The word
Osage was evolved through mispronunciation and bad spelling on the
part of the early French settlers, and equally erratic interpretation
by the English of the true name of the tribe—"Wa-Shah-She." The
French called them "Wa-Sa-gee," and using the letters Ou to give the
sound of W they wrote it Ouasages, which the English and Americans
pronounced "Osages."
The latter
name has now been adopted by the American Bureau of Ethnology and by
the Indian Bureau, and will be used in this history. The Osages
belong to the Dakota branch of the Sioux. Some may take issue with
this statement and claim the Sioux are a branch of the Dakotas, but
from personal knowledge and from the evidence of men better acquainted
with the subject we maintain that seniority of name is with the Sioux.
The Sioux
were divided into three grand divisions, the Nahkotas, Lahkotas and
Dakotas, those living east of the Mississippi, those living between
that stream and the Missouri, and those west of the Missouri. The
three branches of the Sioux family were divided again into bands and
tribes, their number reaching into scores, which dominated all the
territory between the Great Lakes and the Black Hills of South Dakota,
and as far south as the Arkansas river.
The Osages
were the most southern branch west of the Mississippi, and stood guard
for hundreds of years over the territory of the Sioux from that river
west to the great plains. The borderline between them and the Natchez
and Tensas on the southeast and the Kiowa and Comanches and Caddos on
the southwest was usually the Arkansas river. Sometimes they warred
with the Pawnees on the west and sometimes they were allies, but all
territory lying between the Arkansas and Kaw rivers, and west from the
Mississippi to the great plains was firmly held by the Osages against
all others at the time of discovery by white men.
The first
white men to set foot on the territory of the Osages were those under
that intrepid Spaniard, Francisco de Coronado, in 1541, three hundred
and sixty-eight years ago.[01]
In writing
history one must often arrive at facts by deduction where they are
incomplete. This must be done in the present instance, as Coronado
does not mention the Osages, but we have conclusive evidence that he
was in their territory. Coronado says that he went eastward of the
Rio Grande river three hundred leagues through sandy plains and vast
treeless tracts inhabited with a species of terrible wild cattle of
which they killed four score the first day they met with them. They
continued their travels east by north, crossing shallow rivers with
broad sand bars until they reached one where the trees grew
luxuriantly and the soil was as rich as the best portions of Spain.
This river is conceded by all writers to have been either the Kaw or
Missouri. Some evidence that it was the latter was the finding of
certain articles in the vicinity of Kansas City that undoubtedly
belonged to Spanish people. One was a halberd, a kind of spearhead
with a small battle axe attached, which was found in 1898 in
excavating a cellar in the heart of Kansas City. It was several feet
under the ground, and had been buried apparently for hundreds of
years. These relics of the days of knighthood have not been in use
since the Sixteenth Century, and the Spanish armies were the only ones
visiting the shores of North America that early, or that would likely
have them.
There have
been two halberds found in the United States, the other one in
Southern Tennessee and is supposed to have been lost by De Soto. Then
we have the evidence that two of Coronado's men reached the main Osage
village at or near the mouth of the Osage river. These men became
detached from the main columns and wandered on foot for over two years
in the forest of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, before they
reached the Spanish settlements in Mexico. Coronado estimated their
travels to have covered over 20,000 miles and their miraculous escape
from wild beasts and savages forms one of the most romantic chapters
in all history.
These two
were the first white men the Osage ever saw and the story of their
capture has been handed down by the Moh-Sho-O-li-kees (historians)[02]
to the present time.
A band of
Osages hunting near the head waters of the Osage river were very much
startled one day by the discovery of the two strange beings crouched
in the thickets under a low bluff on which the Osages stood. The
Osages had drawn their bows and arrows and were about to shoot when
their leader motioned them to hold and whispered to them that the
strangers were men. But what strange men they were and what queer
skins they wore. The strangers were trying to start a fire and one of
them took off his hat and fanned the flame with it and what a queer
looking man he was with black beard all over his face with only his
nose and eyes and forehead bare. The Osages slipped away out of sight
to consult and determine what to do. They immediately decided to
capture these strange beings and examine them farther, which they
accomplished by crawling through the thickets and springing out upon
them before they were discovered. Great was the consternation of the
poor Spaniards when they found themselves suddenly in the hands of
these wild men, and no doubt they expected death but they were strong
men and showed no fear even if they felt it. And great was the wonder
of the Osages when they examined the Spanish dress, its queer
structure made of cloth, which they had never seen. But the hats
seemed strangest of all. The Osages decided to carry them to their
great village and let the head chief, Wah-Kon-tah, see them, which was
several days’ travel. When the head chief saw them he sent runners
after all the bands of Osages, calling them in from far West and from
the banks of Arkansas. This took several weeks, but the great chief
was determined to find if any of his people had ever seen any one like
the Spaniards, and if any could be found who could converse with them,
for so far they had not been able to get any information about who
they were or where they came from. When all the Osages had been
called together the Spaniards were put in the center of a great
council and questioned by the different chiefs, but none could make
themselves understood or could understand what the captives said. But
finally one of the Spaniards seemed to realize what they wanted and
motioning the Osages to follow, he led them down to the river and on a
sand bar drew a picture of a large boat and showed them by signs that
they had come across a great river in it. Then Wah-Kon-tah, the great
chief told them to go back the way they came and never to come into
his country again. And the Spaniards were glad to be allowed to
depart, although they did not understand a word the chief said.
