tlements are confined to the immediate vicinity of the water courses. On the Missouri there is a tract of country that may average twenty miles on the north, and ten on its south side, and extends as high as La Platte river, which for fertility of soil, convenience to a market, timber and salubrity of climate is not surpassed or perhaps equalled by any in the western world. Beyond these limits however is a country extending to the Rocky Mountains, of a thin meagre soil, destitute of timber and of water, and opposing insuperable barriers to the rapid progress of a white population; and although occasional spots of good land and timber may be found on the Kanses and La Platte, and other rivers, yet they are very insignificant compared with the whole body of the country, and the impossibility of navigating those streams will exclude from a distant market, any produce that may be raised there. On this narrow strip of good land upon the Missouri, our settlements are rapidly progressing, leaving upon both their flanks, numerous and warlike bands of Indians inhabiting these immense prairies over which they move with a velocity that will elude the pursuit of any white troops. Already have these settlements passed the Osages and Kanses on the south, and the Sacs and Jawas on the north. Hostility with any of these tribes would expose this narrow strip of frontier to the most distressing and irremediable devastations. Franklin is now a flourishing town with a thousand inhabitants situated one hundred and twenty miles beyond the residence of any civilized man in 1809. Settlements now extend up to fort Osage one hundred miles beyond Franklin. At the distance of ninety miles south of fort Osage, live the great Osage tribe of Indians. The proper name of this nation is the Wash Shash, the French traders have given them the name of Osages. They are divided into three bands. Arkansaw river counts about The great Osage tribe reside on the Osage River 550 warriors. 400 250 1200 The bands by which this confederacy are held together, consist exclusively in their attachment to national glory, no authority is exercised by one tribe over another, nor do any assemblages, occur for general purposes. But a participation, in wars appear always to take place as well from necessity as choice. The Little Osages separated from the Great Osages about one hundred years ago, and moved to the Missouri river, they were however so sorely pressed by their enemies that they begged permission to return, and now reside within six miles of the Great Osage village. The Arkansaw schism was effected in about 1796, and there is reason to believe that the other villages will join the Arkansaw, rather than the Arkansaw return to its ancient residence, inasmuch as the Great and Little Osages are obliged to hunt every winter on the Arkansaw, and the nations they are least afraid of, reside westward of that river and it is from thence they get all their horses. Their government is oligarchical, but still partakes of the nature of a republic, for although the power is nominally vested in a small number of chiefs, yet no measure of importance is ever decided upon, without the consent of the majority of the nation. The chiefs are hereditary in most instances, yet there are many men who have risen to more influence than those of illustrious ancestry, by their activity and boldness in war; and the usurpations upon this nominal hereditary right are so frequent, that almost every man in the nation can boast that the supreme power was at one time vested in some of his family. When the regular heir is too young, the power is assumed by VOL. I. 38 his uncle, or next nearest relation; this is now the case with the Little Osages, their chief died some time since, leaving a young child, the power was assumed by the uncle, who still holds it, and will probably not be dispossessed during his life. The Osages in their hunting excursions rove over a vast extent of country, comprising the head waters of the White, St. Francis, Merrimach, Gasconade, the whole of the Osage river and its branches, the middle region of the Arkansaw, and the southernmost branches of the Kanses, far the greater part of this immense tract is prairie. Sometimes they hunt even beyond the Arkansaw, and their war excursions often extend to the waters of Red river and to the north-west branches of La Platte. But their war and hunting excursions are more limited than they were a few years ago, and are yearly growing less extensive. Their agriculture is very limited and probably has been the same for one hundred years; corn, beans, pumpkins, and melons are all they raise. These are planted early in May, at some spot near their village; they remain at their village until about, the 25th of the month, when they hoe their corn, and leave it for their summer's hunt on the plains after buffaloe. They do not return until the corn begins to ripen in August, and as soon as they have gathered it, they start again on their winter hunt. The Osages procure deer, beaver, otto, muskrat, and buffaloe skins, these they exchange for blankets, guns, kettles, beads, and paint, either at the trading-house near their village, or at the United States factory at fort Osage; residing, as they do, so far south, their furs are not very valuable. These people have been noted for their uncommon stature, and they are undoubtedly somewhat above the common size of men; this probably is to be attributed to their living plentifully in a very healthy country, the constant exercise of hunting, the frequent removal of their camps, and from being cleanly in their persons, and making free use of the bath. The Osages appear to have emigrated from the north-west, as they speak very nearly the same language as the Kanses, Ottoes, Missouris, and Mahaws, there is also great similarity of manners. The Osages by parting from these tribes, and leaving the Missouri river escaped the small-pox and their mortal enemies the Sioux; they have, however, fallen in. to the hands of the Iowas, Sacs, Kickapoos, Cherokees, Caddoes, and Tetars, with several or with all of whom they have since been at war. They are now at war with the Pawnees, Ottoes, and Cherokees, and are on the most friendly terms with their neighbours the Kanses. At their councils or debates on subjects of national concern, as going to war, making peace, selecting hunting grounds, &c., the greatest order and decorum is preserved, the chiefs, warriors, and other distinguished men, alone speak on these oc. casions; the question is discussed with great freedom; if a chief happen not to be a good speaker he generally employs an orator to deliver his sentiments. Polygamy is allowed among all Indian tribes. An Indian takes as many wives as he is able to support, of his capacity to do so the parents of the woman are the judges, and the affair is exclusively managed through their medium. Female virtue is much prized among the Osages, and the women are extremely guarded in this respect. No people in the world. can have a more horrid repugnance to an incestuous intercourse, cousins are forbidden to marry. It appears to be the general opinion of traders, that the Osages are decreasing in number. This is owing to the continual wars in which they are engaged, in the course of which, latterly, they have met with severe losses. They have now so far to go in pursuit of the buffaloe, that their enemies frequently meet them on those excursions. Not long since, a party of Kanses and Osages hunting together, were fallen upon by their enemies and one hundred of them killed; soon after this, a war-party of Osages consisting of fifty men, were at tacked and forty-nine killed. If they were less addicted to war, they would probably increase rapidly. The Osages believe in a great and powerful being, who created and governs the world, and dispenses favours to the good and punishments to the bad; his face is the sun, and the moon is his wife: their prayers are addressed to God the great father and to the moon their good mother; they believe also in what they call the God of all bad things, who they suppose to be very powerful, and to whom they often address themselves when in great misery and distress. They believe that rewards and punishments are inflicted during their lives and that when they die their affairs, as regards this world, are finally closed; they appear to believe in a future state of existence, but give themselves very little care or concern in what it will consist; and no certain opinion, or belief exists among them on that subject. After death the bodies of the dead are dressed by their relations and friends in their best apparel, their faces painted with vermilion and verdigris, and deposited in graves without coffins, piling logs and stones over them to prevent their being dug up by the wolves. When they mourn for the death of relations they paint themselves black, and frequently retire to the woods and lacerate their bodies, the women mourn aloud with hideous cries, not only for the loss of relations, but in most difficult and unpleasant situations. An Iowa Indian was about eight years ago confined in the jail at St. Louis for the murder of a white man, some of his relations came to St. Louis to solicit his release, a few mornings after their arrival they painted their faces black, placed a blanket over their shoulders which they fastened by sticks thrust through the fleshy parts of their arms and bodies, and singing their death songs, and with blood streaming from their wounds, they went to the house of the governor to make their solicitations. |