Rumors of mines of silver and lead to the west of the Mississippi brought, at a very early day, many explorers into that region, and the discovery of the "Mine of the Marameg" by Sieur de Lochen, in 1719, followed by the arrival of a large company of the King's miners, under the superintendence of M. Renandiere, to construct furnaces and develop the mine, gave a fresh impetus to the prevailing spirit of extravagant expectation in regard to the mineral resources of the western portion of Louisiana.
At this time, the Osages had villages on the Missouri and Osage Rivers, the latter not very distant from the famous mine. Their country was thoroughly explored by parties in search of silver and lead, and to a comparatively late day the extensive "diggings' on the old Osage trail near the Le Mine River bore the marks of the spade and pick of the early French explorers.
It was during the year that silver was discovered on the Marameg, and when the mining mania was at fever heat, that Du Tissenet was sent by Bienville, Governor of Louisiana, to explore the western part of the province, and, in the course of his investigations, visited and crossed from southeast to northwest the present State of Kansas. M. Du Tissenet visited the village of the Osage Indians, five miles from the Osage River, at eighty leagues above its mouth, and describes the inhabitants as stout, well made and great warriors. He also mentions the lead mines that were found in their country.
Sixty-four Osages formed a part of the escort of M. D. Bourgmont on his pacific mission to the Padoucas in 1724, but from that time there is no record of any organized French expedition visiting the region. The destruction of Fort Orleans, of which M. De Bourgmont was Commandant, with the massacre of entire garrison, effectually put a stop, for a long time, to any further attempts to extend French exploration toward the west, and, except the fact that the Osages, Kanzas and Pawnees were engaged in continual war among themselves and with the more western tribes, little is known of them until the explorations of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke and Lieut. Pike furnished more definite knowledge of their locations, homes and habits of life.
As early as 1796, a division was effected in the Osage nation. The Chaneers or Arkansa band, under the lead of Chief Cashesegra, or Clermont, removed to the Verdigris and formed several villages along its banks, that of Clermont being about sixty miles up the river. The Arkansa band was principally composed of the young men of the two tribes, and its formation was effected through the influence of Pierre Choteau, a St. Louis fur trader, who had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of the trade with the Osages by the way of the river of the same name. Having been superseded as agent by Manuel de Liza, also an enterprising St. Louis trader, M. Choteau determined to plant a colony of young and vigorous Osages on one of the tributaries of the Arkansas, and endeavor to draw the trade of his rival to the more southern river, in which financial scheme he was quite successful, the new settlement soon quite overshadowing the older.
About 1803, the Little Osages separated from the Grand Osages, and made a village on the Missouri River, near where Fort Clark, afterward called Fort Osage, was built. They, however, were soon attacked by the warlike tribes farther to the north and east, and forced to seek refuge and protection in the vicinity of the more numerous band of the Grand Osage, who dwelt near the head-waters of the Osage River, about fifteen miles east of the present Kansas line.
One of the objects of Lieut. Pike's expedition of 1806 and 1807 through the interior of Louisiana was to "deliver at the village of Grand Osage several Osage captives, lately prisoners in the hands of Pottawatomies;:" another was "the accomplishment of a permanent peace between the Osages and Kanzas;" and a third was "to endeavor to make peace between the Camanches and Osages."
In the accomplishment of these objects, Lieut. Pike had an opportunity of carefully observing the customs and noting the peculiarities of the Osages at that period. At the time of his arrival at the village of the Grand Osage, the Little Osage had already marched a war party against the Kanzas, and the Grand Osage a party against the Arkansas band. White Hair, chief of the Grand Osage, was unable to prevent it, although the expedition was contrary to his wishes. Schemers at St. Louis were constantly fomenting trouble between the tribes, and turning their quarrels to their own advantage. The treaty of peace which Lieut. Pike was instrumental in bringing about was faithfully observed by both Osages and Kanzas.
At the time of this visit, the Grand Osage village on the Osage River numbered, by actual census--men, 502; boys, 341; women and girls, 851; lodges, 214. Cheveau Blanc, or White Hair, chief. The Little Osages numbered 824, and Clermont's band 1,500. The government was nominally vested in a small number of chiefs, but their power was limited, all measures which they proposed being submitted to a council of warriors and decided by a majority vote.
