 |
 Edited By: Angelic Saulsberry
Art Work
Courtesy of Louis F. Burns
The treaty of Fort Clark was the most far reaching of all the
treaties ever made by the United States with any Indian tribe, and
it was followed by important results. It gave to the United
States for immediate settlement by white people, all of the state of
Missouri, except a strip on the western border twenty-five miles
wide, running from Fort Clark on the Missouri river due south to the
Arkansas river. But it was of much greater importance to the
Osages than it was to the United States. It gave to them
protection against encroachment by other tribes they had long
needed. It practically confirmed their claims to the country
between the Kansas and Arkansas rivers. It proved that the
Osages were at that time considered the most important tribe the
government had to deal with in the southwest and should put at rest
the claim of the people of Kansas and the Kaw Indians, that the
latter was entitled to as much consideration and as much territory
as the Osages. The truth is, the Kaws, were ever an
insignificant branch of the great Sioux family, hanging on the
Osages for protection against the Pawnees, receiving small
consideration from other Indians and French traders and deserving
less.
Upon their slow voyage up the Missouri river on their way to the
Pacific ocean in 1804, Lewis and Clark established Fort Clark and
named it in honor of the junior member of their exploring party.
After the ratification of the great Indian treaty of 1808, and as a
tribute to the Osages, the name was changed to Fort Osage.
Afterward it was changed to Fort Sibley in honor of George C.
Sibley, who succeeded Pierre Choteau as agent at Fort Osage.
If any are now curious to know the exact location of this fort let
them set up a compass on the west line of Missouri south of the
river of that name and run due east twenty-four miles, then due
north to the Missouri river and they will find the town of Sibley,
Jackson County, Missouri, once Fort Osage and still earlier Fort
Clark.
The treaty of 1808 was immediately followed by the opening of trade
with Mexico and the establishment of the old Santa Fe trail, which
from Fort Osage ran for two hundred miles west through their
territory and by 1820 had become a great thoroughfare, employing six
thousand men and its trade at that time was nearly a million dollars
a year. It is to the credit of the Osages that they gave these
wagon and mule trains, across their territory, little trouble, while
Pawnee, Southern Cheyenne, Arapahoes and Kiowas were constantly
attacking them from the time they left the Osage territory till they
reached the Rocky Mountains. And this too, before a
right-of-way across their lands had been asked for. It was
this policy on the part of the Osage Chiefs that made the government
of the United States their friend, a friendship that was as well
deserved as it was welcome. Of course, there were some goods
stolen from wagon trains that were probably justly laid to them but
when one considered the influence of other Indian tribes that were
openly making war against the Santa Fe traders, the peaceful
attitude of the Osages is astonishing.
"As soon as we got out of the sand buttes, near the mouth of
the Walnut river (near Great Bend, Kans.) and into the country of
the Osages we always felt comparatively safe," said an old
freighter of that period.
The advent of the United States authority meant much to the Osages.
It meant that distressful war between them and the Iroquois in which
the Osages usually got the worst of it, because of lack of fire
arms, was to cease. The French could have stopped the war, but
they were anxious to placate the Iroquois and win them from the
English, so they did but little to arm the Osages, although they
sought to bring about peace between that tribe and all others.
The United States government on the other hand cared nothing for the
trade of any tribe of Indians, except to maintain peace and as soon
as they assumed control west of the Mississippi, Indian war suddenly
ceased. The treaty of 1808, at Fort Clark, provided for a
garrison of troops to help maintain peace, also a cloth factory
which was following out the policy established by General
Washington, and this was the last factory built by the government in
any Indian country.
The establishment of this factory and fort also put an end to the
quarrel between the Choteau Company and Lisa, Benoit & Co.
The Choteau company had a charter for the exclusive trade on the
Missouri river give to Maxent, Laclede & Co. in 1763 by France
just before she secretly sold Louisiana to Spain. This charter
had been respected by Spain till the year 1800 when she gave the
right to trade on the Missouri river to a Spanish citizen of New
Orleans, Manuel Lisa, who, under the name of Lisa, Benoit & Co.
took possession at once, forcing the Choteau Company to withdraw to
their posts on the Arkansas river.
