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Osage

The Osage are a Native American tribe belonging to the Dhegiha group of the Siouan language family, with their name derived from the tribal term Wa-zha'zhe, meaning "water people." Historically, they inhabited areas of present-day western Missouri and were known for their agricultural practices and reliance on buffalo before being forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the 1800s. The Osage traditionally organized themselves into two divisions, the Tzisho (Sky People) and Hunkah (Land People), consisting of various clans. Their early interactions with European explorers led to significant trade, but also to internal factionalism and conflicts over land cessions to the U.S. government.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the discovery of oil and gas on Osage territory transformed the tribe into one of the wealthiest Native nations, although this wealth brought challenges, including the infamous Osage Indian Murders during the "Reign of Terror." Today, the Osage Nation is governed by a tribal council and continues to balance modernity with the preservation of cultural traditions, language, and community values. Despite facing various challenges, the tribe has maintained its economic independence and commitment to cultural heritage, ensuring their identity remains vibrant in contemporary society.

Full Article

  • CATEGORY: Tribe
  • CULTURE AREA: Plains
  • LANGUAGE GROUP: Siouan (Dhegiha)
  • PRIMARY LOCATION: Oklahoma
  • POPULATION SIZE: 25,000 (Osage Nation Website, 2025)

The Osage are one of five tribes in the Dhegiha group of the Siouan language family. Osage is derived from the French pronunciation of the tribal name Wa-zha'zhe (‘Wazhazhe’ or ‘water people’). At the time of first encountering White people, the Osage lived primarily in modern-day western Missouri. Tribal legend and archaeological evidence suggest, however, that the ancient Osage lived east of the Mississippi River. Forced to relocate by the US federal government in the 1800s, the group remains a federally recognized tribe with tribal land in Oklahoma. In the twenty-first century, the Osage population is centered in Oklahoma, with other concentrations in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.

Traditional Life

Among early Plains peoples—before the introduction of the horse—the Osage held high rank. Although they depended heavily on the buffalo, the Osage also developed a strong agricultural base. They relied on dogs as beasts of burden before the horse was introduced to the region in the mid-1700s. Their villages were permanent. Their lodges were wood frames covered with woven mats or bark, and they ranged from 36 to 100 feet (10.97 to 30.48 meters) long. As bison grew scarce in the Mississippi Valley, bands were forced to extend hunting trips farther onto the Plains.

The Osage traditionally comprised two divisions (moieties): the Tzisho, or Sky People, and the Hunkah, or Land People. These moieties were then divided into twenty-one clans, with each person inheriting his or her father’s clan. The chief of the Tzisho division was the peace chief, while the war chief came from the Hunkah. Since the early nineteenth century, there also existed three political groups: the Great Osage, the Little Osage, and the Arkansas Osage. In marriage, spouses were required to be from opposite moieties, and a man who married an oldest daughter also held marriage rights to his wife’s younger sisters, a form of polygamy. Osage traditions told of a supernatural life force, Wakonda, which resided in all things. Shamans provided religious leadership, although there also existed a religious society to which both men and women belonged. Physically, the Osage were considered by many European Americans to be a noticeably tall tribe; they also often adorned themselves with tattoos.

History

The first recorded contact with the Osage was by French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet (1673). The French subsequently established a lucrative trade and a strong alliance with the Osage. Trade made the Osage a significant force among Plains tribes. The Osage recognized their strategic position in the Plains trade as middlemen and as gatekeepers to the region, and were persistent in protecting that advantage. Trade rivalry existed within the tribe, however, and ultimately caused factionalism. In the mid-1790s, trader Auguste Chouteau established a post on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and persuaded a large faction to locate there permanently, thus creating the Arkansas Band.

In 1808, the Osage ceded the northern half of Arkansas and most of Missouri to the United States, and the Great and Little Osage bands moved to the Neosho River in Kansas. This area became the center of tribal life. As the government removed eastern tribes to Indian Territory, however, clashes between the Osage and similarly removed Cherokee over hunting rights to the region escalated into a long, bloody war. United States agent William Lovely finally convinced the Osage to cede the region to the Cherokee in 1817. Still, hostilities continued, including one of the bloodiest battles between Indigenous people in Oklahoma history, the battle of Claremore Mound.

By 1825, the Osage had ceded all their lands to the United States through treaties and were given a reservation (in moddern-day southern Kansas. During this time, Protestant missionaries established among the Osage some of the first missions and schools in the region, though later they were replaced by Roman Catholic missionaries.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Confederate commissioner Albert Pike secured the allegiance of many Osage to the South, though many sided with the Union as well. This factionalism created tension among tribal members, already suffering from the ravages of White guerrilla raiders in Bleeding Kansas and related conflicts. After the war, the Union used the tribe’s Confederate allegiance to secure large land cessions through Reconstruction treaties.