The tribe was divided into two classes; warriors and hunters composing the first, cooks and doctors the second. The doctors were also priests or magicians, possessing great influence, being supposed to have knowledge of deep mysteries, and to be wonderfully skilled in the use of medicines. The cooks were also of much importance, the class including all the warriors who, from age or other cause, were unable to join the war parties.
When received into an Osage village, a guest immediately presented himself at the lodge of the chief, where he was expected to eat his first meal, after which he was invited to a general feast, given by the most important warriors and great men. The cooks stood outside the lodge and gave the invitation by crying, in a loud voice: "Come and eat; such an one gives a feast." The feasts were repeated until all the more important members of the tribe had an opportunity to display their hospitality.
The Osage lodges were usually constructed by driving into the ground upright posts, about twenty feet high, with crotched tops as a rest for the ridge pole, over which were bent small poles, fastened to stakes about four feet high. The ends of the lodge were formed by broad slabs, and the whole covered with rush matting. There was generally a door on each side, the fire being in the center, with an aperture in the roof for the escape of the smoke. A raised platform, covered with skins, at one end, served to display the household treasures of the host, and as a place of honor for the guests. The lodges varied in length from thirty-six to one hundred feet.
Physically, the Osages were the finest specimens of Western Indians--tall, erect and dignified. The average height of the men was over six feet.
In 1808, a few years subsequent to the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States, a treaty was made at Fort Clark, then recently built, on the Missouri River, between the United States and the Osage nation. Article 1 of the treaty reads as follows: "The United States, being anxious to promote peace, friendship and intercourse with the Osage tribes, to afford them every assistance in their power, and to protect them from the insults and injuries of other tribes of Indians situated near the settlements of the white people, have thought proper to build a fort on the right bank of the Missouri, a few miles above the fire prairie, and do agree to garrison the same with as many regular troops as the President of United States may, from time to time, deem necessary for the protection of all orderly, friendly and well disposed Indians of the Great and Little Osage nations who reside at this place, and who do strictly conform to and pursue the counsels or admonitions of the President of the United States through his subordinate officers."
At this post (Fort Clark) the United States agreed "to establish and permanently to continue, at all seasons of the year, a well-assorted store of goods, " for the purpose of bartering with the Osages, on moderate terms, for their peltries and furs; also "to furnish at this place, for the use of the Osage nations, a blacksmith, and tools to mend their arms and utensils of husbandry, and engage to build them a horse-mill, or water- mill; also to furnish them with plows, and to build for the great chief of the Great Osage, and for the great chief of the Little Osage, a strong blockhouse in each of their towns, which are to be established near this fort."
There was also, by the terms of the treaty, to be delivered annually to the Great Osage nation, merchandise to the value of $1,000, and to the Little Osage nation merchandise to the value of $500, and in addition there was to be paid, at or before the signature of the treaty, to the Great Osage nation, the sum of $800, and to the Little Osage nation the sum of $400.
Article 6 of treaty reads as follows:
"And in consideration of the advantages which we derive from the stipulations contained in the foregoing article, we, the chiefs and warriors of the Great and Little Osage, for ourselves and our nation respectively, covenant and agree with the United States, that the boundary line between our nations and the United States shall be as follows, to wit: Beginning at Fort Clark, on the Missouri, five miles above Fire Prairie, and running thence a due south course to the river Arkansas and down the same to the Mississippi, hereby ceding and relinquishing forever to the United States all the lands which lie east of the said line, and north of the southwardly bank of the said river Arkansas and all lands situated northwardly of the river Missouri. And we do further cede and relinquish to the United States forever, a tract of two leagues square, to embrace Fort Clark, and to be laid off in such manner as the President of United States shall think proper."
As the above-mentioned treaty was the first concluded between the United States and the Osage nation, its "inner history," as contained in the report made by Mr. Sibley in 1812, is given. Mr. Sibley, formerly commandant at Fort Clark, and at the time of his report, Indian Agent at the same place (then called Fort Osage or Fort Sibley), says, he writes "from an acquantance with the Osages extending almost to every individual of the tribe, and of more than eight years' standing." According to his report, in 1804, President Jefferson promised the Osage chiefs, then on a visit to Washington, to establish a trading post for the benefit of their nation, this promise being repeated in 1806. The fort was built in October, 1808, and the following month, November 8, 1808, Pierre Choteau, United States Agent for the Osages, arrived at Fort Clark, prepared to execute the treaty which Gov. Lewis, of Missouri, had deputized him to offer the nation. The chiefs and warriors of the Great and Little Osage assembled on the 10th, and, upon learning that the trading post, which was supposed by them to have been established as a favor and mark of friendship, was in fact a part of the price paid for their lands, and that, unless they accepted the provisions of the treaty, they virtually forfeited the protection of the United States, they reluctantly signed it, protesting that "they had no choice; they must either sign the treaty, or be declared the enemies of the United States."