Pierre (Peter) Choteau was the greatest Indian trader of all times
and exerted a greater influence over the Osages and other tribes
usually than did their own chiefs. He persuaded a lot of
Osages to leave the Osage and Missouri rivers under Kan-sah-se-gra
and move to the Arkansas and join Gra-moies’ band, who was under
his influence. This removal of Kan-sah-se-gra and his band
southward left Paw-hu-scah in undisputed control of the Osages that
remained north under Lisa, Benoit & Co.and he was recognized
by the Spanish government as head chief of all the Osages. The
return of the little Osages under Num-pa-Walla to the protection of
the Great Osages about this time gave Paw-hu-scah a majority of the
combined tribes and made his supremacy permanent. The purchase
of Louisiana by the United States put an end to Lisa's Charter and
the Choteau Company re-established their post on the Missouri and
Osage rivers. John Pierre Choteau, nephew of Peter, had a post
established near the Osages when Pike reached them in 1806, which
lead to bitter personal quarrels between the members of the
different companies. The final overthrow of the Spanish
company and their surrender of all their possessions from St. Louis
to the Rocky Mountains to the house of Choteau was one of the
greatest commercial achievements in the west and made the name of
Pierre Choteau second only to that of John Jacob Astor in the fur
trade. Then Choteau bought out Astor and hired his manager
McKenzie, and under the name of the American Fur Co., he gave the
Hudson Bay Co. the only rival it ever had. A biography of the
Choteau family who were so closely related to the Osages, it is not
amiss in this sketch, and will prove of general interest.
We find living in New Orleans about the middle of the last century
[i.e., the eighteenth], under the governorship of the Marques de
Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, one Marie Therese Bourgeous, born in that city
in 1733, who at the age of sixteen had married on Aguste Rene
Chouteau, a native of New Orleans, and finding him of an uncertain
temper, abusive and violent of conduct, had left him and returned to
her friends, taking their only child, Aguste, who had been born on
the 26 of September, 1750. Upon the subsequent whereabouts or
ultimate fate of M. Chouteau, pere, history is silent. In
providing the name for a family that was to become famous in the
annals of the new world, he seemed to have fulfilled his destiny.
Five years later there appeared at New Orleans one Pierre Laclede
Liguest (there is doubt concerning the last of these names, and as
it is seldom used, the point is unimportant) a native of Bearne, not
for from Pau in the Pyrenees; an attractive and energetic fellow of
thirty or thereabouts, who had journeyed to the Mississippi in
search of the proverbial fortune. He seemed to have found it
almost immediately, in the person of Mme. Chouteau--still young and
unencumbered save by the youth Aguste, with whom he established
domestic relations, and in the friendship of M. de Kerlerec, who had
succeeded to the governorship upon the promotion of the Marquis de
Vaudreuil to the governor generalship of Canada, through whom he was
enabled to secure a valuable contract to feed the French garrisons.
In pursuit of this vocation he encountered one Gilbert Aguste Maxent,
another solider of fortune, who was equally energetic and similarly
ambitious, and who was also most influential at the vice-regal
palace. In 1763, just before Louis XV, in a moment of bibulous
generosity, had ceded the Louisiana Territory to Spain, de Kerlerec
was recalled and sent to the bastile for safe-keeping, but not
before having made over to Messieurs Maxent and Laclede the most
valuable grant in his gift, an exclusive privilege to trade with the
Indians on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries.
"Thus does the fate of empire on a trifle rest."
These enterprising gentlemen seem to have lost no time in taking
possession. They left New Orleans on the 3rd of
August, 1763, with a party of trappers, hunters, and tradesmen,
about thirty in number, for the purpose of locating the first of
their proposed chain of trading posts, taking with them Mme.
