Osage

The Osage call themselves Wazhazhe, or “the People.” They are divided into two basic moieties (social divisions): the Tzi-sho (Sky People) and Hunkah (Earth People). The unity of the sky and earth peoples is symbolized by a perfect man who faces east in times of peace and west in times of war. The Osage speak a language that is part of the Eastern Siouan-Catawban (Dhegiha Siouan branch) family and are related to the Omaha, Ponca, and Quapaw. Only a handful of elders still speak Osage but the Osage Nation has an active revitalization program, and young people are striving today to learn their heritage language. Several groups such as the Four Directions Institute are active in promoting language fluency.

The Woodland ancestors of the Osage lived along the banks of the Ohio River and points east. They were descendants of sedentary farmers (Indian Knoll and Mississippian Oneota cultures) who made yearly migrations onto the Great Plains to hunt buffalo. They probably separated from the Quapaw and Kansa around 1500 as they migrated to what is now Missouri and Arkansas. The horse changed their culture and permitted the Osage to make yearly migrations farther onto the Plains; they also became known as the greatest traders in the Mississippi Valley region. Although the Osage spent more time on the Plains hunting buffalo and trading, they still had agricultural villages. They were encountered by European traders and explorers beginning in 1673; Jacques Marquette called them the “Ouchage” on his maps. French traders came regularly to their 17 villages on the Osage River. After the Spanish took control of the region, Osage trade expanded.

Population movements from the east affected the Osage by the middle of the 18th century. They expanded west into Caddoan territory in the 1760s, forcing the abandonment of the last Caddo village on the Arkansas River in 1870. This gave them access to large buffalo herds and changed their seasonal economic cycle. Next, a series of forced removals pushed the Osage west, then south, although they actively fought each incursion into their territories.

Their first treaty with the U.S. government (1808) established Fort Osage and provided some services in return for peace, giving the federal government authority and eminent domain over most Osage lands—basically half of Arkansas and seven-eighths of Missouri. Their compensation was one-sixth of a cent per acre. The treaty of 1818 forced the Osage to recognize Cherokee and Euro-American settler incursions on their lands. Called the Lovely Purchase, 600,000 acres were presented to tribes removed from the east. The U.S. government gave the Osage $4,000 for 1.8 million acres of land, which amounted to $0.045 per acre, then immediately sold it to Cherokee for $2 million. The U.S. government made a profit from Indian removal.

As part of the Indian removal acts of the 1820s, the Osage “lost” more of their territory to the Cherokee; the two groups fought when the Cherokee arrived under military escort. Overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Native immigrants, the Osage retreated. Under the Treaty of 1825, “the People” were “assigned” the southeastern portion of what became Kansas Territory as a bounded reservation. The rest of their land was ceded to the Cherokee. They were forced out in 1871. Based on the 1865 treaty, they purchased their old lands from the Cherokee in the northeastern part of Indian Territory and settled in five villages. Government officials estimated that there were about 3,680 “full-bloods” and 280 “mixed-bloods” (primarily people of Osage-French ancestry who were Catholics) at the time. This was probably only 5 percent of their earlier population.

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