This treaty was not ratified by the Senate until 1810, and the Indians did not receive the first annuity until September, 1811, three years after the treaty was made. The blockhouse which was promised for the defense of the Osage towns on the Osage River was useful only to the traders, being detached from the agency, and no competent person having charge. A mill was built and a blacksmith sent to the town of the Great Osages.
By the terms of the treaty of 1808, the Osage title to all land in Missouri was extinguished, excepting a strip twenty-four miles wide lying eastward from the western boundary of the State, and extending from the Missouri River south into the Territory of Arkansas. The eastern line extended a few miles east of Fort Clark, which was situated on a bluff on the Missouri River, near the present site of the town of Sibley. The principal village of the Osages was due south from the fort, on the Osage River, and it was this that Capt. Pike visited and described in 1806.
Mr. Sibley, in his report, commends the Osages for their uniform and constant faithfulness to the French and Americans. They offered their services to him when in command of Fort Clark, when British emissaries attempted to engage them in their service, and declared their determination "never to desert their American father as long as he was faithful to them." He says that "of all the Missouri Indians, they were the least accessible to British influence."
At about the time of this report, a portion of the Osage nation removed from the old location on the forks of the Osage River, and settled on the bank of the River Neosho, in the present county of Labette.
In 1817, the Cherokees attacked the Osage village on the Verdigris during the absence of Clermont and his warriors, fired the town, destroyed the crops, and took prisoners fifty or sixty of the old men, women and children who were left there. This assault was followed by mutual acts of recrimination between the hostile tribes, eventuating in war, which lasted several years, the Delawares joining the Cherokees as allies. A treaty of peace between the contending nations was concluded at Belle Point in 1822.
The Osage nation, in 1818, as pay for property taken from citizens of the United States "by war parties and other thoughtless men of their several bands," and being destitute of funds to do that justice to the citizens of the United States which is calculated to promote a friendly intercourse, have agreed, and do hereby cede to the United States, and forever quit claim to the tract of country included within the following bounds, to wit: "Beginning at the Arkansas River, at where the present Osage boundary line strikes the river at Frog Bayou; then up the Arkansas and Verdigris to the falls of Verdigris River; thence eastwardly to the said Osage boundary line at a point twenty leagues north from the Arkansas River; and with that line to the place of beginning.'"
In consideration of the above-described cession, the United States agreed to pay their own citizens the losses they had sustained at the hands of the Osages, provided the same did not exceed the sum of $4,000.
Three years after this treaty was concluded, the following report of their location and condition was made by their agent at Fort Osage. The report is dated October 1, 1820:
"The Great Osages, of the Osage River. They live in one village on the Osage River, seventy-eight miles (measured), due south of Fort Osage. They hunt over a very great extent of country, comprising the Osage, Gasconade and Neeozho Rivers, and their numerous branches. They also hunt on the heads of the St. Francis and White Rivers, and on the Arkansas. I rate them at about one thousand two hundred souls, three hundred and fifty of whom are warriors and hunters, fifty or sixty superannuated, and the rest are women and children.
The Great Osages, of the Neeozho, "about one hundred and thirty or forty miles southwest of Fort Osage; one village on the Neeozho River. They hunt pretty much in common with the tribe of the Osage River, from which they separated six or eight years ago. This village contains about four hundred souls, of whom about one hundred are warriors and hunters, some ten or fifteen aged persons, and the rest are women and children.
Papuisea; or, White Hair, principal chief.
The Little Osages. Three villages on the Neeozho River, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty miles southwest of this place. This tribe, comprising all three villages, and comprehending about twenty families--of Missouries that are intermarried with them--I rate at about one thousand souls, about three hundred of whom are hunters and warriors, twenty or thirty superannuated, and the rest are women and children. They hunt pretty much in common with the other tribes of Osages mentioned, and frequently on the head-waters of the Kanzas, some of the branches of which interlock with those of the Neeozho.