Chouteau and her son Aguste, together with the four children who had
been the result of her second union. The party landed at Fort
Chartres on the 3rd of November, where they spent the
winter, but early in February, 1764, young Chouteau, then a robust
youth of fourteen, was sent with a part of workmen to a spot on the
west bank which Laclede had selected, to clear the ground and erect
habitations. Here they were joined during the spring by
another small party from New Orleans and later by discharged
soldiers and others from Fort Chartres.
As regards the naming of the new settlement there is much to
dispute. A favorite legend fixes the date of the completion of
the village at the 25th of August which being the fete
day of Saint Louis, suggested the name. It is a fact, however,
that for many years, after the custom of the fatherland, the 25th
day of August was observed at St. Louis as the fete day of the
settlement. From this date the firm of Maxent, Laclede &
Co., the owners of the village and all its suburbs as well as the
sole purveyors of trade for all the country to the westward, seems
to have flourished. Agust Chouteau, whose business abilities
developed with the trade, became the confidential clerk and agent of
the company, its chief clerk and finally its manager; so that when
in 1778 old Pierre Laclede died, young Chouteau was selected by the
governor to administer the estate. So well did he perform this
duty that Mr. Maxent, who appears to have been at the best an
inactive member of the firm, found it practicable to withdraw from
the business, and young Aguste, associating his younger brother,
John Pierre, who by this time had reached his majority, picked up
the trade where Laclede had dropped it, and for the succeeding
quarter of a century proceeded to amass a respectable fortune.
In the meantime Victorie, the eldest daughter of the Chouteau-Laclede
union, had married Charles Gratiot; Palagie, the second, had
espoused Sylvester Labadie and Marie Louise, the third, Joseph M.
Papin, all gentlemen of wealth and standing, and all interested in
the Indian trade. John Pierre had established intimate
relations with the Osages and other tribes to the westward, and was
regarded by Jefferson and Madison, no less than by Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark as possessing the best knowledge of the Indian
character of any man living, and by each of these officials was
instructed with many confidential missions. A son of John
Pierre, by name Aguste Pierre, penetrated to the headwaters of the
Arkansas, and died at his trading post in 1839; another son, Francis
Gratiot, ascended the Missouri and founded Kansas City at the Mouth
of the Kaw. But this is to anticipate.
TREATY
WITH THE OSAGES, 1818
A
Treaty Made and Concluded by, and Between, William Clark, Governor
of the Missouri Territory, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and
Commissioner in Behalf of the United States, of the One Part, and a
Full and Complete Deputation of Considerate Men, Chiefs, and
Warriors, of all the Several Bands of the Great and Little Osage
Nations, Assembled in Behalf of their said Nation, on the Other
Part, have Agreed to the following Articles:
Art. 1- Whereas, the Osage nations have been embarrassed by the
frequent demands for property taken from citizens of the United
States, by war parties, and other thoughtless men of their several
bands, (both before and since their war with the Cherokees) and as
the exertions of their chiefs have been ineffectual in recovering
and delivering such property, conformably with the condition of the
ninth article of a treaty, entered into with the United States at
Fort Clark, the tenth of November, one thousand eight hundred and
eight; and as the deductions from their annuities, in conformity to
the said article, would deprive them of any for several years, and
being destitute of funds to do that justice to the citizens of the
United States, which is calculated to prompt a friendly intercourse,
they have agreed, and do hereby agree, to cede to the United States,
and forever quit claim to the tract of country included within
the following bounds, to-wit: Beginning at the Arkansaw River, at
where the present Osage boundary line strikes the river at Frog
Bayou; then up the Arkansaw and Verdigris to the fall of Verdigris
river; thence, eastwardly, to the said Osage boundary line at a
point twenty leagues north from the Arkansaw river; and, with that
line, to the place of beginning.
United
States to Pay for Certain Losses Sustained by their Citizens
Art. 2- The United States, on their part, and in consideration of
the above cession agree, in addition to the amount which the Osages
do now receive in money, and goods, to pay their own citizens the
full value of such property as they can legally prove to have been
stolen or destroyed by the said Osage, since the year one thousand
eight hundred and four then provided the same does not exceed the
sum of four hundred dollars.
