A first for the Osage.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Osage, a small group of Indians in the Midwest, lived in permanent structures they erected along the Mississippi, Missouri, Osage, and Red Rivers of the Upper Louisiana Territory. By the end of the eighteenth century they numbered about six thousand. Their first contact with European ideals, beliefs, and customs came through their association with the French at the end of the seventeenth century. Members of the tribe were skilled trappers, and they supplied pelts to the French, who were eager to gain control of the highly profitable fur trade in this region.

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By 1804, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked near Saint Louis on the Mississippi River on their legendary expedition in search of a route to the Pacific, the Osage had become important players in the fur trade, which introduced them to all kinds of consumer goods that were new to them. As enthusiastic traders, some members of the tribe enjoyed enormous wealth. Through their cooperative business ventures, they also became one of the very few groups of Indians who were never at war with either the French or the Americans and were not displaced until they ceded their lands in the early 1800s and again in the 1870s. Shortly thereafter the tribe became very wealthy when their land was discovered to contain both abundant mineral deposits and oil. Aside from enjoying the benefits of a cash economy, the Osage were hunters and farmers, and like so many other Indians, they were skilled at weaving, carving, and bead- and featherwork, fashioning elegant objects and exquisite clothing.

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Two bicentennials are being celebrated in Saint Louis this year--the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. (Additionally, this is the centennial of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition; see pp. 78-87 of this ...