Nechoumani; or, Walk in Rain, principal chief.
Of the Chaneers; or, Arkansas tribes of Osages, I need say nothing, because they do not resort here to trade. I have always rated that tribe at about an equal half of all the Osages. They hunt chiefly in the Arkanzas and White River, and their waters."
Mr. Sibley, the agent, states that it is impossible to obtain an exact enumeration of the tribes, as they are continually removing from one village to another, and intermarrying, but the above is as near the truth as it is possible to get. As to their mode of subsistence, he writes as follows:
"The main dependence of each and every (one) of the tribes is hunting. They would all class alike in respect of their pursuits; therefore, one general remark will suffice for all.
They raise annually small crops of corn, beans and pumpkins. These they cultivate entirely with the hoe, in the simplest manner. Their crops are usually planted in April, and receive one dressing before they leave their villages for the summer hunt in May. About the first week in August, they return to their villages to gather their crops, which have been left unhoed and unfenced all the season.
Each family, if lucky, can save from ten to twenty bags of corn and beans, of a bushel and a half each, besides a quantity of dried pumpkins. On this they feast, with the dried meat saved in summer, till September, when what remains is cashed, and they set out on the fall hunt, from which they return about Christmas. From that time, till some time in February or March, as the season happens to be mild or severe, they stay pretty much in their villages, making only short hunting excursions occasionally, and during that time they consume the greater part of their cashes. In February or March, the spring hunt commences; first the bear, and then the beaver hunt. This they pursue till planting time, when they again return to their village, pitch their crops, and in May set out for the summer hunt, taking with them their residue, if any, of their corn. This is the circle of an Osage life, here and there indented with war and trading expeditions, and thus it has been with very little variation these twelve years past. The game is very sensibly diminishing in the country which these tribes inhabit; but has not yet become scarce. Its gradual diminution seems to have had no other effect on the Indians than to make them more expert and industrious hunters, and better warriors."
The following extracts from the first annual report of the Superintendent at Union Mission, on the Neosho, to the Secretary of War (October, 1821), describe the villages of Osages of the Arkansaw somewhat more in detail:
"The Osages of the Arkansaw occupy several villages. The principal village contains about three hundred lodges or huts and about three thousand souls. The lodges are generally from fifty to a hundred feet in length and irregularly arranged. They cover a surface of about half a mile square. * * * * * The men are generally of a lofty stature, of a fine form and of a frank and open countenance. In council, they are dignified, and in their speeches eloquent. The women, although strong and active, are not proportionally tall. The children are numerous and remarkably submissive to parental authority."
Dr. Palmer, connected with the same mission, writes, March 18, 1820:
"Soon after we arrived, some of the Indians came, as they said, to shake hands with us. We found them equal to our expectations in every respect, a noble race of people. In this introduction, we agreed, at their request, to hold a council with them, at their town, within ten days. At the appointed time, I was one of the four who went over to the council. In passing that distance, about twenty-five miles, we found the land a continued level and rich prairie. When we came in sight of the town, we had one of the grandest prospects I ever beheld. To a great extent around the town the land appears perfectly level. At two or three miles distance from the town, there are several natural mounds, rising directly from a perfect plain to the height of about two hundred feet. All the mounds appear to rise to just the same height, and as level at the top as the adjacent plains. The one nearest to the town has about three acres on the top and is accessible only in one or two places."
On the 2d day of June, 1825, the Osage nation relinquished its title to all the lands it still claimed in Missouri and Arkansas, and in addition, ceded to the United States "all lands lying west of the said State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas, north and west of the Red River, south of the Kansas River, and east of a line to be drawn from the head sources of the Kansas southwardly through the Rock Saline."
Article 2 of the treaty contained the following reservation:
"Within the limits of the country above ceded and relinquished, there shall be reserved to and for the Great and Little Osage tribes or nation aforesaid, so long as they may choose to occupy the same, the following described tract of land: "Beginning at a point due east of White Hair's village and twenty-five miles west of the western boundary line of the State of Missouri, fronting on a north and south line, so as to leave ten miles north and forty miles south of the point of said beginning, and extending west, with the width of fifty miles, to the western boundary of the lands hereby ceded and relinquished by said tribes or nations."