Art. 3- The articles now stipulated will be considered as permanent
additions to the treaties, now in force, between the contracting
parties, as soon as they shall have been ratified by the President
of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate of the said United States.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the said William Clark, commissioner as
aforesaid, and the considerate men and chiefs aforesaid, have
hereunto subscribed their names, and affixed their seals, at St.
Louis, this twenty-fifth day of September in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, and of the
independence of the United States the forty-third.
WILLIAM
CLARK, (L. S.)
Pau-hu-Scah
Hurathi,
his (X) mark, (L. S)
Tacindhe,
his (X) mark, (L. S.)
Kahn-Sa-Se-Gra,
his (X) mark
Canlenope,
his (X) mark
Houneagon,
or the Gentleman, his (X) mark, (L. S.)
and
others
Antonie
Leclaire, Interpreter
A.
McNair, Osage Agent
Pr.
Chouteau
W. B.
Alexander, sub Indian Agt.
James
Coleman
William
Milburn
Noel
Dashnay, Interpreter
Theodore
Hunt
Cerre
P. L.
Chouteau, sub Agent
I. T.
Honorie, Interpreter
Paul
Louise, his (X) mark, interpreter Osages
Mauchaugachau,
his (X) mark
Thepogrenque,
his (X) mark
TREATY
WITH THE OSAGE, 1825
Articles
of a Treaty Made and Concluded at St. Louis, in the State of
Missouri, Between William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs,
Commissioner on the part of the United States, and the Undersigned,
Chief, Headmen, and Warriors, of the Great and Little Osage Tribes
of the Indians, Duly Authorized and Empowered by their respective
Tribes or Nations.
In order
more effectually to extend to said Tribes, that protection of the
Government so much desired by them, it is agreed as follows:
ARTICLE
1
The Great and Little Osage Tribes or Nations do, hereby cede and
relinquish to the United States, all their right, title interest and
claim, to lands lying within the State of Missouri and Territory of
Arkansas, and to all lands lying West of the said State of Missouri
and Territory of Arkansas, North and West of the Red River, South of
the Kansas River, and East of a line to be drawn from the head
sources of the Kansas, Southwardly through the Rock Saline, with
such reservations, for such considerations, and upon such terms as
are hereinafter specified, expressed, and provided for.
ARTICLE
2
Trades
of Land Reserved for Said Indians
Within the limits of the country, above ceded and relinquished,
there shall be reserved, to and for, the Great and Little Osage
Tribes or Nations aforesaid, so long as they may choose to occupy
the same, the following described tract of land: Beginning at
a point due East of White Hair's Village, and twenty-five miles West
of the Western boundary line of the State of Missouri, fronting on
the North and South line so as to leave ten miles north, and forty
miles South of the point of said beginning, and extending West, with
the width of fifty miles to the Western boundary of the lands hereby
ceded and relinquished by said Tribes or Nations; which said
reservations shall be surveyed and marked, at the expense of the
United States, and upon which, the Agent for said Tribes or Nations
and all persons attached to said agency, as also, such teachers and
instructors, as the President may think proper to authorize and
permit, shall reside, and shall occupy and cultivate, without
interruption or molestation, such lands as may be necessary for
them. And the United States do, hereby, reserve to themselves,
forever, the right of navigating freely, all water courses and
navigable streams, within or running through, the tract of country
above reserved to said Tribes and Nations.
ARTICLE
3
Annuity
to the Indians
In consideration of the cession and relinquishment, aforesaid, the
United States do, hereby, agree to pay to the said tribes or
nations, yearly, and every year, for twenty years from the date of
these presents, the sum of Seven Thousand Dollars, at their Village,
or at St. Louis, as the said tribes or nations may desire, either in
money merchandise, provisions, or domestic animals, at their option.
And whenever the said annuity or any part thereof shall be paid in
merchandise, the same is to be delivered to them at the first cost
of the goods at St. Louis, free of transportation.
