Chapter II - Antiquity of the Osage
A.D. 1673
Antiquity of the Osage — Nation Father Jacques Marquette visits them — Respect they have for the Blackrobes — Kansas connection with the Osages — Their condition in 1687.
Concerning the antiquity of the Osages as a nation, it is difficult to tell anything positive. However judging from their physical appearance, from their language and habits, they seem to be a branch of the Great Dakota Family. The earliest mention we have of them is found in Father Marquette’s journal. This great missionary visited in 1673, when he was engaged in a voyage of discovery in company with Louis Jolliet (fur trader). From the account of those days it appears plainly that at that time they were already considered as a well organized nation, nay, a most powerful one. [1]
The visit of Father Marquette to the Osages was but a passing one. For being dependent on Louis Joliet’s party [2], could only stop a few days with them, and had no time to enter into a regular course of instruction in view of Christianizing them. However, the impression made on them by this visit was most favorable, and we may say that from that time they conceived a great esteem for the Blackrobes, and hearing of the wonders Father James Gravier, SJ [3] was daily performing among the Illinois, the Peorias and the Kaskaskias, who under his teaching had become fervent Christians. About the end of that century they sent a delegation made up of some of their own braves and Missouri warriors to wait on the father, requesting him to come to their village on the Osage River. Father Gravier was very much pleased with the delegation and promised that he would soon comply with their wishes. But God was satisfied with his good will, and called him to Himself about the year 1706. He died the death of a martyr, for he was brought to a premature death by the ill treatment he received from the Illinois Medicine men, who hated to see the great success he had in Christianizing their nation. [4]
The Osages, as well as most of the Indians living in contact with either the French or Spanish colonies, did always show a great respect for the Blackrobes, and this was in great part due to the generation in which they noticed the missionaries were kept by the colonists, whose officers, in all public demonstrations, would always treat the priests and bishops with the honor due to their character. Those however was not always the case with those Indians, who were living far off from said colonies, and who very seldom had any intercourse with white people.
An instance of this kind we find with the Osages, for but a few years after they had sent the above mentioned delegation to Father Gravier, a band of them living far off on the border of Texas, acted very differently with two good Franciscan fathers who had come to them from their missions of Queretaro and Zacatecas in Mexico. To what concerns the object of these two missionaries there is no doubt, but it could have been no better, for all they wanted was to bring to those poor Indians the good tidings of the Gospel. But the Osages seemed to have looked upon them as of two of the many adventurers running through the country; they killed one of them right away, the other they kept as a captive, and having remained in that condition for over a year, at last succeeded in making his escape. [5]
Of the nations most closely united to the Osages, the Kansas have certainly the right to be considered the first. And if one has to judge them from their appearance he will be bound to admit that in some remote times they and the Osages must have formed but one nation. In fact their countenance, their language and their habits are nearly the same. This opinion is corroborated by the testimony of Mr. du Pratz [6], who left us valuable records of old times. In there he tells us that in early days the Osages as well as the Kansas, when living on the northern lakes, were only one nation, but from the time they left the North and migrated to the beautiful valley of the Missouri, they separated from one another and began to form two different nations with different interests, and frequently at war among themselves.
In coming south the Osages located on a large tributary of the Missouri, gave to it their name, and even to this day it is called Osage River. The Kansas, about the same time, pitched their tents farther west on another tributary of the Missouri, called it also by their name, and with it keeps on running at present, people call it Kaw River.
1687
Father Douay [7], one of the survivors of that last disastrous expedition of la Salle in 1687 tells us, “That at the time the Osages had 17 villages on a river of their name, which empties in that of the Missourites, to which, says he, the maps have also extended the name Osage River.”
From all this it appears that the Osages as a nation always commanded respect and inspired fear, for everyone knew that in as much as they were noble and generous in dealing with their friends, so they were terrible with their foe. They seem to have been familiar with all the nations bordering the Mississippi, who looked at them as on a daring and independent set of warriors, rambling at pleasure through the whole country, especially on the western plains, for though they had their headquarters on the Osage River, they always considered the plains as their hunting ground.
A.D. 1673
Antiquity of the Osage — Nation Father Jacques Marquette visits them — Respect they have for the Blackrobes — Kansas connection with the Osages — Their condition in 1687.