Ultimately, the Osage were forced to sell all their lands to the government and use the proceeds to purchase a new reservation in the eastern end of the Cherokee Outlet in modern-day Osage County, Oklahoma. The post-Civil War years were hard on the tribe, bringing a nearly 50 percent decline in the tribe’s population because of poor medical aid and a scarcity of food and clothing. The bison were gone, and the land given to the Osage was the poorest in Indian Territory for agriculture. The range-cattle industry of the 1880s, however, offered some economic relief for the tribe, as they leased grazing rights to cattlemen. Some very lucrative oil and gas deposits were then discovered under the barren Osage lands. The royalties received from the leases on these resources catapulted the Osage to relative wealth and provided the financial foundation of the Osage Nation. The oil and mineral boom also attracted outsiders interested in the wealth, and controversial policies and plots ensued in a period that became known as the Reign of Terror, including a series of murders of Osage people with land rights, known as the Osage Indian Murders. Still, because of their shrewd leasing arrangements, the Osage became one of the wealthiest American Indigenous nations on a per capita basis. The popular book Killers of the Flower Moon (2017) and subsequent movie by the same title capture this time in Osage history. 

Osage men served the United States in World War I voluntarily and through the draft, despite not being official United States citizens. Many served in World War II as well. Though the oil and mineral wealth declined somewhat with the Great Depression, the Osage remained better off than many groups. Educational efforts worked to maintain a higher standard of living among the community.

Contemporary Life

In 2006, the Osage Nation adopted a Constitution establishing a government with three separate branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The twelve-member Osage Nation Congress enacts laws, approves budgets, and provides oversight of governmental operations. The Executive branch, led by a Principal Chief and an Assistant Principal Chief, administers programs and represents the Nation in intergovernmental affairs. The Judicial branch, consisting of Trial and Supreme Courts, interprets the Constitution and laws of the Nation. Although the Osage Nation functions as a sovereign government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through its Osage Agency in Pawhuska, continues to oversee certain trust responsibilities, particularly those involving the tribe’s federally managed mineral estate. The Osage Agency is unlike other agencies in Oklahoma in that all expenses accrued are paid with tribal funds. One of the central challenges the Osage Nation faced in the twentieth century was tribal membership, as its oil wealth made citizenship highly sought after. During the height of oil production, the name “Osage” became synonymous with prosperity and, at times, extravagant spending. This wealth brought both opportunity and tension, as many Osage people navigated the balance between modern influences and traditional values. Over time, the tribe pursued moderation and self-determination, using oil revenues to build economic independence and support education, culture, and community development.

By the twenty-first century, oil resources declined, leaving numerous abandoned and orphaned wells. In 2025, the Osage Nation sought full control of its mineral estate, requesting that the Bureau of Indian Affairs transfer authority over permitting, leasing, and management to the Osage Minerals Council. The initiative reflected the Nation’s ongoing effort to reduce federal oversight and strengthen sovereignty over its land and resources.


Bibliography

Baird, W. David. The Osage People. Indian Tribal Series, 1972.

Burns, Louis F. "Osage." Oklahoma Historical Society, 15 Jan. 2010, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS001. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Din, Gilbert C., and Abraham P. Nasatir. The Imperial Osages: Spanish-Indian Diplomacy in the Mississippi Valley. U of Oklahoma P, 1983.

“Government.” Osage Nation, 2025, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/government. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Matthews, John Joseph. Sundown. U of Oklahoma P, 1934.

Matthews, John Joseph. Wah’Kon-Tah: The Osage and the White Man’s Road. 1932, Reprint, U of Oklahoma P, 1981.

May, Jon D. "Osage Murders." Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

Mussulman, Joseph. and Kristopher K. Toensend. "The Osages." Discovering Lewis & Clark, 2025, lewis-clark.org/native-nations/siouan-peoples/osages/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

"The Osage." Fort Scott National Historic Site, Kansas, 25 May 2022, www.nps.gov/fosc/learn/historyculture/osage.htm. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Osage Nation, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

"Osage Nation Files Lawsuit Against United States Department of Interior Alleging Unlawfully Excessive Oversight of Osage Minerals Estate, Seeks Self-Governance." The Osage Nation, 7 Aug. 2024, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/osage-nation-files-lawsuit-against-united-states-department-interior-alleging. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025. 

Pablo, Thomas. “Osage Nation Seeks Full Control of Minerals Estate Amid Federal Cuts.” KOSU, 5 June 2025, www.kosu.org/local-news/2025-06-05/osage-nation-seeks-full-control-of-minerals-estate-amid-federal-cuts. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Rollings, Willard H. The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of the Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains. U of Missouri P, 1992.