ARTICLE
4
Cattle,
Farming Utensils, Etc. to be Furnished Them
The United States shall, immediately upon the ratification of this
convention, or as soon thereafter as may be, cause to be furnished
to the tribes or nations aforesaid, six hundred head of cattle, six
hundred head of hogs, one thousand domestic fowls, ten yoke of oxen
and six carts, with such farming utensils as the Superintendent of
Indian Affairs may think necessary, and shall employ such persons,
to aid them in their agricultural pursuits as to the President of
the United States may seem expedient, and shall, also, provide,
furnish, and support for them, one blacksmith that their farming
utensils, tools, and arms may be seasonably repaired; and shall
build, for each of the four principle chiefs, at their respective
villages, a comfortable and commodious dwelling house.
ARTICLE
5
Reservations
for Half-Breeds
From the above lands ceded and relinquished, the following
reservations, for the use for the half breeds hereafter named shall
be made, to-wit: One Section or six hundred acres for Augustus
Clermont, to be located and laid off so as to include Joseph Rivar's
residence on the East side of the Neosho, a short distance above the
Grand Saline, and not nearer than within one mile thereof; one
section for each of the following half-breeds: James, Paul, Henry,
Rosalie, Anthony and Amelia, the daughter of She-Me-Hunga, and
Amelia, the daughter of Mi-Hun-Ga, to be located two miles below the
Grand Saline, and extending down the Neosho, on the East side
thereof; and one section for Noel Mongrain, the son of Wa-taw-nagres,
and for each of his ten children, Baptiste, Noel, Francis, Joseph,
Mongrain, Louis, Victoria, Sophia, Julia and Juliet; and the like
quantity for each of the following named grandchildren, of the said
Noel Mongrain, to wit: Charles, Francis, Louisson and Walsh,
to commence on the Perra; one section for Susan Larine; one section
for Marguerite Reneau; one section for Thomas L. Balio; and one
section for Terese, the daughter of Paul Louise; which said several
tracts are to be located on the North side of the Maria de Cygnes,
extending up the river, above the reservations in favor of Mary and
Sarah Williams, in the order in which they are herein above named.
ARTICLE
6
And also fifty-four other tracts, of a square [section?] each, to be
laid off under the direction of the President of the United States,
and sold, for the purpose of raising a fund to be applied to the
support of schools, for the education of the Osage children, in such
manner as the President may deem most advisable to the attainment of
that end.
ARTICLE
7
Debts Due by Said Tribes to United States Trading Houses Released
Forasmuch as there is a debt due, from sundry individuals of the
Osage tribes or nations, to the United States trading houses, of the
Missouri and Osage Rivers, amounting in the whole to about the sum
of four thousand one hundred and five dollars and eighty cents,
which the United States do hereby agree to release; in consideration
thereof, the said tribes, or nations, do hereby release and
relinquish their claim upon the United States for regular troops to
be stationed for their protection at Fort Clark, and also, for
furnishing of a blacksmith, at that place, and the delivery of
merchandise at Fire Prairie, as is provided for in the first, third,
and fifth articles of the Treaty concluded on the tenth day of
November, one thousand eight hundred and eight.
ARTICLE
8
Claims
of the Delewares [sic] Against Said Tribes to be Settled by
United States
It appearing that the Deleware nation have various claims against
the Osages, which the latter have not had it in their power to
adjust, and the United States being desirous to settle, finally and
satisfactorily, all demands and differences between the Delewares
and the Osages, do hereby agree to pay to the Delewares, in full
satisfaction of all their claims and demands against the Osages, the
sum of one thousand dollars.
ARTICLE
9
Animosities
of Citizens of Missouri, Etc. to be Quieted
With a view to quiet the animosities which at present exist between
a portion of the citizens of Missouri and Arkansas and the Osage
tribes, in consequence of the lawless depredations of the latter the
United States do, furthermore, agree to pay to their own citizens,
the full value of such property, as they can legally prove to have
been stolen or destroyed by the Osages, since the year eighteen
hundred and eight, and for which payment has not been made under
former treaties: Provided, the sum to be paid by the United States
does not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars.