In addition to the principal reservation, various half-breed and other small reservations were located on the Neosho, Marais des Cygnes and Mine Rivers, including the sections whereon the principal improvements had been made, and those on which the missionary establishments were located.
The United States agreed to pay the Osage nation, in consideration of the cession, yearly annuities to the amount of $7,000 for twenty years; also to provide for them stock, farming utensils, a person to teach them agriculture, and a blacksmith; to build for each of the four principal chiefs a comfortable and commodious dwelling house; and to pay any debts which citizens of the United States, members of the Delaware nation, and certain traders, held against them.
The trading interests among the Osages were principally in the hands of a few persons who represented large and influential companies at St. Louis. Pierre Choteau, Manuel De Liza, Pierre Menard, Hugh Glen and other early Indian traders acquired an ascendancy over this tribe and their affairs that proved detrimental, if not fatal, to the efforts of the Protestant missionaries and teachers who sought to induce them to forsake their wandering, savage life, and endeavor to procure a subsistence by the slow and unexciting methods of agriculture.
Those of the traders who desired to enrich themselves by the barter in furs and peltries of course would desire to see the nation continue to follow the chase, and would discourage any intimation of improvement. The impression was fostered that they were an uncommonly savage, warlike race, and the advent of educators among them was undesired and discouraged. This, added to their own indolence and apathy in regard to improvement, disheartened those who made the earliest attempts for their advancement, and the early Protestant missions were abandoned.
In the course of ten or twelve years, the Osages were reduced in numbers, and had become a most degraded, servile people--neglected by Government and imposed upon by traders and agents. The teachers of agriculture stipulated for in the treaty of 1825 were unable to render them much service, and left the country. The blacksmiths also departed. Their annuities, after a few years, were paid to them in articles of but little real value; and, sinking from bad to worse, from poverty almost to starvation, they finally eked out the scanty supplies of the chase by incursions into the neighboring white settlements of Missouri and Arkansas.
In 1837, these depredations became so serious that the frontier citizens of Missouri called for the assistance of the State militia, and a force of 500 men was sent to the border to quell the disturbances. The miserable condition of the Osages was reported to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the fall of 1837, and an act was passed, January 11, 1839, allowing them to take the amount of their next annuity in articles of food, instead of money, making an appropriation to aid them in farming operations; also providing them two millers and two blacksmith establishments.
In 1842, Fort Scott was established as a military post, Hiero T. Wilson being appointed Post Sutler the succeeding year. This post became a trading resort for the Osages, and continued such for many years. The Catholic missionary institutions which were founded among them proved more successful than the early efforts of the Presbyterians, and many of the Osage children were benefited by the various branches of the Catholic Osage Mission.
White Hair, the venerable chief of the Grand Osages, became a convert to the faith so zealously preached and so faithfully exemplified by the devoted priests, and, after his death, his successor also was baptized into the communion of the same church. The Indian Agency was removed from the Neosho to Quapaw country, but the Osages continued to live in their old villages, if they could be said to have a home anywhere, so great a part of their time being spent in hunting or idly wandering from place to place.
During the first year of the war of the rebellion, the Osage Agency was removed to Fort Scott. One regiment of the Indian Brigade was composed of the Osages, and throughout the whole struggle the tribe were faithful allies of the Unionists.
On September 19, 1865, by the terms of the treaty made at Canville Trading Post, the Great and Little Osage Indians sold to the United States the following defined country:
"Beginning at the southeast corner of their present reservation, and running thence north, with the eastern boundary thereof, fifty miles, to the northeast corner; thence west with the northern line, thirty miles; thence south fifty miles, to the southern boundary to said reservation; and thence east with said boundary to the place of beginning; provided that the western boundary of said land herein ceded shall not extend farther westward than a line commencing at a point on the southern boundary of said Osage country, one mile east of the place where the Verdigris River crosses the southern boundary of the State of Kansas."
For this tract of country, afterward known as the "Osage Ceded Lands," the United States was to pay $300,000, "which sum should be placed to the credit of the nation in the Treasury of the United States, interest at 5 per cent thereon, to paid to the tribe semi-annually, in money or such articles or merchandise as the Secretary of Interior may direct," no pre-emption claim or homestead settlement to be allowed on the land so ceded. After reimbursing the United States, the purchase money ($300,000), and paying expense of survey and sale, the residue of proceeds to be placed in United States Treasury to credit of "Indian Civilization Fund."