Sadasivam, Naveena, Lylla Younes, and Allison Herrera. "Abandoned in Osage." Grist, 3 Nov. 2023, grist.org/accountability/abandoned-oil-wells-osage-nation/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025. 

Wilson, Terry P. The Osage. Chelsea House, 1988.

Wilson, Terry P. The Underground Reservation: Osage Oil. U of Nebraska P, 1985.

Full Article

  • CATEGORY: Tribe
  • CULTURE AREA: Plains
  • LANGUAGE GROUP: Siouan (Dhegiha)
  • PRIMARY LOCATION: Oklahoma
  • POPULATION SIZE: 25,000 (Osage Nation Website, 2025)

The Osage are one of five tribes in the Dhegiha group of the Siouan language family. Osage is derived from the French pronunciation of the tribal name Wa-zha'zhe (‘Wazhazhe’ or ‘water people’). At the time of first encountering White people, the Osage lived primarily in modern-day western Missouri. Tribal legend and archaeological evidence suggest, however, that the ancient Osage lived east of the Mississippi River. Forced to relocate by the US federal government in the 1800s, the group remains a federally recognized tribe with tribal land in Oklahoma. In the twenty-first century, the Osage population is centered in Oklahoma, with other concentrations in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.

Traditional Life

Among early Plains peoples—before the introduction of the horse—the Osage held high rank. Although they depended heavily on the buffalo, the Osage also developed a strong agricultural base. They relied on dogs as beasts of burden before the horse was introduced to the region in the mid-1700s. Their villages were permanent. Their lodges were wood frames covered with woven mats or bark, and they ranged from 36 to 100 feet (10.97 to 30.48 meters) long. As bison grew scarce in the Mississippi Valley, bands were forced to extend hunting trips farther onto the Plains.

The Osage traditionally comprised two divisions (moieties): the Tzisho, or Sky People, and the Hunkah, or Land People. These moieties were then divided into twenty-one clans, with each person inheriting his or her father’s clan. The chief of the Tzisho division was the peace chief, while the war chief came from the Hunkah. Since the early nineteenth century, there also existed three political groups: the Great Osage, the Little Osage, and the Arkansas Osage. In marriage, spouses were required to be from opposite moieties, and a man who married an oldest daughter also held marriage rights to his wife’s younger sisters, a form of polygamy. Osage traditions told of a supernatural life force, Wakonda, which resided in all things. Shamans provided religious leadership, although there also existed a religious society to which both men and women belonged. Physically, the Osage were considered by many European Americans to be a noticeably tall tribe; they also often adorned themselves with tattoos.

History

The first recorded contact with the Osage was by French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet (1673). The French subsequently established a lucrative trade and a strong alliance with the Osage. Trade made the Osage a significant force among Plains tribes. The Osage recognized their strategic position in the Plains trade as middlemen and as gatekeepers to the region, and were persistent in protecting that advantage. Trade rivalry existed within the tribe, however, and ultimately caused factionalism. In the mid-1790s, trader Auguste Chouteau established a post on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and persuaded a large faction to locate there permanently, thus creating the Arkansas Band.

In 1808, the Osage ceded the northern half of Arkansas and most of Missouri to the United States, and the Great and Little Osage bands moved to the Neosho River in Kansas. This area became the center of tribal life. As the government removed eastern tribes to Indian Territory, however, clashes between the Osage and similarly removed Cherokee over hunting rights to the region escalated into a long, bloody war. United States agent William Lovely finally convinced the Osage to cede the region to the Cherokee in 1817. Still, hostilities continued, including one of the bloodiest battles between Indigenous people in Oklahoma history, the battle of Claremore Mound.

By 1825, the Osage had ceded all their lands to the United States through treaties and were given a reservation (in moddern-day southern Kansas. During this time, Protestant missionaries established among the Osage some of the first missions and schools in the region, though later they were replaced by Roman Catholic missionaries.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Confederate commissioner Albert Pike secured the allegiance of many Osage to the South, though many sided with the Union as well. This factionalism created tension among tribal members, already suffering from the ravages of White guerrilla raiders in Bleeding Kansas and related conflicts. After the war, the Union used the tribe’s Confederate allegiance to secure large land cessions through Reconstruction treaties.

