Cass County, Missouri - Chapter 7: Indians, 1917

GREAT AND LITTLE OSAGES - FIRST TREATY WITH GOVERNMENT - TREATY OF 1825 - SHAWNEE'S CLAIM - PH YSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OSAGES - MOR¬ ALS - INTELLIGENCE - NO INSANITY - CARE OF THE HELPLESS - HOSPIT¬ ABLE-LIEUTENANT PIKE'S DESCRIPTION OF INDIAN LIFE - LODGES - MODE OF LIVING - VILLAGES - PENALTY FOR COWARDICE - FORM OF GOV¬ ERNMENT-MISSIONARY SCHOOL - LOYALTY OF THE OSAGES.

The immediate predecessors of the white man, in this section of Missouri, were the Great and Little Osages. The first treaty between the general government and this tribe - they were but one tribe - was made in November, 1808, at Fort Osage. Fort Osage was located some¬ where on the Missouri River, between the present city of Lexington and the present city of Independence. The treaty recites its location as "five miles above Fire Prairie." By this treaty the eastern boundary was located as beginning "on the Missouri River, five miles above Fire Prairie, and run thence due south to the Arkansas River, and thence down this river to the Mississippi." All east of this line was relin¬ quished by the Osages to the United States. This left our county in the Osage country. For a time thereafter there was confusion as to where the real line was intended to be. This condition remained until 1825.

By the treaty made at St. Louis in 1825 the Great and Little Osages gave up all their claim and rights to the remaining lands in Missouri, not embraced in the treaty at Fort Osage in 1808. Thus the strip of land on the western border of Missouri and now within the limits of the counties of Jackson, Cass, Bates, Vernon, Barton, Jasper, Newton, and McDonald, was no longer Indian land, but became for the first time a part of the then Missouri State. However, the Shawnees made some claim to this land by a supposed treaty with or grant by the Spanish government. This tribe eventually gave up this claim and took up their residence in the Indian Territory, supposedly part of the present State of Oklahoma. Be that as it may, we find no claim by this tribe of the land, including our county, after 1825. For years after this to a date within the memory of the writer, these Indians would visit this, their old hunting ground.

Our ideas relative to Indians are frequently wrong. From reliable authority we gather the idea that the Osages were of remarkable height, not many of them being less than six feet high, straight and of fine figure. "They are in appearance/' says one who lived among them, "as noble a race of people as I have ever seen." "Well formed, athletic and robust men of noble aspect," says another. "The Osages," says another, "are so tall and robust as almost to warrant the appellation of the term gigantic; few of them appear to be under six feet, and many are above it. Their shoulders and visages are broad, which tends to strengthen the idea of their being giants." They are swift in their movements and had great powers of endurance. It was not uncommon for an Osage to walk upward of sixty miles to the trading post. Osages possessed the Indian characteristic of talking but little. In conversation did not in¬ terrupt the talker. Never grew noisy, except when drunk. They were not drunkards. They seldom became drunk, and when drunken were avoided by their tribesmen. They were quite intelligent and reliable. They possessed a traditional knowledge of astronomic bodies, measured time by the waxing and waning of moons. They bore sickness and pain with great fortitude. Insanity was unknown among them. They were care¬ ful to see their unfortunate blind were well dressed and well fed and cared for. Their settlements from about 1800 to 1880 was along the western tier of Missouri counties, with their chief villages on the Osage, near the site of Papinville, Bates County, Missouri. Their hunting grounds were along this stream and its tributaries. While generally peaceful, they would sometimes quarrel over hunting ground and then become fierce warriors, brave and warlike. These Indians raised some crops of corn, beans and pumpkins. They were hospitable to a fault.

Isn't it strange this fine specimen of people should become polluted by its contact with our white race? Lieut. Zebulum Pike tells of being invited to fifteen different entertainments in one afternoon. These Indians, however, did not approve of their white friends hunting and farming their lands.

They had sense enough to disapprove the white man's want of hospitality. Lieutenant Pike says their lodges were constructed with upright posts put firmly in the ground, about twenty feet in height, with a crotch at the top, and placed about twelve feet distant from each other. In the crotch of these posts they put a ridge pole, over which they bent small poles, the ends of which were brought down and fastened to a row of sticks about live feet in height, these sticks being fastened to¬ gether with three horizontal bars, forming the Hank walls of the lodge; the gable-ends were board slabs, rounded off at the ridge pole. The whole of the building and the sides were covered with matting made of rushes two or three feet in length and four feet in width, joined together and entirely excluding rain. The doors were on each side of the build¬ ing. The fires were made in holes in the center of the lodge, the smoke ascending through apertures left in the roof for that purpose. At one end of the building was a raised platform about three feet high, which was covered with skins, generally of bear. On this platform reposed the honored guests. Around the interior of the walls sometimes hung ornamental mats and other neat workmanships. All this structure made quite an imposing as well as comfortable abode. These were abandoned frequently when the hunting season came around and the Indian went to the timber for his hunt. Their cooking utensils were of a very simple kind and limited in quantity. A brass or iron kettle, and wooden bowls and spoons. Every person, male and female, carried the knife in their girdle. They had no regularity in eating. They would eat four or five times a day when food was plentiful and frequently do all day without food when food was scarce.

Sometimes villages and lodges were built close to one another. Pike says the Osages were quite systematic. They separated their people into classes. Some were warriors and hunters and cooks and doctors. The doctors also exercised priestly functions. The young buck or war¬ rior who showed cowardice was sentenced to associate for life with the squaws, to wear squaw dress and do drudgery. He lost respect of both male and female of the tribe.

The Osage government was democratic in form. All matters were taken before the whole tribe and after full discussion, decided upon by the whole assembly, by majority vote. Generally chief was chief by inheritance. This, however, was not universal. Sometimes a bold war¬ rior, after some great accomplishment by bold bravery in war was chosen chief. Lieutenant Pike, speaking of the villages of the Osages and the surrounding country - including beyond doubt our county - said it is one of the most beautiful the eye ever beheld.

The Osage River, winding around and past the village, giving advantages of wood and water, and at the same time an extensive prairie crowned with rich and luxuriant grass and flowers, gently diversified by rising swells and sloping lawns, present to the warm imagination the future site of husbandry, the numerous herds of domestic animals which are no doubt destined to crown with joy those happy plains.

In 1821 the United Missionary Society established a school for the education of the Osage Indians, at a point about six miles above the then village and on the banks of the Marias des Cygne River. This right was then granted to the society by the Osages. This place or near this place was afterward known as or located "Harmony" in the present limits of Bates County.

A writer in the early days of the Osage settlement says, "Excel¬ lent timber was in abundance; first-class prairie for plowing, pasturing and mowing; good quality of building stone. The river bottoms are low for cultivation, without drainage, but the prairies are high and well located for drainage. These prairies are covered with grass from two to seven feet high and was an impediment to travel. These prairies reaching back, yielding in this uncultivated state as much as two tons of hay to the acre per season. There was good timber and here and there excellent springs of water.

Little progress was made by this school on the religious life of the Osages, neither did the Indian take to agricultural pursuits which crowded out his hunting or pleasure of the chase. The Osages always held faithfully to their contracts with the government. In the war of 1812 the Osages were sought by many intrigues and ways by both British and hostile tribes to induce them to join against our govern¬ ment, yet the Osages steadfastly adhered to our government and never forfeited by misconduct the indulgence of our government. Ft. Sibley, Ft. Clark and Ft. Osage, is one and the same place.