Osage Nation

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and other agency records.



Ancestral Homeland: Between Missouri and Arkansas River Culture area: Southern Prairie, in Missouri area Linguistic group: Dhegiha Siouan Federal Status: Recognized Bands: Pahatsi or Great Osage, Utsehta or Little Osage, and Santsukhdhi or Arkansas.

Tribal Headquarters
Osage Tribe 627 Grandview Pawhuska, OK 74056 Phone: 1.918.287.1128 Fax: 1.918.287.5562

Population: 1984: Tribal Enrollment: 2,229.

Brief Timeline

 * Forced from the east, by the powerful Iroquois Indians; to the Missouri area.


 * 1673: Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet French explorers visited the Tribe along the Osage River.
 * 1755: Battle of Fort Duquesne, French aided by Indian warriors, defeated the English troops and killed, Major General Edward Braddock.
 * 1795-1802: Auguste Chouteau, a fur trader who controlled the trade with the Osage and built Fort Carondelet in 1795.
 * 1808: Treaty at Fort Clark, Kansas; ceded 200 square miles in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.
 * November 1815: asked to sell
 * 1818: Land cession-Treaty
 * 1820: The tribe moved to Kansas
 * 1822: Some of the Missouri bands moved farther west to the Neosho River
 * 1824-1851: Tribe under the jurisdiction of the Osage Agency
 * 1825: Land cession Missouri, Arkansas, and northeastern Oklahoma - Treaty
 * 1839: Land cession Missouri, Arkansas, and northeastern Oklahoma - Treaty
 * Accepted a reservation on the Kansas portion of their ancestral lands.
 * 1851-74: Tribe under the jurisdiction of the Neosho Agency
 * 1865: Land cession Kansas -Treaty removed to Indian Territory
 * 1868-69: Served as scouts in the U.S. Army in Sheridan's Campaign
 * 1870: Treaty established the Osage Reservation in the northeastern part of Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
 * 1871: Osage Tribe of Kansas purchase land from Cherokee Nation creating the Osage reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
 * 1874-80: Tribe under the jurisdiction of the Osage Agency
 * 1894: Oil discovered on the reservation.In 1904 there were 155 oil-producing wells and 18 gas wells on the reservation.
 * June 28, 1906: Osage Allotment Act. " ..all persons enrolled as Osage before January 1,1906, and all born between then and July 1, 1907, would share in the division of the land and resources." When the roll was closed in 1907, it contained 2,229 names: 926 full-bloods and 1,303 mixed bloods including Indians and non-Indian adoptees.
 * 1919-1929: Tribe received money when oil was discovered on their land.

Agencies
Osage Agency Kansas

Osage Agency Oklahoma

Neosho Agency

Reservations
Osage Reservation

Superintendencies
The tribe was under the following superintendencies: St. Louis, Western, Southern and Central Superintendencies.

Records
Correspondence and Census records

Enrollment
Records, 1827-1910, consists of correspondence, reports, affidavits, briefs, transcripts of testimony, copies of annuity payments rolls, maps, and other records concerning contested enrollments in the Osage Nation.

1908 Osage "Final Roll".The Journal of American Indian Family Research.1989. Vol. 10 No. 1. Pages 5-28, Vol. 10 No. 2 pages 38-58, Vol. 10 No.3 pages 46-50, Vol. 10 No. 4 pages 44-56 Editor Larry S. Watson. FHL book 970.1 J825j

Land and Property
Tribally owned land: 674.80 acres. Allotted land: 170,307.18 acres.

Trader Accounts
1898 Osage Trader Accounts.The Journal of American Indian Family Research. Vol.11 no. 3 1990. FHL 970.1 J825j pages 19-33

Treaties

 * 1808 November 10, at Fort Clark
 * 1815 September 12, at Portage des Sioux
 * 1818 September 25, at St. Louis
 * 1822 August 31,
 * 1825 June 2, at St. Louis
 * 1825 August 10, at Council Grove with the Great and Little Osage
 * 1835 August 24, at Camp Holmes with the Comanche, Ect.,
 * 1839 January 11, at Fort Gibson
 * 1865 September 29, at Canville Trading Post
 * 1865 September 13, at Fort Smith - unratified- with the Cherokee and Other Tribes in the Indian Territory

W.S. Fitzpatrick. Treaties and Laws of the Osage Nation, as passed November 26, 1890. Cedar Vale, KN. Press of the Cedar Vale Commercial, 1895.

Vital Records

 * Osage Agency, NARA M595, births and deaths 1924-1931, FHL Film: 579734

For Further Reading
See also American Indian For Further Reading.

Dickerson, Philip Jackson. Osage Nation: History of its People, FHL digitized

Dorsey, George Ames. Traditions of the Osage. Chicago, 1904. Field Columbia Museum. Publication no. 88.

Graves, W. W. Annals of Osage Mission FHL 978.1 H2gr  Film 1036377 item 3

Mathews, John Joseph. The Osages, Children of the Middle Waters. FHL book 970.3 Os1m

Mathews, John Joseph. Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and the White Man's Road. FHL book 970.3 OS1mj


 * Osage Nation Official Website
 * Osage Nation Wikipedia