The Osages, by the same treaty, also ceded "a tract of land twenty miles in width from north to south off the north side of the remainder of their present reservation, and extending its entire length from east to west;" which land was to be held in trust for said Indians, and to be surveyed and sold for their benefit, under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, at a price not less than $1.25 per acre. This cession was known as the "Osage Trust Lands."
The remaining strip, thirty miles in width, and lying west of the "Ceded Lands," was the "Osage Diminished Reserve." After the treaty of 1865, the tribe moved on to this reservation, a part settling on Pumpkin Creek, in the Verdigris Valley, and several bands at the junction of Fall River with the Verdigris. On February 14, 1877, the Osages, after trying in vain to obtain the payments due from the United States under the terms of the treaty of 1865, made a contract with Charles Ewing, an attorney at Washington, by the terms of which, as approved by Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Ewing was to obtain payment for all lands which had been sold or used contrary to the terms specified in the treaty; to procure certain payments for the Clermont band of Osages; to secure pensions to dependent families of Osages who were killed by Kansas militia in 1873, and patents for the lands owned by the Osages in the Indian Territory at the date of the contract. The nation were to pay the attorney 7 1/2 per cent of any sum he might recover from the United States. June 16, 1880, a law was enacted, directing, in effect, that the Osages should be paid an amount equivalent to the loss they had sustained by the non-observance of the treaty. They were accordingly credited with $1,028,785.15, paid in two settlements, as follows:
August 14, 1880 ............................... $792,701.27
June 1, 1881 ................................... 236,083.88
The final result of the negotiation--the amount of Mr. Ewing's claims for fee being adjusted by United States officials--was the transfer of the sum of $1,156,351.32 from the United States Treasury to the following beneficiaries:
To the Osage Indians .......................... $1,028,785.15
To Charles Ewing, attorney ........................ 71,901.68
To the civilization fund,
for educating and civilizing Indians ...55,664.49
Total ......................................... $1,156,351.32
At the time this contract was concluded with Mr. Ewing (1877), the tribe was divided into eight bands, and numbered about four thousand souls. At Big Hill, the largest town, were 100 lodges and about 950 souls. White Hair's band was reduced to between three and four hundred; and the Little Osage, to 700. Since the tribe obtained the payment of the sum due them by Government, their condition has materially altered for the better. They now (1882) number 1,950. They have built, within the past year, about one hundred box houses, with stone chimneys, the work being done by themselves. In regard to the education of the children, also, they are making satisfactory progress, several being members of the Indian school in Carlisle, Penn.
Osage Missionary Establishments
In the fall of 1820, two Presbyterian Missions were established among the Osages by the United Foreign Missionary Society--Union Station, on the Neosho River; and Harmony Station, on the Marais des Cygnes,* about six miles above its junction with the Osage.
Rev. Messrs. Chapman and Vinall were sent to the Arkansas in 1819, as agents for the society, and had proceeded up the river 400 miles, when Mr. Vinall was attacked with disease consequent to his great fatigue and exposure, and died during the summer. Mr Chapman continued his journey to the Osage villages on the Verdigris and Neosho, was very kindly received by the Indians, and obtained from the chiefs cessions of tracts of land on which the missions were established.
Union Station was situated on the west bank of the Neosho, about twenty-five miles north of its entrance into the Arkansas, and about the same distance from the principal Osage village. The tract embraced a prairie of about four miles square, with the Neosho on north and east, and lofty hills on the south and west. The buildings were erected on an eminence about a mile from the river, the estimated value of the missionary property, according to the first annual report of October 30, 1821, being $20,000, including buildings, stock, produce, tools, books and furniture. Revs. Messrs Chapman and Vaill, Dr. Palmer and Mr. Redfield were stationed at Union.
Harmony Station was situated on the margin of the Marais des Cygnes River, six miles above its junction with the Osage, about fifteen miles east from the western line of the State of Missouri, and the same distance from the village of the Great Osages, on the Osage River. The buildings of the establishment were erected on the margin of the Marais des Cygnes, "a spacious and handsome green in front, and in the rear a vast prairie covered with grass." The mill site belonging to the mission, and the United States trading house, were a mile below, on opposite sides of the river.
