The Land of the Osage
The history of the territory surrounding what was to become Taney County was in the making long before the first white settlers came to the region. The Land of the Osage, as it was frequently called, lay east of the Mississippi River between the north and south borders of the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers (Ingenthron "Our Early Historic Indians"). Though they were not the only Native Americans using the area, the powerful Osage dominated the region, making their permanent villages closer to the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers and journeying into the White River Valley on annual hunting expeditions for large game.
Disagreement exists concerning the origin of the Osage: some scholars hypothesize that the nation developed from the Oneota, who are believed to have appeared around the mouth of the the Grand River in central Missouri somewhere around 1350 (Wolferman 6). Others think the Osage were among the Dhegiha Soiuan tribes-- including the Kansas, Ponca, Quapaw, and Omaha--who moved eastward from the Ohio River Valley (7). Because the semi-nomadic tribe moved frequently, the exact origin probably cannot be uncovered. Likewise, as Wolferman points out, most early Europeans were not as interested in learning about Osage culture and history as they were in using the resources for their own gain. Thus, early details that may have existed in oral tradition were not recorded in written history.
According to John Swanton, though, the Osage outnumbered other groups in the area. In 1780, he estimated 6,200 Osage among the tribe (Wolferman 8). Several tribal legends exist concerning the formation of the two dominant groups of Osage, the "Upper-Forest-Sitters," or the Big Osage, and the Down-Below-People," or the Little Osage (8). During the 1770s, another group allegedly split from the Big Osage and moved southward, becoming the Arkansas band of the Osage.
The Osage called themselves the "Ni-U-Ko'n-Ska," Children of the Middle Waters. Early explorers were awestruck at the physical perfection of the Osage warrior: the men were usually over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and muscularly proportioned. Ingenthron quotes Nuttall, an early explorer, who expressed his amazement: "the activity and agility of the Osages is scarcely credible" (quoted in "The Osage Builders").
Using their physical size to its full advantage, the Osage were an aggressive tribe who attacked those who encroached upon their territory. According to Wolferman, the tribe was at war with all of the plains tribes and many of the woodland tribes during the 1700s (16). Not surprisingly, they saw war and other physically dangerous activities as chances to gain honor and strength. Weakness was condemned as a liability to the tribe's survival. In fact, Ingenthron believes that even marriage customs were governed by the tribe's reliance on physical prowess:
The largest and most athletic warriors were favored to sire the infants of the tribe. Fortunate was the Osage maiden who was chosen as the bride of the tallest and mightiest of the warriors. But, once the marriage was consummated the warrior fell heir to all his wife's sisters which he could espouse as additional wives to bear his progeny or bestow upon others. For what better way, the tribe reasoned, could the race perpetuate its strong physique and long life. ("The Osage Builders")
Ingenthron goes on to state that any young braves who had shown weakness during their first war were not allowed to marry in order to keep the tribe pure and strong. Inbreeding was also forbade, and young women were hidden when Indians of inferior stature interacted with the Osage, for fear that the women would fall under a spell and elope with "the short ones."
In addition to prizing stature, the Osage had other notions of physical beauty: the men shaved their faces, including the eyebrows, and heads, except for a strip of hair in the middle of the scalp approximately two inches high and three inches wide. The women wore their hair longer, but powdered their bodies with a dark substance from a native plant and caked their faces with pumpkin pulp to improve the complexion (Wolferman 12-13). From a very young age, babies were strapped to cradle boards, causing the backs of their heads to flatten and appear elongated, another physical trait that the Osage valued (13). Both men and women wore earrings, jewelry, and tattoos for adornment.
The tribe had an organized governing structure: the village was laid out in a circle, with clans arranged by their rank in the tribe. The chief's house was inside the circle, but his authority was by no means absolute; though he inherited the position of chief, he could also be removed from that position by the Little Old Men, a select group of older warriors who had proven themselves in battle and were trusted to govern the tribe's actions and traditions (11). Houses in the camp circle were various shapes, but all faced east so that the tribe could begin each day in reverence to the sun and to the great Wah'Kon-Tah, creator of all. Various creation myths existed, but most important to the tribe were myth and ritual that celebrated the cyclic balance of nature (17).
Though the French and Spanish were able to establish fur trading relations with the Osage and other tribes in the territory, they were never able to control the tribe as they would have liked. Disillusioned by the incorrigible warring traditions central to the tribe's value system, Spain transferred the Louisiana Territory back to the French, only one month before France sold the territory to the United States government in 1803. In the decades that followed, United States government, by both diplomatic treaties and brute force, was able to gain control of the largest portion of Osage lands.
Of course, by 1800, several other tribes had been pushed westward into the land of the Osage: the Delaware and Shawnee had moved from the Ohio valley to eastern Missouri; some Cherokee had settled along the St. Francis River in southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas; and the Fox, Sauk, Miami, Kickapoo, and Wea had also been displaced onto lands in and around what would become Taney County (Ingenthron "Our Early Historic Indians").
In the Treaty of 1808, the first of a series of treaties that would push the Osage farther westward, the tribe gave up most of its lands in Missouri and Arkansas, retaining only a small strip in the western parts of those states and their lands in Kansas and Oklahoma. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, exploring the area in 1819, and other explorers reported coming upon abandoned Osage sites near Swan Creek. By 1825, the Osage occupied only a small reservation area in southern Kansas. They reportedly continued to make hunting expeditions into western Missouri and Arkansas, but by this time, most of the big game had either been killed or pushed westward as well.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 resulted in several other tribes moving through the area, though most stayed only a short time on their journeys westward. Some tribes, apparently, moved voluntarily; others were forcibly removed from their lands east of the Mississippi and herded to the reservation areas in Oklahoma and beyond. Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminoles moved through the area in the early 1800s (Ingenthron "Our Early Historic Indians"). By 1838-39, the 20,000 Cherokees who had not moved voluntarily from their homes in Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina were driven like cattle by the United States Army through what had been the Land of the Osage. Over one third of the tribe died along the way.
Thus, Native American governance and customs gave way to the white settlers and trappers, who would soon set upon the business of hewing out homesteads in the area.
Works Cited
Images of Osage land and tomahawks from http://www.arttoday.com, member page, 6 July 1999.
Ingenthron, Elmo. "The Osage Builders of the 'Super-Race.' " White River Valley Historical Quarterly Winter 1966. The Springfield-Greene County Library. Shepard Room. <http://198.209.8.166/scripts/wrvq/v2/n6/w.66b.htm> (5 July 1999)
-----. "Our Early Historic Indians." White River Valley Historical Quarterly Summer 1963. The Springfield-Greene County Library. Shepard Room. <http://198.209.8.166/scripts/wrvq/v1/n8/w.63g.htm> (5 July 1999)
Wolferman, Kristie C. The Osage in Missouri. Columbia, MO; U of Missouri P, 1997.
