THE OSAGE INDIANS.
[From Jonathan Fairbanks and Clyde Edwin Tuck
Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri 1914]:
When the French and Spanish explorers first penetrated into this region, they found it to be the hunting ground, and at times the more or less permanent residence of the Osage Indians. This tribe was the dominant one all through that territory which lies south of the Missouri river in Missouri and in northern Arkansas. From the traditions of their medicine men, corroborated by similar traditions in other allied tribes, these Indians probably inhabited this country several centuries before the coming of the white man. The name "Osage" was a corruption of their own name, "Was-haz-he," made by the French, or, as the artist-explorer Catlin writes it, "Wa-saw-see." Catlin, in his "American Indians," says that they were the tallest race in North America, either among the red or white men. He states that few were less than six feet in stature, and that many were six and one-half and even seven feet. They were well-proportioned, good looking rather narrow in the shoulders, and, like most tall men, rather inclined to stoop. Their movements were graceful and quick. In war, or the chase, they were equal to any of the tribes about them. Though long living on, or near, the borders of civilization, they studiously rejected all civilized customs, and uniformly dressed in skins of their own preparation. They were one of the few tribes that shaved their heads, and they decorated and painted themselves with great care and some taste. Their heads were of a peculiar shape, owing to the fact that they strapped their infants to a board, binding the head so tightly as to force in the occipital bone, thus creating an unnatural deficiency in the back part and consequently a more than natural elevation on the top of the head. They explained that this was done because it pressed out a bold and manly front. The Flat Head Indians press the head between two boards, while the Osages used only one board, thereby compressing, to only a slight degree. The latter, also, cut and slashed their ears and suspended from them great quantities of wampum and tinsel ornaments. Their necks were decorated with great quantities of wampum and beads. Living in a warm country, their shoulders, arms and chests were generally naked, and they wore silver bands on their wrists and frequently a profusion of rings on their fingers.1 Washington Irving, in his "Tour of the Prairies," says, "The Osage Indians are the finest looking Indians I have seen in the West."
Further description of the dress of these Indians is given by Houck6 who writes: "The dress of the Osages was usually composed of moccasins for the feet; a breech-cloth; an overall or hunting shirt, seamed up and slipped over-the head; all made of leather, softly dressed by means of fat and oily substances and often rendered more durable by the smoke with which they were purposely imbued. Perhaps this caused Brackenridge to describe them as having a filthy and dirty appearance. Long says that the ordinary dress of the men was a breech-cloth of blue or red cloth, secured in its place by a girdle; a pair of leggins made of dressed deer-skin, concealing the leg excepting a small portion of the upper part of the thigh; a pair of moccasins made of dressed deer, elk or bison's skin, and a blanket to cover the upper part of the body. The dress of the women was composed of a pair of moccasins, leggings of blue or red cloth, with a broad projecting border on the outside and covering the leg to the knee or a little above; around the waist, secured by a belt, they wrapped a piece of blue cloth the sides of which met, or came nearly in contact, on the outside of the right thigh, and the whole extending downward as far as the knee or to the midleg; and around the shoulder a similar piece of cloth was attached by two of the corners at the axilla of the right arm and extended down to the waist. This garment was often laid aside in warm weather. The women allowed their hair to grow long, hanging over the shoulders, and parted longitudinally on the top of the head. The children were allowed to go naked in hot weather. Many of them tattooed different parts of their bodies." [31-32]
History tells us that several centuries ago the Osage Indians, with allied tribes, forming one great family, called Siouan, after the principal tribe, the Sioux, either migrated, or were driven by the Iroquois and other tribes, westward from Virginia and North Carolina, making long stops at various points along the Kanawha and Ohio valleys until the Mississippi was reached. While on the way, small bands were here and there left behind and so distributed themselves throughout the surrounding country. At the Mississippi, this Siouan band divided, one group, called the Omaha, or up-river group, going north up that river, and the other, the Quawpaw (Kwapa), or down-river group, going down the river. The Omaha group again divided at the mouth of the Missouri river, further dividing, as they went, into the Kaws (Kansas), who settled on the Kansas river; the Osage, along the Osage river; and the Missouris, along the Missouri river.
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