The next
white men the Osages saw was but a few months later, and this time it
was a company of cavalry. A band of Osages far to the southward, it
is told, heard a great noise passing through the forest. At first
they thought it was a large drove of game, but soon their ears heard
strange sounds, such as they had never heard before. They slipped
quietly through the woods, keeping well behind trees and bushes till
they came upon a sight that well nigh froze the blood in their veins.
Here again they saw the strange white men with the black beard on
their faces and wearing the queer hats, but this time they sat upon
strange animals, the like of which none had ever seen or heard tell
of. There was a great company of them and their coats that were made
of iron, shone in the morning sun with dazzling and awful brightness
and swinging from their girdles were long sharp knives. Some of them
carried these long knives in their hands and when they struck at
little limbs that hung in their way, the limbs fell from the trees as
if by magic. The jingling of their spears and the rattle of the long
knives against the stirrups produced the noise the Osages had heard.
Skulking in fear from this terrible scene, the Osages waited till the
cavalcade had passed long out of sight ere they dared to venture out
to examine the trail and inspect the tracks made by the strange
animals. This done, they departed rapidly to their home country to
tell the great chief what they had seen. When they arrived there
their story was scarcely believed, but soon rumors began to come in
from other tribes far to the south to the same effect. So the great
chief, Wah-Kon-tah, named these strangers "The Long Knives," and that
is the name applied to white men to this day.
That this
story is not myth is proven by the fact that at no time in the history
of this country has there been any except the Spaniards under De Soto[03]
and Coronado wearing mail armor and long swords passing in a part of
the world where the Osages would see them. Whether this was part of
Coronado's band or De Soto's is impossible to say, but it is more
likely to have been De Soto's for he is known to have crossed the
Mississippi near where Memphis now is into Arkansas the same year that
Coronado was in Kansas, and the Osages living in the neighborhood of
where Fort Smith, Arkansas, now is, would be likely to meet up with
them. After this it was may years before the Osages again saw white
men, and again it was the Spaniard that came their way.
In the year
1625, Juan de Onata,[04]
founder of Santa Fe, went as far north and east as the Pawnee village,
near where the Republican river crosses the Kansas-Nebraska line.
From there he turned southeast and went as far as the mouth of the Kaw
river. After this there were frequent expeditions made by the
Spaniards from Santa Fe for a number of years, and treaties of
friendship with the Osages early established. About the year 1650 one
of these expeditions was violently attacked by a large war party of
Wah-Sho-hres (now called the Missouris), and badly cut to pieces. The
cause of this unwarranted attack as given was the friendship of the
Spaniards for the Osages. The Missouris lived on the north bank of
the Missouri river and were the implacable enemies of the Osages. War
between these two powerful tribes was incessant until the Missouris
were almost utterly destroyed by smallpox, contracted from the French.
The
Spaniards determined to chastise the Missouris, and sent out a strong
company the following year to attack them. The plan was to go to
their friends, the Osages, and get their help. Under Osage
protection, they intended to cross the Missouri river and utterly
destroy the villages of the Missouris. Now the Missouris were also a
branch of the Sioux and many of their words are similar, or the same
as spoken by the Osages, and when the Spanish interpreter met a large
body of Indians south of the Missouri river and addressed them in
Osage, he was answered in the same language, and he had no doubt that
he was talking to Osages. He told the Indians what their mission was,
and that his commander wanted them to assist in the destruction of
their ancient enemies, the Missouris. The Indians answered that they
would hold council among themselves and let the Spaniards know in a
short time what they would do. It was a large party of Missouris they
had met, and the sagacious chief of that tribe only retired to plan
and make the destruction of the Spaniard more certain. Upon their
return they told the Spaniards that a large village of Missouris were
camped on the south bank of the river under the bluffs not many miles
farther on, and that they would have a guide to go with them to show
them the trail while the Indian were to go below and strike the
village from the far side. It was to be a night attack and seemed so
well planned that the unsuspecting Spaniards fell into a death trap
from which no one except the priest escaped alive, and he was held
prisoner. Later he escaped and reached the Osages and was by them
years afterward returned to his people in Santa Fe.
The battle
must have been a veritable slaughter pen, the guide leading the
Spaniards through a narrow canon that cut through the high bluffs down
to the river, while hundreds of savages lay in ambush and attacked
them, in the narrowest and most advantageous place. The Spanish
troops in America had met with a second "noche triste" (night
trials.)