In the course of the year, ten comfortable log houses were erected, the Indian school being kept in one of them. In the mission journal, date Friday, December 28, 1821, was the following entry: "Saw White Hair again to-day. He says that the meddling traders who are among them will be a great hindrance to our success in obtaining their children, as they are scattering the people. It appears evident that there are some traders among them that contrive every plan and adopt every kind of artifice and intrigue to lead or drive the Indians away from the trading houses established by Government in order to gain the trade themselves. White Hair says he thinks we shall obtain some children; but until these things can be regulated by Government, we cannot expect very great success."
In 1822, a saw-mill and grist-mill were erected, and the school contained sixteen Osage children, who were reported as making commendable progress.
By the provisions of the treaty of June, 1825, there were reserved from the territory ceded by the Osages "two sections of land, to include the Harmony missionary establishment, and the mill on the Marais des Cygnes; and one section, to include the missionary establishment above the Lick on the west side of Grand (Neosho) River, to be disposed of as the President of the United States shall direct, for the benefit of said missions, and to establish them at the principal villages of the Great and Little Osage nations, within the limits of the country reserved to them by this treaty, and to be kept up at said villages so long as said missions shall be usefully employed in teaching, civilizing and improving the said Indians."
Rev. Mr. Pixley, Dr. Belcher, Mr. and Mrs. Jones and Miss Comstock were among the earliest members of the Harmony establishment. These stations were designed to operate upon a large scale; the system of boarding schools was introduced, many missionaries and teachers were connected with them, and they labored zealously for the good of the children under their charge. Circumstances were not favorable, however, to the enterprise, and the missions were discontinued after a few discouraging years of toil and failure.
The Catholic Osage Mission.--In 1820, Rt. Rev. De Bourg, Bishop of New Orleans, appointed Rev. Charles La Croix missionary among the Osages residing in Missouri, the northern portion of his diocese. After a few years of labor, Father La Croix died, and was succeeded, in June 1824, by Rev. Charles Van Quickenborn, who established among the tribe a manual labor school at the town of Florissant, St. Louis Co., Mo. He also visited the portion of the tribe who were gathered at the Presbyterian establishment at Harmony, and, being allowed by the resident missionaries a room for a chapel, baptized several of the Osage children there, making the little mission in the wilderness an establishment worthy of its name.
In 1827, he visited the Osages on the Neosho, and the following year his labors were ended by death. For the next twenty years, the Osages were under the spiritual care of the fathers connected with St. Mary's Mission among the Pottawatomies. At the expiration of that time, the Osages requested the Rt. Rev. Peter R. Kendrick, Bishop of St. Louis, for the establishment of a Catholic school in their country, and he appointed Rev. Father John Schoenmakers, Superior of the Osage Mission, who immediately set out for the field of his future labors, accompanied by Father J. B. Bax and three lay brothers.
They arrived at Neosho April 29, 1847, and in two weeks had the two log buildings which constituted the mission in readiness to "gather in the children" and commence the "Osage Manual Labor School." In the fall of the same year, October 5, their labors were supplemented by those of the Sisters of Loretto, of Kentucky, six of whom, under charge of Mother Concordia Henning, arrived in October and opened a school for girls.
The establishment prospered and increased; new buildings were erected in 1849 and 1850; auxiliary stations were founded in the various Osage villages; the working force at the Mother Station was strengthened from time to time; and under the energetic and able management of Rev. Father Shoenmakers and his co-workers, the influence of the Osage Mission was felt as a power for good among the tribes of the Neosho and the Verdigris. And this influence was not confined to the Osages alone. From the Mother House in the Neosho Valley the fathers went forth to visit the Miamis, the Peorias, the Quapas and the Cherokees, and soon had scholars from among those tribes to educate and care for at their school.
During the war of the rebellion, the mission was nearly deserted, the loyalty of the fathers making them conspicuous objects of hatred to the marauding guerrilla bands that infested Southeastern Kansas.
After the treaty of 1865 with the Osages, work revived at the mission. After the Indians were settled in their new homes, they were again visited by their old friend, Father Schoenmakers, and the work of instruction was recommenced. A large church was built at the new mission station; also a school for the Sisters of Loretto; and the success and improvement of the tribe after their removal is to be attributed to the continued efforts of the missionaries in their behalf. In 1870, the schools at the old Osage Mission were chartered under the names and titles of "St Francis Institute" and "St. Ann's Academy." They are still under the management of Father Schoenmakers and the Sisters of Loreto, who have been in charge since 1847.
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