The Osage people were once the masters of a wide territory covering the southern half of Missouri, northern Arkansas, and parts of present-day Oklahoma and Kansas.
Because the Osage were an important resource for trade and security William Clark, in 1808, selected a site on a 70-foot bluff overlooking the Missouri River. The new post was about 340 miles west of St. Louis or 40 miles east of the mouth of the Kansas River (present-day Sibley, Mo.).
Originally called Fort Clark, the post was renamed Fort Osage in recognition of the original intent to provide protection for, and trade with the Osage. A large village of the Great Osage was located 78 miles south.
Of course, in return for trade, protection, and a small annuity the Osage were required by treaty to give up millions of acres of land in Missouri and Arkansas.
The Kansa bands were invited to move close to the post, but the government soon regrated the invitation. On Oct. 10, 1808, about 1,000 Kanas arrived in the vicinity of Fort Osage and began trading. Within days they had worn out their welcome with their “insolent and violent conduct.” The government banned the Kansa from the post on Oct. 16.
By December they were reportedly “becoming very humble,” and agreed to give up several horses to pay for horses and property which had been stolen from “citizens of the territory.”
The treaty with the Osage to relinquish land effectively split their villages. George C. Sibley, the manager of the government trading post at Fort Osage reported that “The Osages ... are continually removing from one village to another, quarrelling and intermarrying ...”
White Hair’s band moved to the Neosho River about 130 miles southwest of Fort Osage. A band of relatives referred to as the Little Osages with some families that had intermarried with the Missouri tribe lived nearby, while the largest group of Great Osages following Chief Claremore lived on the Verdigris River at present-day Claremore, Okla. Being so far away the Verdigris River Claremore’s people did not trade at Fort Osage.
In November of 1820 the United Foreign Missionary Society, supported by the Presbyterian, Reformed Dutch and Associated Reformed churches, established Union Mission on the Neosho River approximately 28 miles east of Claremore’s village.
Missouri was admitted as the 24th state to the United States on Aug. 10, 1821. In the same month the United Foreign Missionary Society established a second mission closer to Fort Osage. Harmony Mission was on the Marias des Cygnes River eight or nine miles from the Great Osage village (near present-day Papinsville, Mo.).
Chief White Hair had been lured to Kansas as early as 1815 by Pierre Chouteau who had established a trading post on the Neosho River. The Osage village of about 1,000 people was 100 miles north of Claremore’s village on the Neosho River. White Hair’s Town, as it was known, had eight log houses and 100 bark and grass houses. The progressive Indian town fea

tured flagstone sidewalks and a grist mill.
In the spring of 1822 White Hair seemed to be unsure about where he wanted to live. He brought most of his people back to Missouri, only to stay a few months. By September he was at Claremore’s village, hoping to settle nearby, but did not want to settle until after the fall hunt.
White Hair remained indecisive into 1824 when the United Foreign Missionary Society established a new mission, the first in Kansas, near White Hair’s Town. A small number of White Hair’s band had remained at that location, and with the establishment of Mission Neosho, White Hair brought his wandering band back to his Kansas town.
Reverend Benton Pixley, his wife Lucia, and their two children came to Mission Neosho from Harmony Mission. Osage children came to the mission daily for two months out of the year, for instruction and a noonday meal. Pixley spent a great deal of time learning the Osage language, getting to know Osage culture, and in many ways the instructor became the student.
Pixley was astonished at the Osage attitude toward industry. The men found any effort beyond hunting and going to war to be dishonorable. The women did all the essential work, even saddling and unsaddling the horses for the men. When in town the men were found going from lodge to lodge eating, drinking, smoking, talking, playing cards, and sleeping. They would often doze away for hours in their neighbor’s lodge!
Claremore died  in 1825. His son Claremont did not approve of the missionaries and often traveled to Mission Neosho with the young men of his band to disrupt missionary activities. In spite of White Hair’s support for the mission, Pixley closed the mission in 1829 after ministering to the Osage for five short but very instructive years on The Way West.
The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st RD Geneseo, KS Phone 785-531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.