might supply that want, & ammunition also if they need it." This treaty created a buffer line between the Osage and new European-American settlers in the
Missouri Territory. It also established the requirement that the U.S. president had to approve all future land sales and cessions by the Osage. The Treaty of Ft. Osage states the U.S. would "protect" the Osage tribe "from the insults and injuries of other tribes of Indians, situated near the settlements of white people....". As was common in Native American relations with the federal government, the Osage found that the U.S. did not carry through on this commitment.
Wars with other tribes The
Choctaw chief
Pushmataha, based in Mississippi, made his early reputation in battles against the Osage tribe in the area of southern Arkansas and their borderlands. In the early 19th century, some Cherokee, such as
Sequoyah, moved from the southeast to the Arkansas River valley under pressure from European-American settlement in their traditional territory. They clashed there with the Osage, who controlled this area. , 1834 The Osage regarded the Cherokee as invaders. They began raiding Cherokee towns, stealing horses, carrying off captives (usually women and children), and killing others, trying to drive out the Cherokee with a campaign of violence and fear. The Cherokee were not effective in stopping the Osage raids and worked to gain support from related tribes as well as whites. The peoples confronted each other in the "
Battle of Claremore Mound," in which 38 Osage warriors were killed and 104 were taken captive by the Cherokee and their allies. No Osage died in this attack. Later, Kiowa warriors, allied with the
Comanche, raided the Osage and others. In 1836, the Osage prohibited the
Kickapoo from entering their Missouri reservation, pushing them back to ceded lands in Illinois.
Reservations and missionaries Two major treaties with the United States were signed by the Osage:
Treaty of St. Louis (1818) and
Osage Treaty (1825). In these agreements, the Osage ceded their traditional lands across what are now the western portions of Missouri and Arkansas, plus nearly the entire sates of Kansas and Oklahoma. In exchange, they were to receive cash and annuity payments, a reservation in what is now southern Kansas, and equipment to help them adapt to farming and a more settled culture. They were first relocated to a reservation in what is now southeastern Kansas called the Osage Reservation. The city of
Independence would later develop there. The first Osage reservation was a strip, with the east-west dimension being the widest. The United Foreign Missionary Society sent clergy to them, supported by the
Presbyterian,
Dutch Reformed, and
Associate Reformed churches. They established the Union, Harmony, Neosho, Boudinot, and three Hopefield missions. Cultural differences often led to conflicts, as the Protestants tried to impose their culture. The Catholic Church also sent missionaries. The Osage were attracted to their sense of mystery and ritual but felt the Catholics did not fully embrace the Osage sense of the spiritual incarnate in nature. One of the con-celebrants was Todd Nance, who is the first Osage to be ordained as a Catholic priest. During a 35-year period, most of the missionaries were new recruits from Europe: Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium. They taught, established more than 100 mission stations, built churches, and created the longest-running school system in Kansas.
Civil War and Indian wars White squatters continued to be a frequent problem for the Osage, but they recovered from population losses, regaining a total of 5,000 citizens by 1850. The
Kansas–Nebraska Act resulted in numerous settlers arriving in
Kansas Territory; both abolitionists and pro-slavery groups were represented among those trying to establish residency in order to vote on whether the territory should
permit slavery. The Osage lands became overrun with European-American settlers. In 1855, the Osage suffered another epidemic of smallpox, because a generation had grown up without getting vaccinated. (center) wearing a bear claw necklace and
Black Dog II, far left. During
Bleeding Kansas and later the
American Civil War the Osage largely stayed neutral, but both sides successfully recruited Osage fighters to their side.