ARTICLE
10
Land
Reserved to be Disposed of as the President may Direct.
It is further agreed on, and by and between the parties to these
presents, that there shall be reserved two sections of land, to
include the Harmony Missionary establishment, and their, on the
Marias des Cyne; and one section to include the Missionary
establishment above the Lick on the west side of the Grand River, to
be disposed of as the President of the United States shall direct,
for the benefit of said Missions, and to establish them at the
principal villages of the Great and Little Osage Nations, within the
limits of the country reserved to them by this Treaty, and to be
kept up at said village so long as said Missions shall be usefully
employed in teaching, civilizing and improving the said Indians.
ARTICLE
11
Ninth
Article of Treaty of Fort Clark to be in Full Force
To preserve and perpetuate the friendship now happily subsisting
between the United States and the said tribes or nations, it is
hereby agreed, that the provisions contained in the ninth article of
the Treaty concluded and signed at Fort Clark, on the tenth day of
November, one thousand eight hundred and eight, between the United
States and the said tribes or nations, shall in every respect be
considered as in full force and applicable to the provisions of this
Treaty, and that the United States shall take and receive, into
their friendship and protection, the aforesaid tribes or nations,
and shall guaranty them to, forever, the right to navigate freely,
all water-courses or navigable streams, within the tract of country
hereby ceded, upon such terms as the same are or may be navigated by
the citizens of the United States.
ARTICLE 12
Merchandise
to be Delivered to Indians
It is further agreed, that there shall be delivered soon as may be,
after the execution of this treaty, at the Osage Villages,
merchandise to the amount of four thousand dollars, first cost in
St. Louis, and two thousand dollars in merchandise before their
departure from this place; and horses and equipage to the value of
twenty-six hundred dollars which, together with the sum of one
hundred thousand dollars, to be paid Paul Loise, and the like sum to
Baptiste Mongrain, in money, shall be in addition to the provisions
and stipulations hereby above contained, in full satisfaction of the
cession, hereinbefore agreed on.
ARTICLE
13
Amount
Due A. P. Chouteau and Others to be in Part Paid by the United
States
Whereas, the great and Little Osage tribes or nations are indebted
to Augustus P. Chouteau, Paul Balio and William S. Williams, to a
large amount, for credits given them, which they are unable to pay,
and have particularly requested to have paid, or provided for in the
present negotiation; it is therefore agreed on, by and between the
parties to these presents, that the United States shall pay to
Augustus P. Chouteau, one thousand dollars; to Paul Balio two
hundred and fifty dollars, toward the liquidation of their
respective debts due from the said tribes or nations.
ARTICLE
14
Treaty
to be Obligatory when Ratified
These articles shall take effect, and become obligatory on the
contracting parties, so soon as the same shall be ratified by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the
United States.
In Testimony Whereof, The said William Clark, commissioner as
aforesaid and the deputation, chiefs, and head men and warriors, of
the Great and Little Osage Nations of Indians, as aforesaid, have
hereunto set their hands and seals, this second day of June, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty five, and of
the independence of the United States the forty-ninth.
WILLAM
CLARK
Pawhuska,
or White Hair, his (X) mark. (L. S.)
Waharsachais,
his (X) mark. (L. S.)
Jean
Lafond, his (X) mark (L. S.)
Niha,
his (X) mark (L. S.)
Saba,
his (X) mark (L. S)
Nasa,
his (X) mark (L. S.)
Manchan,
his (X) mark (L. S.)
Hurachais,
the War Eagle, his (X) mark (L. S.)
And
Others
Witnesses
Present
R. Wash,
Secretary
Edward
Coles, Governor of Illinois
F. A.
Chardon
[Home] | [Bibliography] |
[Digital Library]
[Indexes] | [News] |
[Trail of Tears]
[Symposia] |
[Other Resources] | [About] |
[Links]
© UALR American Native Press Archives 2002-2007
|
