Nearly two months have elapsed since I arrived at this post, on my way
up the river from the Mississippi, to join the regiment of dragoons on
their campaign into the country of the Camanchees and Pawnee Picts;
during which time, I have been industriously at work with my brush and
my pen, recording the looks and the deeds of the Osages, who inhabit
the country on the North and the West of this.
The Osage, or (as they call themselves) _Wa-saw-see_, are a tribe of
about 5200 in numbers, inhabiting and hunting over the head-waters
of the Arkansas, and Neosho or Grand Rivers. Their present residence
is about 700 miles West of the Mississippi river: in three villages,
constituted of wigwams, built of barks and flags or reeds. One of these
villages is within forty miles of this Fort; another within sixty, and
the third about eighty miles. Their chief place of trade is with the
sutlers at this post; and there are constantly more or less of them
encamped about the garrison.
The Osages may justly be said to be the tallest race of men in North
America, either of red or white skins; there being very few indeed of
the men, at their full growth, who are less than six feet in stature,
and very many of them six and a half, and others seven feet. They are
at the same time well-proportioned in their limbs, and good looking;
being rather narrow in the shoulders, and, like most all very tall
people, a little inclined to stoop; not throwing the chest out, and
the head and shoulders back, quite as much as the Crows and Mandans,
and other tribes amongst which I have been familiar. Their movement is
graceful and quick; and in war and the chase, I think they are equal to
any of the tribes about them.
This tribe, though living, as they long have, near the borders of
the civilized community, have studiously rejected everything of
civilized customs; and are uniformly dressed in skins of their own
dressing—strictly maintaining their primitive looks and manners,
without the slightest appearance of innovations, excepting in the
blankets, which have been recently admitted to their use instead of the
buffalo robes, which are now getting scarce amongst them.
The Osages are one of the tribes who shave the head, as I have before
described when speaking of the Pawnees and Konzas, and they decorate
and paint it with great care, and some considerable taste. There is
a peculiarity in the heads of these people which is very striking to
the eye of a traveller; and which I find is produced by artificial
means in infancy. Their children, like those of all the other tribes,
are carried on a board, and slung upon the mother’s back. The infants
are lashed to the boards, with their backs upon them, apparently in
a very uncomfortable condition; and with the Osages, the head of the
child bound down so tight to the board, as to force in the occipital
bone, and create an unnatural deficiency on the back part, and
consequently more than a natural elevation of the top of the head.
This custom, they told me they practiced, because “it pressed out a
bold and manly appearance in front.” This I think, from observation,
to be rather imaginary than real; as I cannot see that they exhibit
any extraordinary development in the front; though they evidently
shew a striking deficiency on the back part, and also an unnatural
elevation on the top of the head, which is, no doubt, produced by this
custom. The difference between this mode and the one practiced by the
Flathead Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains, consists in this, that
the Flatheads press the head _between_ two boards; the one pressing
the frontal bone down, whilst the other is pressing the occipital up,
producing the most frightful deformity; whilst the Osages merely press
the occipital in, and that, but to a moderate degree, occasioning but
a slight, and in many cases, almost immaterial, departure from the
symmetry of nature.
[Illustration: 150]
[Illustration: 151]
These people, like all those tribes who shave the head, cut and slit
their ears very much, and suspend from them great quantities of wampum
and tinsel ornaments. Their necks are generally ornamented also with
a profusion of wampum and beads; and as they live in a warm climate
where there is not so much necessity for warm clothing, as amongst the
more Northern tribes, of whom I have been heretofore speaking; their
shoulders, arms, and chests are generally naked, and painted in a great
variety of picturesque ways, with silver bands on the wrists, and
oftentimes a profusion of rings on the fingers.
The head-chief of the Osages at this time, is a young man by the name
of Clermont (+plate+ 150), the son of a very distinguished chief of
that name, who recently died; leaving his son his successor, with the
consent of the tribe. I painted the portrait of this chief at full
length, in a beautiful dress, his leggings fringed with scalp-locks,
and in his hand his favourite and valued war-club.
By his side I have painted also at full length, his wife and child
(+plate+ 151). She was richly dressed in costly cloths of civilized
manufacture, which is almost a solitary instance amongst the Osages,
who so studiously reject every luxury and every custom of civilized
people; and amongst those, the use of whiskey, which is on all sides
tendered to them—but almost uniformly rejected! This is an unusual and
unaccountable thing, unless the influence which the missionaries and
teachers have exercised over them, has induced them to abandon the
pernicious and destructive habit of drinking to excess. From what I can
learn, the Osages were once fond of whiskey; and, like all other tribes
who have had the opportunity, were in the habit of using it to excess.
Several very good and exemplary men have been for years past exerting
their greatest efforts, with those of their families, amongst these
people; having established schools and agricultural experiments amongst
them. And I am fully of the opinion, that this decided anomaly in the
Indian country, has resulted from the devoted exertions of these pious
and good men.
Amongst the chiefs of the Osages, and probably the next in authority
and respect in the tribe, is Tchong-tas-sab-bee, the black dog (+plate+
152), whom I painted also at full length, with his pipe in one hand,
and his tomahawk in the other; his head shaved, and ornamented with a
beautiful crest of deers’ hair, and his body wrapped in a huge mackinaw
blanket.
This dignitary, who is blind in the left eye, is one of the most
conspicuous characters in all this country, rendered so by his huge
size (standing in height and in girth, above all of his tribe), as
well as by his extraordinary life. The Black Dog is familiarly known
to all the officers of the army, as well as to Traders and all other
white men, who have traversed these regions, and I believe, admired and
respected by most of them.