John Allen Mathews, an American who married an Osage woman, advocated for the tribe to side with the
Confederate States of America. The tribe signed a treaty with the CSA in October 1861. The
Jesuit priest Father Schoenmakers recruited Osage fighters for the
Union Army. They struggled simply to survive through famine and the war. During the war, many
Caddoan and
Creek refugees from Indian Territory came to Osage country in Kansas, further straining their resources. Although the Osage favored the Union by a five to one ratio, they made a treaty with the Confederacy to try to buy some peace. Roughly 200 Osage men were recruited into the
Confederate army and formed the
Osage Battalion, serving under
Cherokee Confederate General
Stand Watie. Fearing more bloodshed with the Plains Indians, delegates from the Osage Nation signed the
Camp Napoleon Council accord in May 1865 at
Verden, Oklahoma, including Wahtahshimgah, Clairmore, NinchamKah, Wahshashewah tah ingah, Kahnak Kihingah, and Black Dog. It had little effect with the U.S., as they ignored this treaty. After the war, the United States immediately began
re-writing treaties with Indian tribes, as many had supported the Confederacy. The Osage were a part of the
Fort Smith Council in September 1865, which culminated in a treaty signed on the 29th at
Canville Trading Post (part of the Osage lands in Kansas on the Neosho River), ratified by the U.S. on June 26, 1866, and published on January 21, 1867. Article I established the
Osage Diminished Reserve of , with the widest portion being north-south. Of the negotiations, Chief of the Big Hill
Ne-Kah-Wah-She-Tun-Kah would later report that the Osage were under the impression that the entire Cherokee lands south of the Osage, a 50-mile northern strip of what is now Oklahoma, would form their new negotiated reserve except for lands east of the Arkansas River that would continue to be Cherokee. Congress passed a new resolution to be known as the
Drum Creek Treaty on July 15, 1870. The terms of this revised treaty were not entirely popular with the Osage, but it was an inevitable end to the conflict with white Americans, and it would provide better compensation than the 1868 treaty. During negotiations, an Osage chief, suspicious of the intentions of the American delegation, spoke against the signing of the treaty that would send thousands of them to a reservation: [...] He then said they had lost all that land, and now they came down to take away the last land they had. :
This was referring to the Treaty of Fort Clark of 1808, but since the signed document was from 1804, it was from the time in which Lewis and Clark brought Osage chiefs to meet President Jefferson, the legendary Great Father. Commissioners determined that the elaborate "treaty" was signed by the Secretary of War in 1804, Henry Dearborn. Chief Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe, a well-respected and educated Osage chief, led the delegation amidst a crowd of approximately "four or five thousand Indians" camping in their "
wigwams." Chief Joseph demanded the right to hunt
buffalo outside the borders of the new reservation and they be given the right to setup their own laws of trespass. He also wanted tribal ownership instead of individual land ownership, a prescient decision which other Indian nations did not acquire. Chief Joseph addressed the Indian Commissioners and agent Isaac T. Gibson and wished it be transcribed and sent to Washington: The treaty was ratified by the Osage at a meeting in
Montgomery County, Kansas, on September 10, 1870. The meeting was attended by Chicago dry goods merchant
John V. Farwell and his 11-year-old son,
John V. Farwell, Jr., a Quaker missionary named John D. Lang, and the Quaker artist
Vincent Colyer. Indians signing the treaty included the chiefs George Beaver, Che-she-wah-ton-kah,
Black Dog II, Hard Rope, Ne-kah-wah-she-tun-kah, and his brother Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe, "Governor Joe."
White Hair VI, the former principal chief of the Osage, had died the previous year, leaving Governor Joe as the highest-ranking Osage Indian present. The treaty provided that the remainder of Osage land in Kansas be sold, and the proceeds used to relocate the tribe to
Indian Territory in the
Cherokee Outlet. By delaying agreement with removal, the Osage benefited by a change in administration. They sold their lands to the "peace" administration of President
Ulysses S. Grant, for which they received more money: $1.25 an acre rather than the 19 cents previously offered to them by the U.S. The Osage reported 3,500 people in their nation at the time. In 1874, a party of self-appointed militiamen encountered a small band of Osage on a hunting party. They began to disarm some of the men, but several escaped and were shot. The remainder fled to the Indian reservation and reported the incident. When the militia reported the event and put the blame on the Osage, the governor of Kansas
Thomas A. Osborn declared war and asked the U.S. government for aid and weapons. Chief Joseph Pawnee-no-pashe and fellow Osage leader Chief Hard Rope wrote to Superintendent
Enoch Hoag about the evidence of the attack: the Osage had been attacked by the roaming posse of Kansans from
Medicine Lodge, Kansas. The 29 men, women, and children had been hunting buffalo in southern Kansas. The skirmish killed five of them, all because rumors and famine had driven the men of Kansas to imagine an Indian uprising. It would not be long until the U.S. began to ignore the sovereignty of the Osage Nation and demanded the allocation of land to tribe members. The reservation, of approximately , was purchased in 1872 and is coterminous with present-day
Osage County, Oklahoma, in the north-central portion of the state between
Tulsa and
Ponca City. The Osage established four towns:
Pawhuska,
Hominy,
Fairfax, and
Gray Horse. Each was dominated by one of the major bands at the time of removal. The Osage continued their relationship with the Catholic Church, which established schools operated by two orders of nuns, as well as mission churches. It was many years before the Osage recovered from the hardships suffered during their last years in Kansas and their early years on the reservation in Indian Territory. For nearly five years during the depression of the 1870s, the Osage did not receive their full annuity in cash. Like other Native Americans, they suffered from the government's failure to provide full or satisfactory rations and goods as part of their annuities during this period. Middlemen made profits by shorting supplies to the Indians or giving them poor-quality food. Some people starved. Many adjustments had to be made to their new way of life. During this time, Indian Office reports showed nearly a 50 percent decline in the Osage population. The Osage wrote a constitution in 1881, modeling some parts of it after the United States Constitution. By the start of the 20th century, the federal government and progressives were continuing to press for
Native American assimilation, believing this was the best policy for them. Congress passed the
Curtis Act and
Dawes Act, legislation requiring the dismantling of communal lands on other reservations. They allotted communal lands in portions to individual households, declaring the remainder as "surplus" and selling it to non-natives. They also
dismantled the tribal governments.