Ultimately, the Osage were forced to sell all their lands to the government and use the proceeds to purchase a new reservation in the eastern end of the Cherokee Outlet in modern-day Osage County, Oklahoma. The post-Civil War years were hard on the tribe, bringing a nearly 50 percent decline in the tribe’s population because of poor medical aid and a scarcity of food and clothing. The bison were gone, and the land given to the Osage was the poorest in Indian Territory for agriculture. The range-cattle industry of the 1880s, however, offered some economic relief for the tribe, as they leased grazing rights to cattlemen. Some very lucrative oil and gas deposits were then discovered under the barren Osage lands. The royalties received from the leases on these resources catapulted the Osage to relative wealth and provided the financial foundation of the Osage Nation. The oil and mineral boom also attracted outsiders interested in the wealth, and controversial policies and plots ensued in a period that became known as the Reign of Terror, including a series of murders of Osage people with land rights, known as the Osage Indian Murders. Still, because of their shrewd leasing arrangements, the Osage became one of the wealthiest American Indigenous nations on a per capita basis. The popular book Killers of the Flower Moon (2017) and subsequent movie by the same title capture this time in Osage history. 

Osage men served the United States in World War I voluntarily and through the draft, despite not being official United States citizens. Many served in World War II as well. Though the oil and mineral wealth declined somewhat with the Great Depression, the Osage remained better off than many groups. Educational efforts worked to maintain a higher standard of living among the community.

Contemporary Life

In 2006, the Osage Nation adopted a Constitution establishing a government with three separate branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The twelve-member Osage Nation Congress enacts laws, approves budgets, and provides oversight of governmental operations. The Executive branch, led by a Principal Chief and an Assistant Principal Chief, administers programs and represents the Nation in intergovernmental affairs. The Judicial branch, consisting of Trial and Supreme Courts, interprets the Constitution and laws of the Nation. Although the Osage Nation functions as a sovereign government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through its Osage Agency in Pawhuska, continues to oversee certain trust responsibilities, particularly those involving the tribe’s federally managed mineral estate. The Osage Agency is unlike other agencies in Oklahoma in that all expenses accrued are paid with tribal funds. One of the central challenges the Osage Nation faced in the twentieth century was tribal membership, as its oil wealth made citizenship highly sought after. During the height of oil production, the name “Osage” became synonymous with prosperity and, at times, extravagant spending. This wealth brought both opportunity and tension, as many Osage people navigated the balance between modern influences and traditional values. Over time, the tribe pursued moderation and self-determination, using oil revenues to build economic independence and support education, culture, and community development.

By the twenty-first century, oil resources declined, leaving numerous abandoned and orphaned wells. In 2025, the Osage Nation sought full control of its mineral estate, requesting that the Bureau of Indian Affairs transfer authority over permitting, leasing, and management to the Osage Minerals Council. The initiative reflected the Nation’s ongoing effort to reduce federal oversight and strengthen sovereignty over its land and resources.


Bibliography

Baird, W. David. The Osage People. Indian Tribal Series, 1972.

Burns, Louis F. "Osage." Oklahoma Historical Society, 15 Jan. 2010, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS001. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Din, Gilbert C., and Abraham P. Nasatir. The Imperial Osages: Spanish-Indian Diplomacy in the Mississippi Valley. U of Oklahoma P, 1983.

“Government.” Osage Nation, 2025, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/government. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Matthews, John Joseph. Sundown. U of Oklahoma P, 1934.

Matthews, John Joseph. Wah’Kon-Tah: The Osage and the White Man’s Road. 1932, Reprint, U of Oklahoma P, 1981.

May, Jon D. "Osage Murders." Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

Mussulman, Joseph. and Kristopher K. Toensend. "The Osages." Discovering Lewis & Clark, 2025, lewis-clark.org/native-nations/siouan-peoples/osages/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

"The Osage." Fort Scott National Historic Site, Kansas, 25 May 2022, www.nps.gov/fosc/learn/historyculture/osage.htm. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Osage Nation, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

"Osage Nation Files Lawsuit Against United States Department of Interior Alleging Unlawfully Excessive Oversight of Osage Minerals Estate, Seeks Self-Governance." The Osage Nation, 7 Aug. 2024, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/news-events/news/osage-nation-files-lawsuit-against-united-states-department-interior-alleging. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025. 

Pablo, Thomas. “Osage Nation Seeks Full Control of Minerals Estate Amid Federal Cuts.” KOSU, 5 June 2025, www.kosu.org/local-news/2025-06-05/osage-nation-seeks-full-control-of-minerals-estate-amid-federal-cuts. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Rollings, Willard H. The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of the Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains. U of Missouri P, 1992.

Sadasivam, Naveena, Lylla Younes, and Allison Herrera. "Abandoned in Osage." Grist, 3 Nov. 2023, grist.org/accountability/abandoned-oil-wells-osage-nation/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025. 

Wilson, Terry P. The Osage. Chelsea House, 1988.

Wilson, Terry P. The Underground Reservation: Osage Oil. U of Nebraska P, 1985.

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