The scene
of this massacre, as pointed out by the Osages, was in what is now
Saline County, Missouri. After this terrible disaster the Spaniards
did not often visit the banks of the Missouri and the Osages did not
see much of white men for many years.
The
Spaniards still kept in touch with the Pawnees, for their flag was
flying over the Pawnee village in 1806 when visited by General Pike.[05]
Pike induced the Pawnees to haul it down and replace it with the Stars
and Stripes. The Osages seemed to have retained their friendship for
the Spaniards, and sometimes went to Santa Fe to trade, but their furs
being little in demand and cloth and other Spanish goods scarce in
Santa Fe, there was little to encourage these trips.
But in 1673
came Marquette,[06]
the French missionary who had been told by the Peorias and other
Indians along the upper Mississippi of the powerful tribe of Osages
and its wonderful warriors. Two years later, 1675, Marquette founded
the mission and trading post at Kaskaskia, Illinois, and thus began
that intimacy between the French and the Osages which was never
broken. In 1682 they were visited by La Salle,[07]
and in 1719 Lieutenant Du Tissenet, another French explorer.[08]
In 1723 Etienne Venyard Du Bourgmont[09]
visited the Osages on the Missouri and loaded the chiefs with presents
and established a firm and lasting friendship between them and the
French. The policy of the French colonial authorities was to win the
confidence and good will of all Indians they came in contact with so
that commerce between the two might not be interrupted by quarrels.
In this, they differed from the English and Spanish, who had a bad
habit of taking by force that, which could not be got otherwise. The
success of the French policy is a matter of history, for they never
lacked for Indian allies in their wars against the English.
By the
beginning of the eighteenth century, the wild horses had become
plentiful and all plains Indians went to the buffalo grounds mounted
on ponies and armed with long spears which very materially increased
their capacity for killing the game and procuring meat. This new era
made a great change in the life of the Osages as they were far better
provided with meat than before. But it, no doubt, proved a bad thing
in the end, for less attention was paid to the raising of corn, in
which the Osage women are said to have excelled most all other Western
tribes. By the middle of the eighteenth century the French and Indian
war with the English began to be felt as far west as the Mississippi,
and when the French learned that General Braddock was preparing to
attack Fort Du Quesne on the Ohio, they sent to Kaskaskia for help.[10]
The Osages, though living beyond the Mississippi from Kaskaski, were
well known to the French settlers there and the reputation as bold and
intrepid warriors induced them to send the French emissary on to the
Osage country to secure if possible a great war party to go east and
fight the English under General Braddock. About one hundred and fifty
Osages volunteered to go, although warned by their head chief, who was
too old to go with them, that they were going into a far off country
and would meet with an enemy that was a stranger to them and no doubt
a bold and dangerous one.
When the
Osages got to Fort Du Quesne they found a great many Indians there,
some of them from tribes the Osages had never before met. Perhaps,
never again were there so many different tribes of Indians drawn
together as congregated around the council fires at For Du Quesne
early in July 1755.
See
statement of Che-to-pa[11]
to General Pike, in 1806. Che-to-pa was with the Osages, though but
twelve years of age.
The
Indians, lured by the liberal reward offered by the French and the
hope of plunder, were eager for the battle, and great was their anger
and chagrin when on the near approach of General Braddock, the
contemptible Contretour,[12]
commander of Fort Du Quesne, announced that he would evacuate the
fort. It was then some of the Western tribes, including the Osages,
appealed to Captain Bojeau,[13]
the second in command, to stand and fight. "You have led us here, far
from our people, across great rivers and through the wilderness, to
fight and not to run," they told him. "You make us cowards in the
eyes of the English as well as yourselves." Captain Bojeau was more
that willing to lead them and finally persuaded Contretour to let him
at least make some show of resistance. But many of the Indians had by
this time become defected and about four hundred only assisted the
small body of French under Captain Bojeau in the terrible massacre
that followed. The Osages were among these who fought, and came out
of the battle, if it can be called a battle, laden with plunder and
prisoners.
The
cowardly Contretour, one can hardly write of him with calmness,
permitted the savages to do what they pleased with their prisoners,
and all through the pitiless, pitchy night their death cries echoed
along wild Monongahela hills.
"So
terrible were the screams of the tortured," said Colonel Smith, a
prisoner of the French previous to battle, "that I sank into a
sickening faint and prayed for death that I might be relived from
listening to them. How could a human being who had the power to stop
it, like Contretour, sit calmly by, the livelong night and make no
effort?" But Contretour, who paid a bounty for the scalps of women
and children, was capable of anything. How he stole the fruits of
victory from Captain Bojeau, and sent that brave young man to France
in chains, is reserved for another article. Many histories claim that
Bojeau was killed in battle, but that was not true. Far better for
him if it had been.
The
December number will contain the first treaty between the United
States and the Osages, and describe the visit of General Pike to their
village in 1806.