Oil discovery In 1894 large quantities of oil were discovered beneath the vast prairie owned by the tribe. Because of his recent work in developing oil production in Kansas, Henry Foster approached the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to request exclusive privileges to explore the Osage Reservation for oil and natural gas. Foster died shortly afterward, and his brother, Edwin B. Foster, assumed his interests. The BIA granted the request on March 16, 1896, with the stipulation that Foster was to pay the Osage tribe a 10% royalty on all sales of petroleum produced on the reservation. Foster found large quantities of oil, and the Osage benefited greatly monetarily. But this discovery of "black gold" eventually led to more hardships for tribal citizens. The Osage had learned about negotiating with the U.S. government. Through the efforts of Principal Chief
James Bigheart, in 1907 they reached a deal which enabled them to retain communal mineral rights on the reservation lands. These were later found to have large quantities of
crude oil, and tribal citizens benefited from royalty revenues from oil development and production. The government leased lands on their behalf for oil development; the companies/government sent the Osage citizens royalties that, by the 1920s, had dramatically increased their wealth. In 1923 alone, the Osage earned $30 million in royalties. Since the early 20th century, they are the only tribe within the state of Oklahoma to retain a federally recognized reservation. In 2000, the Osage sued the federal government over its management of the trust assets, alleging that it had failed to pay tribal citizens appropriate royalties, and had not historically protected the land assets and appreciation. The suit was settled in 2011 for $380 million, and a commitment by the government to make numerous changes to improve the program. In 2016, the Osage nation bought
Ted Turner's Bluestem ranch.
Osage Allotment Act In 1898, the U.S. federal government claimed to no longer recognize the legitimacy of a governing Osage National Council which the people had created in 1881, with a constitution that adopted some aspects of that of the United States. In 1906, as part of the Osage Allotment Act, the U.S. Congress created the Osage Tribal Council to handle affairs of the tribe. It extinguished the power of tribal governments to enable the admission of the Indian Territory as part of the state of Oklahoma in 1907. As the Osage owned their land, they were in a stronger position than other tribes. The Osage were unyielding in refusing to give up their lands and held up statehood for Oklahoma before signing an allotment act. They were forced to accept allotment but retained their "surplus" land after allotment to households, and apportioned it to individual citizens. Each of the 2,228 enrolled Osage citizens in 1906, and one non-Osage, received , nearly four times the amount of land, usually , that most Native American households were allotted in other places when communal lands were distributed. The tribe retained communal
mineral rights to what was below the surface. As development of resources took place, citizens of the tribe received royalties according to their
Osage headrights, paid according to the amount of land they held. Although the Osage were encouraged to become settled farmers, their land was the poorest in the Indian Territory for agricultural purposes. They survived by subsistence farming, later enhanced by raising stock. They leased lands to ranchers for grazing and earned income from the resulting fees. In addition to breaking up communal land, the act replaced tribal government with the Osage National Council, to which members were to be elected to conduct the tribe's political, business, and social affairs. In 2004, Congress passed legislation to restore sovereignty to the Osage Nation and enable them to make their own decisions about government and enrollment criteria for their people. In March 2010, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the 1906 Allotment Act had disestablished the Osage reservation established in 1872. This ruling potentially affected the legal status of three of the seven Osage casinos, including the largest one in
Tulsa, as it meant the casino was not on federal trust land. Federal Indian gaming law allows tribes to operate casinos only on trust land. The Osage Nation's largest economic enterprise,
Osage Casinos, officially opened newly constructed casinos, hotels and convenience stores in Skiatook and Ponca City in December 2013.
Natural resources and headrights Before having a vote within the tribe on the question of allotment, the Osage demanded that the government purge their tribal rolls of people who were not legally Osage. The Indian agent had been adding names of persons who were not approved by the tribe, and the Osage submitted a list of more than 400 persons to be investigated. Because the government removed few of the fraudulent people, the Osage had to share their land and oil rights with people who did not belong. Guardians were permitted to collect $200–1,000 per year, and the attorney involved could collect $200 per year, which was withdrawn from each Osage's income. Some attorneys served as guardians and did so for four Osage at once, When royalties peaked in 1925, annual headright earnings were $13,000. A family of four who were all on the allotment roll earned $52,800, roughly . The guardianship program created an incentive for corruption, and many Osage were legally deprived of their land, headrights, and/or royalties. Others were murdered, in cases the police generally failed to investigate. The coroner's office colluded by falsifying death certificates, for instance claiming suicides when people had been poisoned. The Osage Allotment Act did not entitle the Native Americans to autopsies, so many deaths went unexamined.
Changes to law and management claims As a result of the murders and increasing problems with trying to protect Osage oil wealth, in 1925 Congress passed legislation limiting inheritance of
Osage headrights only to those heirs of half or more Osage ancestry. They extended the tribal control of mineral rights for another 20 years. Later legislation gave the tribe communal control indefinitely. It continues to pay royalties on mineral revenues on a quarterly basis. The tribe had about 16,000 citizens. The settlement includes commitments by the United States to cooperate with the Osage to institute new procedures to protect tribal trust funds and resource management. ==Demographics==