His height, I think, is seven feet; and his limbs full and rather
fat, making his bulk formidable, and weighing, perhaps, some 250
or 300 pounds. This man is chief of one of the three bands of the
Osages, divided as they are into three families; occupying, as I
before said, three villages, denominated, “Clermont’s Village,” “Black
Dog’s Village,” and “White Hair’s Village.” The White Hair is another
distinguished leader of the Osages; and some have awarded to him the
title of _Head Chief_; but in the jealous feelings of rivalry which
have long agitated this tribe, and some times, even endangered its
peace, I believe it has been generally agreed that his claims are third
in the tribe; though he justly claims the title of a chief, and a very
gallant and excellent man. The portrait of this man, I regret to say, I
did not get.
Amongst the many brave and distinguished warriors of the tribe, one of
the most noted and respected is Tal-lee (+plate+ 153), painted at full
length, with his lance in his hand—his shield on his arm, and his bow
and quiver slung upon his back.
In this portrait, there is a fair specimen of the Osage figure and
dress, as well as of the facial outline, and shape and character of the
head, and mode of dressing and ornamenting it with the helmet-crest,
and the eagle’s quill.
If I had the time at present, I would unfold to the reader some of the
pleasing and extraordinary incidents of this gallant fellow’s military
life; and also the anecdotes that have grown out of the familiar life
I have led with this handsome and high-minded _gentleman_ of the wild
woods and prairies. Of the Black Dog I should say more also; and
most assuredly will not fail to do justice to these extraordinary men,
when I have leisure to write off all my notes, and turn biographer. At
present, I shake hands with these two noblemen, and bid them good-bye;
promising them, that if I never get time to say more of their virtues—I
shall say nothing against them.
[Illustration: 152]
[Illustration: 153]
In +plates+ 154, 155, 156, I have represented three braves,
Ko-ha-tunk-a (the big crow); Nah-com-e-shee (the man of the bed), and
Mun-ne-pus-kee (he who is not afraid). These portraits set forth fairly
the modes of dress and ornaments of the young men of the tribe, from
the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet. The only dress they
wear in warm weather is the breech-cloth, leggings, and moccasins of
dressed skins, and garters worn immediately below the knee, ornamented
profusely with beads and wampum.[5]
These three distinguished and ambitious young men, were of the best
families in the Osage nation; and as they explained to me, having
formed a peculiar attachment to each other—they desired me to paint
them all on one canvass, in which wish I indulged them.
Besides the above personages, I also painted the portraits of
_Wa-ho-beck-ee_ (————), a brave, and said to be the handsomest
man in the Osage nation; _Moi-een-e-shee_ (the constant walker);
_Wa-mash-ee-sheek_ (he who takes away); _Wa-chesh-uk_ (war);
_Mink-chesk_ (————); _Wash-im-pe-shee_ (the mad man), a distinguished
warrior; _Shin-ga-wos-sa_ (the handsome bird); _Cah-he-ga-shin-ga_ (the
little chief), and _Tcha-to-ga_ (the mad buffalo); all of which will
hang in my +Indian Museum+ for the inspection of the curious. The last
mentioned of these was tried and convicted of the murder of two white
men during Adams’s administration, and was afterwards pardoned, and
still lives, though in disgrace in his tribe, as one whose life had
been forfeited, “but (as they say) not worth taking.”
The Osages have been formerly, and until quite recently, a powerful
and warlike tribe; carrying their arms fearlessly through all of
these realms; and ready to cope with foes of any kind that they were
liable to meet. At present, the case is quite different; they have
been repeatedly moved and jostled along, from the head waters of the
White river, and even from the shores of the Mississippi, to where
they now are; and reduced by every war and every move. The small-pox
has taken its share of them at two or three different times; and the
Konzas, as they are now called, having been a part of the Osages, and
receded from them, impaired their strength; and have at last helped
to lessen the number of their warriors; so that their decline has
been very rapid, bringing them to the mere handful that now exists of
them; though still preserving their valour as warriors, which they
are continually shewing off as bravely and as professionally as they
can, with the Pawnees and the Camanchees, with whom they are waging
incessant war; although they are the principal sufferers in those
scenes which they fearlessly persist in, as if they were actually bent
on their self-destruction. Very great efforts have been, and are being
made amongst these people to civilize and christianize them; and still
I believe with but little success. Agriculture they have caught but
little of; and of religion and civilization still less. One good result
has, however, been produced by these faithful labourers, which is the
conversion of these people to temperance; which I consider the first
important step towards the other results, and which of itself is an
achievement that redounds much to the credit and humanity of those,
whose lives have been devoted to its accomplishment.
Here I must leave the Osages for the present, but not the reader, whose
company I still hope to have awhile longer, to hear how I get along
amongst the wild and untried scenes, that I am to start upon in a few
days, in company with the first regiment of dragoons, in the first
grand _civilized foray_, into the country of the wild and warlike
Camanchees.
[Illustration: 154 155 156]
[5] These three young men, with eight or ten others, were sent
out by the order of the Black Dog and the other chiefs, with the
regiment of dragoons, as guides and hunters, for the expedition to
the Camanchees, an account of which will be found in the following
pages.
I was a fellow-traveller and hunter with these young men for
several months, and therefore have related in the following
pages some of the incidents of our mutual exploits whilst in the
Camanchee country.
LETTER—No. 39.