Concerning the antiquity of the Osages as a nation, it is difficult to tell anything positive. However judging from their physical appearance, from their language and habits, they seem to be a branch of the Great Dakota Family. The earliest mention we have of them is found in Father Marquette’s journal. This great missionary visited in 1673, when he was engaged in a voyage of discovery in company with Louis Jolliet (fur trader). From the account of those days it appears plainly that at that time they were already considered as a well organized nation, nay, a most powerful one. [1]
The visit of Father Marquette to the Osages was but a passing one. For being dependent on Louis Joliet’s party [2], could only stop a few days with them, and had no time to enter into a regular course of instruction in view of Christianizing them. However, the impression made on them by this visit was most favorable, and we may say that from that time they conceived a great esteem for the Blackrobes, and hearing of the wonders Father James Gravier, SJ [3] was daily performing among the Illinois, the Peorias and the Kaskaskias, who under his teaching had become fervent Christians. About the end of that century they sent a delegation made up of some of their own braves and Missouri warriors to wait on the father, requesting him to come to their village on the Osage River. Father Gravier was very much pleased with the delegation and promised that he would soon comply with their wishes. But God was satisfied with his good will, and called him to Himself about the year 1706. He died the death of a martyr, for he was brought to a premature death by the ill treatment he received from the Illinois Medicine men, who hated to see the great success he had in Christianizing their nation. [4]
The Osages, as well as most of the Indians living in contact with either the French or Spanish colonies, did always show a great respect for the Blackrobes, and this was in great part due to the generation in which they noticed the missionaries were kept by the colonists, whose officers, in all public demonstrations, would always treat the priests and bishops with the honor due to their character. Those however was not always the case with those Indians, who were living far off from said colonies, and who very seldom had any intercourse with white people.
An instance of this kind we find with the Osages, for but a few years after they had sent the above mentioned delegation to Father Gravier, a band of them living far off on the border of Texas, acted very differently with two good Franciscan fathers who had come to them from their missions of Queretaro and Zacatecas in Mexico. To what concerns the object of these two missionaries there is no doubt, but it could have been no better, for all they wanted was to bring to those poor Indians the good tidings of the Gospel. But the Osages seemed to have looked upon them as of two of the many adventurers running through the country; they killed one of them right away, the other they kept as a captive, and having remained in that condition for over a year, at last succeeded in making his escape. [5]
Of the nations most closely united to the Osages, the Kansas have certainly the right to be considered the first. And if one has to judge them from their appearance he will be bound to admit that in some remote times they and the Osages must have formed but one nation. In fact their countenance, their language and their habits are nearly the same. This opinion is corroborated by the testimony of Mr. du Pratz [6], who left us valuable records of old times. In there he tells us that in early days the Osages as well as the Kansas, when living on the northern lakes, were only one nation, but from the time they left the North and migrated to the beautiful valley of the Missouri, they separated from one another and began to form two different nations with different interests, and frequently at war among themselves.
In coming south the Osages located on a large tributary of the Missouri, gave to it their name, and even to this day it is called Osage River. The Kansas, about the same time, pitched their tents farther west on another tributary of the Missouri, called it also by their name, and with it keeps on running at present, people call it Kaw River.
1687
Father Douay [7], one of the survivors of that last disastrous expedition of la Salle in 1687 tells us, “That at the time the Osages had 17 villages on a river of their name, which empties in that of the Missourites, to which, says he, the maps have also extended the name Osage River.”
From all this it appears that the Osages as a nation always commanded respect and inspired fear, for everyone knew that in as much as they were noble and generous in dealing with their friends, so they were terrible with their foe. They seem to have been familiar with all the nations bordering the Mississippi, who looked at them as on a daring and independent set of warriors, rambling at pleasure through the whole country, especially on the western plains, for though they had their headquarters on the Osage River, they always considered the plains as their hunting ground.
Some Reference Information:
Notes from the above:
[1] Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent. (Boston: Little, Brown, and company, 8 volumes, 1854–1860)
[2] Expedition of Marquette and Joliet, 1673
[3] “Jesuit missionary; born 1651 at Moulins, where he studied classics and philosophy under the Jesuits; died in Louisiana in 1708... In 1687 he succeeded Allouez in the Illinois mission begun by Marquette. He is the true founder of that mission, where he spent ten years of incredible hardship and suffering. He was the first to master the Illinois idiom, and reduced it to grammatical form.” (From the Catholic Encyclopedia)
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06732b.htm
[4] John Gilmary Shea History of the Catholic Missions Among the Indian Tribes of the United States pp 419-420 (1854)
[5] ibid. p 86
[6] Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz The History of Louisiana (1824)
[7] Anastase Douay, a Recollect friar with the La Salle Expedition (1684)
Transcribed by: Christopher Hunt
Notes from the above:
[1] Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent. (Boston: Little, Brown, and company, 8 volumes, 1854–1860)
[2] Expedition of Marquette and Joliet, 1673
[3] “Jesuit missionary; born 1651 at Moulins, where he studied classics and philosophy under the Jesuits; died in Louisiana in 1708... In 1687 he succeeded Allouez in the Illinois mission begun by Marquette. He is the true founder of that mission, where he spent ten years of incredible hardship and suffering. He was the first to master the Illinois idiom, and reduced it to grammatical form.” (From the Catholic Encyclopedia)
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06732b.htm
[4] John Gilmary Shea History of the Catholic Missions Among the Indian Tribes of the United States pp 419-420 (1854)
[5] ibid. p 86
[6] Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz The History of Louisiana (1824)
[7] Anastase Douay, a Recollect friar with the La Salle Expedition (1684)
Transcribed by: Christopher Hunt
